LTER Europe

LTER-Europe is the network of Long-Term Ecosystem Research sites (LTER) and Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research platforms (LTSER) in Europe. It forms part of the global LTER network (ILTER). Comprising 18 formal national member networks and 5 emerging ones LTER-Europe represents more than 400 LTER sites and 25 LTSER platforms.

In 2001, the EEA formally represented at the global ILTER meeting, stated that Europe needed a powerful and unified continental research and monitoring network to cope with the complex challenge to better manage European ecosystems according to the "Late lessons from early warnings" report (EEA, 2001). This report especially underpins the demand for a better link between ecosystem research and long-term ecosystem monitoring and openly adressed the inefficient fragmentation of European ecosystem research, including deficiencies in the synthesis of available information and its communication to decision and policy makers. To support the initiation of a European LTER, the EEA acted as a key stakeholder for the first European LTER conference, in 2003 in Copenhagen. Amongst other strategic efforts, this led to the consideration of the issue of LTER in the first call of FP6 and the initiation of the Network of Excellence ALTER-Net. ALTER-Net started in 2004, developing the concept for LTER-Europe, required institutional integration and IT solutions alongside biodiversity as a topical trigger.

Supported by the EC´s request for institutional integration the partner institutes of ALTER-Net started to act as stakeholders for the LTER processes in their respective countries. In parallel, ALTER-Net expanded its efforts beyond the ALTER consortium, succeeding in including most European countries in the LTER-Europe process.

As a milestone, the former western (WE LTER) and central and eastern LTER networks (CEE LTER) were merged and  "LTER-Europe" was founded as a formal regional group of the global LTER network in June 2007 in Balatonfüred, Hungary. Therewith LTER-Europe has become the most powerful regional group worldwide.

[after M. Mirtl, modified]