Highly instrumented* research sites are designed for in situ analyses of the responses of ecological structures and processes to experimental treatments.

Among the 17 experimental sites, there are 10 experiments on forests, 8 on cropland and 3 on grasslands. Land use (rotations, cutting regimes ...) is the most common experimental treatment (8 sites) followed by precipitation regime (5 sites) and fertilisation (5 sites). Temperature is manipulated on 5 sites and plant biodiversity in one site.

Processes under study concern the carbon cycle, other greenhouse gases, soil biogeochemistry, soil biology, hydrology and biodiversity.

HIES INVOLVED IN ExpeER :

Achenkirch, Austria
Apelsvoll, Norway
Beano, Italy
Braila Islands, Romania
Ecosylve, France
Eifel, Germany
Harz/Central German Lowland, Germany
Hesse, France
Höglwald Forest, Germany
Jena, Germany
Klausenleopoldsdorf, Austria
Lusignan, France
Negev, Israel
Puechabon, France
Rothamsted, UK
Therwil, Switzerland
Tetto Frati, Italy
Whim, UK

*Highly Instrumented : Research sites/facilities with sufficient instrumentation and sampling to allow manipulation (in the case of Ecotrons and Experimental sites) and/or monitoring (in the case of HIOS) of environmental and ecological parameters, aiming to generate comprehensive data sets for model development, validation and mechanistic hypothesis testing.