Speaker
Description
Climate change, pollution, and unsustainable resource use interact across ecological and socio-ecological systems, yet biodiversity research and monitoring are often fragmented across disciplines, spatial scales, and data infrastructures. The emerging Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological Research Infrastructure (eLTER RI) addresses this challenge through a whole-system approach that integrates long-term ecosystem observations driven by scientific questions, experimental research, socio-ecological perspectives, and harmonised environmental data across Europe.
eLTER RI currently operates research sites and platforms in over 20 European countries in the long term, covering major environmental and socio-economic gradients. Its design integrates observations across the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, and anthroposphere, through a set of Standard Observations enabling contextualised analyses of interacting global change drivers. Moreover, eLTER RI provides central services for data integration, synthesis, modelling, and access through interoperable infrastructures and FAIR-oriented workflows.
This contribution presents the eLTER RI as an asset for integrative biodiversity research and discusses how the research infrastructure can support synthesis across disciplines, data domains, and policy contexts. Three key dimensions relevant to integrative biodiversity science are: (1) the advancement of a whole-system approach linking biodiversity dynamics with the surrounding spheres and social-ecological structures; (2) the development of interoperable standards, harmonised observation protocols, and scalable data infrastructures that facilitate FAIR data management; and (3) the generation of continental-scale synthesis products and actionable knowledge for environmental policy and restoration planning.
By combining long-term ecological observations with emerging analytical approaches and coordinated European infrastructures, eLTER RI provides a blueprint for advancing integrative biodiversity research. The infrastructure demonstrates how harmonised observation, multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration, and synthesis-oriented data services can strengthen the scientific basis for understanding and managing biodiversity change across Europe.
| Status Group | Postdoctoral Researcher |
|---|---|
| FOR TALKS: Poster Presentation Option | No, I prefer to present only as a talk. |