ExpeER: challenges and overview of an infrastructure for ecosystem research

• Speaker name• Affiliation• Name and date of the conference.

European programs for ecosystems infrastructures

ExpeER: an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative (2011-2014)goal: coordination of existing infrastructures

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

I3 Implementation YESI3 call

Soumission ExpeER

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Preparatory phase ?YESESFRI new call Call Prep. phase

2006 2007 20082005

Construction phase

Design projectProject

emergentSoumission

ANAEE

ANAEE: a Preparatory Phase Program (2012- 2016)goal: building of new infrastructures and European integration

Societal issuesExpeER

Challenges in Ecosystem ResearchEcosystem Research is increasingly vital to addressing policy issue facing Europe and the globe, mainly concerning :

Climate (i.e. temperature, rainfall, increase of the frequencyof extreme events…),

Biodiversity (i.e. species loss, distribution, invasive species…),

Ecosystem services (i.e. carbon sequestration, climate regulation, water storage and provisioning, nutrient cycling…),

Food security (ExpeER partners: please at some details, i.e. increasing population).

Scientific issuesExpeER

Understand ecosystem processesExamples: Functional role of biodiversity.

Scale integration :

102m

Courtesy: Martin Gerzabek, BOKU, Wien

100m

106m

10-1m

10-9m

10-4m

Predict ecosystem changesExamples: Exposure to higher [CO2]

Role of climate extremes

dry wet

CO2 increase in free air Effect of drought on leaf temperature

Improve ecosystem managementExamples: Development of tools and methods to observe

climate change effects on ecosystems at different spatial scales (e.g. spatial and temporal dynamics of soil moisture).

Measured precipitation and Soil Moisture dynamics within a Cosmic Ray Moisture Probe footprint.

Villarreyes, C, G. Baroni, and S. Oswald, 2011.

Provide collective expertiseExample:

To help develop and disseminate common protocols for use in ecosystem research across Europe.

Integrate different research types Overcome Ecosystems European Research fragmentationUse of modeling and information system

Extensive acquisition of large data sets across ecosystem diversity, climate and soil conditions… for data mining and statistical approaches.

Intensive experiments approach in a restricted number of well characterized situations… for process analysis or towards anticipated future conditions.

Modelling and information system

should be a mean for interfacing these two types of approaches

ExpeER challenges

Environnemental and society changes

Data integration

Distributed infrastructures

What will happen if…

Forecasting capacities

Mitigation / adaptation strategies

What is ExpeER ?ExpeER

Coordinating and improving existing highly instrumented European infrastructures in the field of ecosystem research.

37 partners from 19 countries across Europe

X Experimental siteX Observational site X EcotronX Analytical platformX Other site

A variety of experimental approaches and scientific objectives

Biodiversity experimentsClimate change experimentsEcological AgricultureRotation agricultural systemsForest and grassland management

Three types of activitiesCoordination activities (5 workpackages)

• Analysis of current resources and roadmap for the integrated infrastructure.• Standardization of core variables and protocols.• Information management and data access.• Creating a sustainable network.• Communication and dissemination.

Research activities (4 workpackages)

• Develop and test new methods to overcome current limitations in understanding ecosystem processes.• Development of improved environmental control techniques and new experimental approaches.• Development of ecosystem models and provision of a model toolkit.• Development of upscaling and data interpretations methods of biogeochemical and ecological processes.

TNA activities (1 workpackage)

CoordinationExpeER

Evaluation of European infrastructure Standardization of variables and protocolsManagement of data information and data accessCreating of sustainable network

WP1 Analysis of current resources and roadmap for the ExpeER integrated infrastructure

Aims: to have a detailed description of instrumentation, methods, experimental design, and coverage of ecosystem types and geographic regions of ExpeER infrastructures.

Example: Synthetic diagramsof site characteristics.

WP2 Standardization of core variables and protocols

Aims: Ecosystem research across Europe deals with variables measured in different ways in different places. A standardization is necessary.

Example: List of variables under standardization.

• Soil organic matter• Soil respiration• Evapotranspiration• Land use type• Soil nutrients (NPS concentration)

• Leaf area index• Plant biomass • Soil macrofauna• Soil moisture• Phenology

WP3 Information management and data access

Aims: to provide a common domain data model and shared vocabularies and common distributed system architecture for storing and exchanging data.

Example: ExpeER partners: please, give example and/or picture.

WP4 Creating a sustainable network

Aims: to establish links with related infrastructures on the network level, including integration in broad scale site networks (observational power, representativeness).

