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ILTER welcomes Spanish and Portuguese LTER networks
At its recent meeting in Stará Lesná, Slovakia, the ILTER Coordinating Committee accepted two new member long-term ecosystem research (LTER) networks.
At its recent meeting in Stara Lesna, Slovakia, the ILTER Coordinating Committee accepted two new member Long-Term Ecosystem Research (LTER) networks. Delegates from Spain and Portugal presented excellent cases for ILTER membership.
"ILTER is a rapidly developing global network and the successful addition of the Portuguese and Spanish Networks continues to show how important long-term ecosystem research is to addressing the many environmental problems we face around the world"
Dr Terry Parr, Chair of ILTER
LTER Spain began in 2003 as REDOTE (Spanish Network of Temporal Observations of Ecosystems), and was soon supported by the Spanish Research Council, CSIC, and other organisations. As a partner in the European Union Network of Excellence, ALTER-Net, CSIC took an active role in
the development of the European regional LTER network (LTER-Europe), which was launched in 2007. The Doñana Biological Station in Spain is one of the Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) platforms of LTER-Europe. LTER Spain currently consists of nine traditional LTER sites and one larger LTSER platform. The sites cover a diverse array of habitat types, and range from near-pristine sites to those that have been heavily impacted by humans.
The development of LTER-Portugal has been coordinated by the Portuguese Ecological Society, SPECO. Initial developments began about 10 years ago, when the Portuguese-American Foundation for Development (FLAD) supported two members of US-LTER to visit Portugal and investigate the potential for establishing a LTER network. Significant progress was made in 2003 when SPECO hosted two LTER workshops in Portugal. A partnership of organisations has been established to support LTER Portugal, and potential sites have been identified. The final selection of sites has not been completed, though the selection criteria are well-defined, and the first sites should be operational by 2010.
Welcoming the new members, the Chairman of ILTER, Terry Parr from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK, said: "ILTER is a rapidly developing global network and the successful addition of the Portuguese and Spanish Networks continues to show how important long-term ecosystem research is to addressing the many environmental problems we face around the world".
The addition of these two networks on the Iberian peninsula brings the total number of ILTER members to 40. LTER activities in Europe are further strengthened by the addition of these networks in the Mediterranean region, where ecosystems face a range of pressures such as more frequent droughts, desertification and increasing urban development.
