Region: Central/Europe
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Kovacs Lang
Chair: Eastern European REgional LTER Coordinating Committee
Institute of Ecology and Botany, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
In this region Long Term Ecological Research is a highly welcomed and supported idea among ecologists for three reasons:
-for existing traditions and results mainly in long term biodiversity studies;
-for the necessity of joint efforts in averting and preventing regional environmental damages; and
-for the recognition of the importance of ecosystem and landscape dynamics which take place on longer time scales and help in connecting the past, present and future states of the systems, making prediction possible.
The countries with established and recognized national LTER networks are the Czech Republic (1996), Hungary (1995), Poland (1998), Ukraine (1999), and Slovakia (2000) while in Romania the development of such a network is in progress.
These countries represent the temperate zone of Europe between 43-55°N latitude and 12-40°E longitude, with highly variable landscape and climate of transitional character. The main constituent geographical landscape units are the Polish Lowland, the East - European Lowland, the Bohemian and Moravian Basins surrounded by mountain massifs, the Carpathian Mountain Range System with the Carpathian Basin, the Romanian Lowland and the Northern Coastal Region of the Black Sea.
The geomorphology of the territory shows considerable variability with changing altitutes from 0 to 2655 m above sea level (Tatry). Most of the major rivers such as the Danube, Dnieper, Tisza, Dniester, Vah, Olt and Mures belong to the Black Sea catchment region, while the Vistula and Odra flow to the Eastern Sea and the Elbe with the Vltava belong to the Northern Sea catchment area.
Central Europe is situated in the cool temperate zone, but the climate is greatly variable and changeable due to the mixing of the atlantic, continental and submediterranean influences. Increasing continentality towards the East can be detected. The zonal biomes are temperate deciduous forests, temperate deciduous/conifer mixed forests, forest-steppe and steppe. In the mountain ranges beech forests, beech-conifer mixed forests, subalpine and alpine vegetation predominate, while the rivers are usually bordered by alluvial gallery forests, swamps and meadows. The main groups of the characteristic soils are the podzols, brown and grey forests soils, chernoziems and the intrazonal hydromorphic and lithomorphic types.
The average population density in this part of Europe varies between 86 (Ukraine) and 122/km2 (Czech Republic). The share of agricultural lands can reach 70-80% of the territories of the countries.
The main environmental threats are eutrophication and acidification due to air and water pollution; toxicity; land use changes, climate change, and, as a consequence, loss of biodiversity.
Although several parts of the region are heavily damaged or degraded, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe still have rather rich flora and fauna in a wide range of ecosystems. Long-term data collection has traditions; meteorological records in most cases go back to the previous century, similarly many data come from geological, soil, floristic, faunistic and vegetation surveys and mapping. International scientific programs such as IBP and MAB gave a big impetus to site-based integrated research and monitoring mainly on biological productivity, ecosystem functioning and human impacts.
The LTER sites, their main characteristics can be seen in table 1. and map 1.
The research themes:
-in aquatic systems: hydrobiology (plankton, macrophytes, benthos, fish stock, microbial loop), biodiversity, water and sediment quality, nutrient loading from the catchment, functioning and sustainable management of estuarine, wetland, fish pond and reservoir ecosystems, eutrophication and acidification impact and recovery;
-in the terrestrial systems: biodiversity, primary and secondary productivity, nutrient cycling, responses of populations and communities to disturbances (pollution, grazing, climate change, acid rain, land use changes), ecosystem management and restoration; vegetation dynamics (succession, re-establishment); bird migration.
Research activity is organized and done under extremely bad financial conditions by the enthusiastic and optimistic members of scientific institutions: institutes of national academies, universities; ministerial or state institutes and services such as natural history museums, state forestry institutes, services and directorates; national meteorological and hydrological services, and directorates of national parks.
The participation of universities creates possibilities for involvement of students in the research. In most sites undergraduate and graduate students work on their diplomas and PhD theses.
There is a great amount of data accumulated, in most cases not computerized and properly managed, therefore hardly accessible. The region needs training and development in information technology.
LTER scientists and sites of the region participate in regional, European and global scale collaborations as follows:
-EU project on mountain lakes includes Czech, Slovak, Romanian and Polish LTER scientist partners, (and also Bulgarian).
-Evaluation of ozone air pollution and its phytotoxic potential in the Carpathian forests (1997-1999), and
-Effects of forest health on biodiversity with emphasis on air pollution in the Carpathian Mountains (1997-2000) projects with USA, Czech, Polish, Slovakian, Romanian and Ukrainian participants.
-US - Hungarian LTER grassland cooperation (1996-1999) focused on biodiversity changes along climatic gradients.
-ILTER participation in the GTOS/NPP Project. LTER sites of Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine contribute to the European component of the project to demonstrate functional links between in situ and earth observation data by upscaling field measurements in heterogeneous landscapes using satellite imagery.
-LTER scientists from the region organized workshops at the 2000 All Scientists Meeting in the United States (Trophic interactions in aquatic ecosystems; Biodiversity, disturbances and climate variability in arid and semiarid grasslands)
International meetings connected with regional LTER activity:
-1995 Budapest, Hungary, ILTER Business meeting and workshop in EURECO (European Congress of Ecology)
-1998 Madralin near Warsaw, Poland, ILTER Regional Workshop “Long Term Ecological Research: Examples, Methods, Perspectives for Central Europe”
-1999 Budapest, Hungary, ILTER Regional Workshop “Cooperation in Long Term Ecological Research in Central and Eastern Europe”
-2000 Nitra, Slovakia, ILTER Regional Workshop “Long Term Ecological Research: Current state and Perspectives in Central and Eastern Europe”.
The proceedings of the 1998 and 1999 Regional workshops contain results of the first collaborative efforts, and are available on the International LTER Web site (www.ilternet.edu).