The Rollesbroich site is located in the low mountain range “Eifel” near the German-Belgium border and covers the area of the small Kieselbach catchment (40 ha) with altitudes ranging from 474 to 518 m.a.s.l.. The climate is temperate maritime with a mean annual air temperature and precipitation of 7.7 °C and 1033 mm, respectively, for the period from 1981 to 2001. Soils are dominated by (stagnic) Cambisols and Stagnosols on Devonian shales with occasional sandstone inclusions that are covered by a periglacial solifluction clay–silt layer. The mountainous grassland vegetation is dominated by perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and smooth meadow grass (Poa pratensis). The study site is highly instrumented. All components of the water balance (e.g. precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff, soil water content) are continuously monitored using state-of-the-art instrumentation, including weighable lysimeters, runoff gauges, cosmic-ray soil moisture sensors, a wireless sensor network that monitors soil temperature, and soil moisture at 189 locations in different depths (5, 20 and 50 cm) throughout the study site. Periodically also different chamber measurements were made to access soil or plant gas exchange.

SEQ Peri-urban SuperSite - Karawatha is a member of the Australian SuperSite Network (SuperSites, http://www.supersites.net.au/), a facility within the Australian Terrestrial Ecosystem Network (TERN, http://www.tern.org.au/). SuperSites aims to answer both network wide and site-specific science questions through long term monitoring using both sensor technology and classical field methods. The SEQ Peri-urban SuperSite’s (SEQP) core infrastructure is located along two longitudinal transects north and south of Brisbane where the urban footprint is expanding the most rapidly. Karawatha Forest is on the southern peri-urban edge of Brisbane and is managed by the Brisbane City Council. It contains a variety of habitats from freshwater lagoons and sandstone ridges, to dry eucalypt forests and wet heath.

The Great Western Woodlands SuperSite is a member of the Australian SuperSite Network (SuperSites, http://www.supersites.net.au/), a facility within the Australian Terrestrial Ecosystem Network (TERN, http://www.tern.org.au/). The GWW Supersite comprises a mosaic of temperate woodland, heathland and Mallee vegetation within the Great Western Woodlands (GWW) in south-western Western Australia. The core plots are located on the proposed Credo Conservation Reserve, a former pastoral lease that was established in 1906–07 where it first carried sheep and later cattle. In 2007 the lease was sold to the government and managed by the Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife who are collaborators on a range of projects. Native title claims of traditional ownership at this site have been registered by the Marlinyu Ghoorlie and Maduwongga Peoples. Key research objectives include: What are the impacts of climate change and management on the fundamental flows of energy, carbon, water and nutrient stocks in semi-arid woodland ecosystems. • Are old-growth semi-arid woodlands carbon sources or carbon sinks? • Are fire regimes changing in the GWW? • How do GWW biodiversity and fire fuels change with time since fire and what are the implications for fire management? • How do GWW woodlands and shrublands persist at low rainfall? What are the ecological determinants of the Menzies line (the striking boundary between the GWW and mulga) and how does it inform management for climate adaptation? • How will GWW biodiversity be affected by climate change? Will the response of fauna depend predominantly depend on vegetation responses? • How will regional versus population-scale genetic variability in key traits such as water use efficiency contribute to climate adaptation? • What are the thresholds of woodland persistence with respect to fire and rainfall? • What exotic species are invading the GWW, and which are the greatest threat under climate change?

Senda Darwin Biological Station is located along Route 5 south, at a distance of 14 kilometers from the city of Ancud, in the north of Chiloe Island. It aims to facilitate scientific research, environmental education and the application of knowledge for temperate forests conservation.

The Calperum Mallee SuperSite is a member of the Australian SuperSite Network (SuperSites, http://www.supersites.net.au/), a facility within the Australian Terrestrial Ecosystem Network (TERN, http://www.tern.org.au/). The SuperSite is located on Calperum Station, near Renmark, South Australia with research plots located in mallee woodland, Callitris woodland and floodplain black box, river red gum and lignum ecosystems. The property was a pastoral grazing lease for nearly 150 years, so it has suffered grazing-induced modifications to its ecosystems that are now being actively restored. The Native Title for the area is held by the First Peoples of the River Murray and Mallee. Key research objectives include: • What are the fundamental energy, carbon, water and nutrient stocks and flows in the Mallee, Callitris woodland and river floodplain ecosystems? • How are these stocks and flows responding to the management interventions (reduced and controlled grazing, controlled fire, controlled floods on the floodplain)? • How are the biota changing in form, frequency and distribution as climate changes and management interventions are imposed? • How important is the connectivity between these ecosystems for hydrology, faunal movement and as refugia in times of drought?

