eLTER Switzerland

The Long-Term Ecologiocal Research in Europe (LTER-Europe) capitalizes on research infrastructures such as the in-situ network of sites and information technology. Thousands of research projects have been carried out taking advantage of this infrastructure. The increasing complexity of ecosystem research led to the networking and global organization of LTER.

To secure the implementation of the eLTER RI, the European Commission has recently approved two major, complementary Horizon2020 projects: eLTER PLUS (Advanced Community) and eLTER PPP (Preparatory Phase). The projects will provide a major boost through exemplary case studies at selected eLTER sites across Europe to test the current capacities (eLTER PLUS) and thereby trigger eLTER RI development according to user needs. Both projects started in February 2020 and will last five years. 

WSL is making use of existing synergies and contributes to LTER-Europe with its expertise, applied methods and infrastructure: WSL has been conducting Long-Term Forest Ecosystem Research (LWF) on 19 permanent observation plots, starting in 1994. Some of these long-term monitoring plots are also part of international networks such as ICP Forests , eLTER, TreeNet, ICOS and Swiss FluxNet.