The site named Miyazaki University Forests is located hilly region in southern part of Kyushu island, Japan. The site is managed by University of Miyazaki to promote scientific research and education about forest ecology and forest industry. Dominant vegetations are evergreen broadleaved forest and Japanese cedar plantation. The Miyazaki University Forests perform various joint studies and is the most active research site located in warm-temperate forest area in Japan.

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 HOBE experimental catchment is located in the western part of Denmark. The topography of the catchment is relatively flat. The surface elevations in the eastern part of the catchment are about 125 m above sea level at the Jutland ridge and gently decreasing to sea level elevations towards the coast. Alluvial outwash deposits in the form of sand and gravel dominate the central part of the catchment. Towards east, glacial deposits of moraine till are present with a higher content of clay. Also the remnants from the Saale glaciation have higher clay content and the dominant sediment type at these locations is clayey sand. Overall the top sediments are highly permeable with little water retention capability and the stream flow is therefore dominated by groundwater inflow. Based on a classification of the topsoil four soil classes can be identified in the catchment. The by far most dominating soil type is fine/coarse sandy soil. The Quaternary deposits have a thickness less than 50 m in the eastern and central part of the area increasing up to 250 m towards west. The Quaternary deposits are underlain by Miocene sediments in the form of alternating layers of marine, lacustrine and fluvial deposits forming layers of clay, silt, sand and gravel. Further below thick layers of Paleogene clay are found with little permeability and thus acting as a lower impermeable boundary for the aquifer systems. The sand and gravel layers from the Quaternary and Miocene periods form interconnected aquifer systems. The land surface of the catchment is predominantly agriculture and due to the sandy soil characteristics extensive irrigation of the agricultural crops takes place. Based on satellite data the land-use distribution is estimated as follows: grain and corn (55%), grass (30%), forest (7%), heath (5%), urban (2%) and other (1%). The climate of the observatory is of maritime origin and influenced by weather systems coming from the Atlantic Ocean. The weather conditions are variable with frequent precipitation. The prevailing winds from west lead to relatively mild winters and cool summers. The mean annual precipitation is about 1050 mm/year. It varies over the season with highest amounts in the months of October-December and lowest in the months of April-May. The mean annual temperature is 8.20C. The highest mean monthly temperature is in August (16.50C) and the lowest in January (1.40C). Precipitation in the form of snow is highly variable from year to year; in some years, no snowfall occurs and in others, it may stay on the ground for months.

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

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)

Forest Hydrological Research Basin Lange Bramke

Houay Pano is a small agricultural catchment (60 ha) of northern Lao PDR, 10 km from the UNESCO world heritage city of Luang Phrabang, in a sloping land environment monitored since 1998. The objective is to monitor the impact of land use changes from annual crops (upland rice, Job’s tear and maize, cultivated with slash and burn system) to perennial (teak trees), and of climate changes upon hydrological and sedimentary fluxes and budgets, along with water quality (including microbial contamination). The mean slope is 48%. Alfisol, Ultisol, Entisol developed on shale and shist. Monitoring devices include an automatic meteorological station, weirs to monitor discharge from nested catchments, suspended sediment, and bedload, piezometers, and electrical resistivity. More information is available on https://mtropics.obs-mip.fr/ and in the following papers: Boithias, L., et al., 2021. The Multiscale TROPIcal CatchmentS critical zone observatory M-TROPICS dataset II: land use, hydrology and sediment production monitoring in Houay Pano, northern Lao PDR. Hydrol. Process. 35, e14126. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.14126 Ribolzi, O., et al., 2017. From shifting cultivation to teak plantation: effect on overland flow and sediment yield in a montane tropical catchment. Sci. Rep. 7, 3987. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-04385-2 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 More information is available on https://mtropics.obs-mip.fr/ and in the following papers: Boithias, L., et al., 2021. The Multiscale TROPIcal CatchmentS critical zone observatory M-TROPICS dataset II: land use, hydrology and sediment production monitoring in Houay Pano, northern Lao PDR. Hydrol. Process. 35, e14126. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.14126 Ribolzi, O., et al., 2017. From shifting cultivation to teak plantation: effect on overland flow and sediment yield in a montane tropical catchment. Sci. Rep. 7, 3987. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-04385-2 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 Yucheng Comprehensive Experiment Station (YCES) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is located at the irrigation district of the Yellow River Basin in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, also called North China Plain. Physiognomy is characterized as hinterland covered mainly by fluvo-aquic soil (Fluvisol or cambisal) and salinized fluvo-aquic soil in the Yellow River Alluvial Plain. This region is dominated by warm-temperate semi-humid monsoon climate with ample energy and water resources. Historically, natural disasters such as drought, waterlogging, salinization, and wind erosion frequently occurred, resulting in vulnerable ecological environment and low grain production. Integrated improvements and managements were deployed in last several decades, and this region has become suitable for planting winter wheat, corn, cotton, and soybean with high yields in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain. Research objectives and contents Objectives:  regional sustainable agriculture  rational utilization of natural resources such as water, land, climate, biomass, etc. Contents:  conducting long-term observations and experiments  understanding the mechanism of energy transfer and mass cycle in farmlands  developing models from point to regional scales  improving and developing instruments and measurement methods  improving agro-ecosystem managements  demonstrating research results and technologies Research achievements: Outstanding research results and massive experiment data have been achieved at the YCES. The achievements cover research fields of farmland evapotranspiration, crop water use, water transfer mechanism, experimental remote sensing techniques, regional agriculture demonstration, and technology transfer. More than 1,000 papers, 15 monograph books, and 5 data sets have been published. A number of awards were granted by national, CAS, and international academic organizations, for example,  Agriculture Prize granted by the Third World Academy of Sciences  Science and Technology Progress Award by Chinese Academy of Sciences  National Top Award of Science and Technology Progress

Mols Bjerge National Park or Nationalpark Mols Bjerge is a Danish national park in the area known as Mols Bjerge (lit.: Mols Hills) in Syddjurs Municipality, Central Jutland, inaugurated on the 29th of August 2009. The protected area, measures 180 square kilometres (69 sq mi) in size. The Mols Hills, reaching a height of 137 metres (449 ft), are centrally located in the park, and take up 2,500 ha. "More than half of all wild Danish plant species" can be found at Mols Bjerge. The park comprise most of the southern parts of the headland of Djursland. It is bounded on the east by the sea of Kattegat, the forests of Kaløskovene in the west and to the south by multiple inlets, coves and plains of glacially generated moraine. The town of Ebeltoft, along with villages and summer house residence areas, are considered part of the park. Land in the national park is held under both private and state ownership. Nearly 33% of the park is cultivated and 80% of the hill area is under private ownership. Mols Bjerge National Park has a rolling and widely varying topography of woodlands and open countryside, created with the end of the last ice age. Elevation in the park area varies in height rising to a maximum of 137 metres (449 ft) in Mols Hills, with many types of habitats such as heath, forests, pastures, bogs, meadows, a variety of coastal habitats and sea