Central European LTER Network: Development Continues

Contributed by Christine French, International Programs -- LTER Network Office

In mid-September, 35 scientists from six Central European countries and the US came together near Warsaw, Poland to discuss the establishment of a Central European regional ILTER network and ideas for collaborative research within the region and with US partners. This inaugural regional meeting was hosted by the International Center of Ecology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), and funded by PAS and the US National Science Foundation.

While Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary have been active in ILTER for some time, this was an introductory meeting for representatives from Romania, Slovakia and the Ukraine. One of the advantages of formalizing a regional structure within the ILTER network is that the experienced members can advise and assist their neighbors in evaluating their research priorities, assets and needs, and in planning a national LTER network appropriate to those factors. This approach is already being followed in East Asia and Latin America.

National representatives described network development and structure in Hungary and the Czech Republic, and scientists from Poland, the Ukraine, and Romania described long-term research in their countries.

US LTER scientists from Coweeta, North Temperate Lakes, Cedar Creek, Andrews and Sevilleta gave short talks about specific research projects at their sites and their interests in collaboration with Central European partners. The US group included two graduate students (Kristin Vanderbilt of OSU and Andrews and Carolyn Wilczynski of Binghampton University); Kristin described the value of international LTER experience for graduate students and her recent involvement in the student exchange visits between the US and East Asian LTER networks. Chris Wasser of the SGS site gave an overview of information management at the site and network level.

The US participants were selected because of their interest in research in Central Europe, and the workshop provided a good opportunity to advance plans for several US-Polish research collaborations on topics such as N patterns in watersheds and trophic state relationships in lakes. There were discussions with Polish partners after the meeting as well as visits to some of the sites within the Polish LTER network.

The second half of the meeting focused on the development of regional interactions in Central Europe. Participants discussed urgent environmental issues facing the region and explored existing programs and resources as well as mechanisms to implement regional collaboration. Several promising research topics were identified including "the effects of air pollution and other factors on the condition of forests in the Carpathian Mountains" and "processes linking an aquatic ecosystem with its watershed."

The Central European participants agreed to establish a regional coordinating committee, create web sites to describe their national and regional research sites and programs, and collect information on existing data sets, reference collections and publications from their sites. They also agreed to pursue further discussion of core areas and methodological standards for the regional network. Edit Kovacs-Lang, chair of the Hungarian LTER Network, and Kate Lajtha of OSU volunteered to organize the next regional meeting and planning workshop, which will be held in Budapest, Hungary in June of 1999.