FNQ Rainforest SuperSite-Daintree is a member of the Australian SuperSite Network (SuperSites, http://www.supersites.net.au/), a facility within the Australian Terrestrial Ecosystem Network (TERN, http://www.tern.org.au/). SuperSites aims to answer both network wide and site-specific science questions through long term monitoring using both sensor technology and classical field methods. The FNQ Rainforest SuperSite is divided structurally into two transects, each based around an intensive study site node: the lowland rainforest node is based in the Daintree rainforest near Cape Tribulation and the upland rainforest is based at Robson Creek. The rainforests of FNQ occupy less than 0.2% of Australia’s landmass, yet support more than 10% of its flora, 36% of its mammals and 48% of its birds. The last remnants of the rainforests which formerly covered most of the continent, these globally significant World Heritage communities are also a repository for many ancestral lineages of the iconic species of Australia today, including kangaroos and eucalypts. Significant environmental clines (altitude, temperature, rainfall) exist over short distances in the region. This enables the monitoring of multiple parameters across a broad range of environments possible within the compact footprint of the FNQ Rainforest SuperSite. The Daintree node comprises two sites (i) the Daintree Rainforest Observatory (DRO) at Cape Tribulation, comprising a long-term monitoring plots, canopy crane, and extensive researcher and teaching infrastructure and (ii) research facilities at the Daintree Discovery Centre at Cow Bay, an award winning ecotourism interpretive centre featuring a canopy tower, aerial walkway and scientific monitoring. Key research objectives include: ● How are the biota (in particular locally endemic species) changing in form, frequency and distribution and what are the drivers for this? ● Does the vegetation represent a stable structure (overstorey versus understory dynamics) or has climate change affected it? ● Which taxa of organisms are the most sensitive to local climate change and how can these be assembled into an accurate biodiversity monitoring tool? ● What are the fundamental vertical and lateral energy, carbon, water and nutrient stocks and flows in the tropical forests of north Queensland? ● How are these stocks and flows responding to past management and climate change and how are they likely to respond in the future? ● How important is the connectivity between these ecosystems

The Gourma mesoscale site (Mali) is part of the AMMA-CATCH observation network. Its characteristics are as follows :a 30000 km² endoreic area in semi arid climate. The studies are dedicated to vegetation monitoring in a pastoral environment.

The Alice Mulga SuperSite is a part of the Australian Terrestrial Ecosystem Network (TERN, http://www.tern.org), which provides environmental research infrastructure for understanding how and why ecosystem change occurs (https://www.tern.org.au/tern-observatory/tern-ecosystem-processes/). The Alice Mulga SuperSite is located on Pine Hill Cattle Station approximately 200 km north of Alice Springs, Northern Territory. It lies in the expansive arid and semi-arid portion of mainland Australia that receives less than 500 mm of annual rainfall. The site includes Mulga woodland, hummock grassland, and river red gum forest. The SuperSite Core 1 ha is located in a dense Mulga woodland (cover 70–80%). The SuperSite has a second TERN OzFlux tower at Ti Tree East where TERN Surveillance Plots are also located in a mosaic of hummock grassland/Corymbia savanna with patches of Mulga/tussock grass. A third study location in the SuperSite is a river red gum forest along the Woodforde river where where several hydrological and plant ecophysiological studies have been performed. The traditional owners of these lands are the Anmatyerre Nation.

TERN Robson Creek Rainforest is a field site in Ecosystem Processes (https://www.tern.org.au/tern-observatory/tern-ecosystem-processes), a field platform within the Australian Terrestrial Ecosystem Network TERN (http://www.tern.org.au/). TERN Ecosystem Processes aims to answer both network wide and site-specific science questions through long term monitoring using both sensor technology and classical field methods. The Robson Creek Rainforest site lies on the Atherton Tablelands in the wet tropical rainforests of Australia at 680-740 m elevation. It is situated in Danbulla National Park within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. The climate is seasonal with approximately 60% of rain falling between January – March and the landform is moderately inclined with a low relief although the Lamb Range rises sharply to 1276 m asl immediately to the north of the plot. The traditional owners in this area are the Tableland Yidinji People.

Tanguro Ranch is located in the southern Amazon, the driest portion of the Amazon Basin, and harbors a transitional forest (between Amazon forests and savannas). Tanguro lies on the Amazonian agricultural frontier, where largest rates of deforestation and fire occurred in last decades. The ranch experienced deforestation for cattle pasture in the mid-1980s, followed by a cropland expansion in the early 2000s. Starting in 2010, it has undergone a rapid shift from soybean single cropping to soybean-corn double cropping. The topography, soils, hydrology and farming practices at Tanguro are typical of the southern and eastern Amazonian agricultural frontier, a region that is highly vulnerable to changes in fire regime, climate change, and their interactions. Tanguro ranch represents changes that occur in a much wider area and that will probably occur in other regions of the Amazon Basin in a near future.