Example: Interactive networkstrategic mind map:

WP5 Communication and dissemination

Aims: to disseminate the ExpeER results to all stakeholders ; to establish, maintain and update the general communication tools of ExpeER ; and to stimulate communication between ExpeER partners and with a broad variety of external bodies.

Example: Logo, website, flyer, internal bulletins, posters…

WP6 Management of the calls for Access

Aims: to improve and facilitate access to research facilities ; and to promote observational, experimental, analytical, and modeling approaches.

18 TA visits have been funded on various research topics.• Extreme event effects on grassland soil respiration.• Water limitation of canopy and understorey in a Maritime Pine Forest.• Spruce seedlings recruitment. • Characterisation of organo-mineral associations in soil by NanoSIMS.• Long-term effects of Nitrogen deposition on lichen ecophysiology.• Molecular Determination of Trees (MDT).• Biodiversity and ecology of forest-associated Diptera.• Etc.

ResearchExpeER

Overcoming limitation in understanding ecosystemImprovement of ecosystem experimental methods Development of modelling Upscaling and interpretation of ecological processes

WP7 Develop and test new methods to overcome cur-rent limitations in understanding ecosystem processes

Aims: to develop new measurement techniques (with regards to soil moisture, structure, metagenomics and canopy activity).

Combined novel DNA re-sequencing approach and field scale experiment techniques to explore soil moisture impacts on soil biodiversity.

Soil moisture as a driver of soil interface architecture and function – developing new approaches for testing at laboratory, experimental and field scale.

New sensor technologies for integrated observation of soil moisture at the field scale and landscape scale.

Remote sensing platform to assess the relationship among plant primary production, and phenology.

WP7 Develop and test new methods to overcome cur-rent limitations in understanding ecosystem processes

Examples: New technologies - Mobile geophysical platforms and Cosmic Ray Moisture Probes – tools for monitoring and time-lapse imaging of subsurface processes at the field scale.

Tandem-L

Soil Moisture atPoint and Plot Scale

Soil Moisture related signals at Point and Plot Scale

Soil-Moisture relatedproxies remotely sensedby satellites

www.experimental-hydrology.net

WP8 Development of improved environmentalcontrol techniques and new experimental approaches

Aims: to improve environmental control systems (warming and CO2 enrichment) in terms of realism of simulated atmospheric scenarios and cost ; and to design and test new experimental approaches.

Example: A new control system for infrared heating in order to reflect natural processes (e.g. interaction with drought).

WP9 Development of ecosystem models and provision of a model toolkit.

Aims: to predict the effects of global changes on terrestrial ecosystems.

Example: ExpeER partners: please, give example and/or picture.

WP10 Development of upscaling and data interpreta-tions methods of biogeochemical and ecological processes

Aims: to assess the potential of the ExpeER infrastructures to upscale ecosystem responses to environmental changes and to develop new monitoring strategies.

Example: upscaling of biogeo-chemical processes.

Upscaling usingoptimized model

Ecosystem data

Data assimilation (CLM, ORCHIDEE)

Satellite data(LAI, Soil Miosture,

fAPAR...)

Atmos. Conc.(ICOS)

Carbon & Water & Nitrogen balances… (all time scales)

Plot-scale Regional-scale Continental-scale

Optimized model parameters + error

Validation

ConclusionExpeER is a first step to improve and coordinate the

European infrastructures involved in ecosystem research and to stimulate their international access.

Additional such infrastructures need building and a long term entity is needed for their coordination and integration.

An improved capacity to tackle large issues at the European level also implies better use of the information collected on ecosystem.

The preparatory phase program ANAEE will benefit from the experience of ExpeER and will provide the needed long term structuration of ecosystem research infrastructures

The anaee projectExpeER

Coordinator:Abad Chabbi, INRA Franceabad.chabbi@lusignan.inra.fr

The ANAEE components and services ANAEE will integrate complementary experimental, analytical

and modeling platforms to deliver services to various end-users.

What is a preparatory phase program ?

It is not a program funding infrastructures but indirectly, by inciting nations to join the program, it stimulates national funding for these infrastructures.

Its objective is to propose development plans for :• the building of new infrastructures,• the access and data policy,• the innovation,• the legal governance,• the financial and human resource planning.

Complementarity of the European Infrastructures

With its process oriented, experimental approach, ANAEE will provide the missing information to predict fluxes and biodiversity responses in complementarity with ICOS and LIFEWATCH approaches.