ICP forest monitoring plots: 0.5 ha of fenced stand + 20 m buffer area. Managment, data collection and reserch activities carried on by catholic university of Louvain (UCL)

Located in Huitong County, Hunan Province (26°45´N and 109°30´E), Huitong National Research Station of Forest Ecosystem is affiliated to the Institute of Applied Ecology of Chinese Academy of Sciences. This region marks a transition from Yun-Gui Plateau to the hills along the southern bank of Yangtze River and belongs to the up reach of Yuan River, a tributary of the Yangtze. The altitude ranges from 300 m to 1100 m above the sea level. The densely grouped hills and valleys feature the topography in this region, which determining forestry to be the major method of land use in this County. The mother rock mainly consists of grayish green slate, metamorphic rock and sandy shale. With relatively deeper layer, red earth or reddish yellow earth are generally distributed from 300m to 600m above sea level, and mountainous yellow earth above 600m. This region has a typical climate of Central Subtropical Zone, with average annual temperature of 16.5℃. The annual rainfall and annual evaporation range from 1200 to 1400mm and from 1100 to 1300mm, respectively, with average relative humidity of 83% and 300 days of frost-free period. The zonal vegetation is evergreen broad-leaved forest typical of subtropics, with the major species component of Castanopsis spp.and Lithocarpus spp.

Dong Cao is a small agricultural catchment (47 ha) of northern Vietnam, located at 70 km from Hanoi, in a sloping land environment. The objective is to monitor the impacts of land use changes (from cassava to fodder and tree plantations) and possible climate changes upon hydrological and sedimentary fluxes and budgets. The catchment has an elevation of 125 m to 485 m and slopes range from 15 to 120%. Monitoring devices include an automatic meteorological station, and weirs to monitor discharge, suspended sediment and bedload. More information is available on https://mtropics.obs-mip.fr/ and in the following paper: Valentin, C., et al., 2008. Runoff and sediment losses from 27 upland catchments in Southeast Asia: Impact of rapid land use changes and conservation practices. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 128, 225–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2008.06.004

The site is located in Clocaenog Forest in North East Wales (53o 03’ 19’’N -03o 27’ 55’’ W). It is a typical upland west-atlantic moorland, dominated by the evergreen shrub Calluna vulgaris (heather). Heather makes up >60% of the plant biomass at the site, but Vaccinium myrtillus and Empetrum nigrum are also present.

The site established in 1958. We can still find in the site the remains of terraces from the Nabatean agriculture runoff. The main research topics that being studied in the site are: biodiversity, climate change, runoff hydrology

Intensive Forest Monitoring site with Pinus silvestris - Betula pendula forest

Fagus sylvatica forest on limestone plateau

Krofdorf Forest hydrological research area 4 catchments: A1 (9 ha), A2 (20 ha), B1 (11 ha), B2 (14 ha)

mixed Fagus sylvatica - Quercus petraea forest on glacio-fluvial sediments

Forest Hydrological Research Basin Lange Bramke