1. Spanish Long-term Ecological Research and Monitoring Network A network of natural sites and platforms to monitor and investigate ecological and biodiversity topics at long-term scale. Towards a common goal… Candidature to ILTERN membership Stara Lesna, Slovakia August 2008 Presented by Ricardo Díaz-Delgado, National Network Coordinator

3. 1. History of LTER-Spain: REDOTE http://www.redote.org/eng-index.htm 2003 F. Valladares

4. Pilot network (June 2005) composed by: Level II Network Forest Damage (54 sites) Monitoring sites (6 sites) 1. History of LTER-Spain: REDOTE

5. 1. History of LTER-Spain: ALTER-Net CCMA EBD

6. 1. History of LTER-Spain: LTER-Europe Participation on LTER-Europe foundation June 2007 Balatonfüred, Hungary Bylaws, Executive & Scientific Committees, Meetings, Joint research, Common information database management…

7. 1. History of LTER-Spain: LTSER concept National Park (537 km 2 ) Natural Park (523 km 2 ) Protection area (70 km 2 ) LTSER platform (2736 km 2 )

8. 1. History of LTER-Spain: Doñana leadership EU CAP transposition effects on LTSER biodiversity Implementation of a conceptual socio-ecological model (Haberl et al. submitted to EE)

9. 1. History of LTER-Spain: Doñana leadership Successful and productive meeting

10. The high Mediterranean Basin biodiversity: species and ecosystems 2. Representativity of Spanish Ecosystems

11. Mediterranean basin, a hotspot of biodiversity & endemism 2. Representativity of Spanish Ecosystems 20% endemic ssp 10-20% endemic ssp

13. 2. Representativity of Spanish Ecosystems

14. Sites of Community Importance (SCI) and Special Protection Areas for Birds in Spain 2. Representativity of Spanish Ecosystems Implementation of Conservation policies (Natura 2000 network)

15. 2. Representativity of Spanish Ecosystems Trend in Conservation policies Relative percent of protected land area Terrestrial area Marine area Total area % of Total Area Protected area according to protection figure

17. 2. Representativity of Spanish Ecosystems Biodiversity threats Massive Urbanization Land use intensification Fragmentation Water and Air Pollution Wetlands drainage Large Wildfires Overgrazing Overfishing Water supply shortages Spread of Exotic Ssp…

18. Sierra Nevada Doñana Collserola Aigüestortes Illas Atlánticas Xurés Baleira Umía Arcos da Condesa Castrove National Park Natural Park LTER site 3. Proposed network of sites and platforms

19. Sierra Nevada Doñana Aigüestortes Islas Atlánticas Baixa Limia-Xurés Serra de Collserola Río Umía 3. Proposed network of sites and platforms Baleira

20. Illas Atlánticas Sierra Nevada Aigües tortes Xurés Coll serola Doñana LTSER Illas Atlánticas Ocean Land Use Intensification Altitude Distance to shoreline 3. Proposed network of sites and platforms Umía Baleira Castrove Arcos

21. LTSER Region Doñana Xurés Umia Castrove Baleira LTER-Spain National Coordinator Ricardo Díaz-Delgado National Network AND LTER-Interest group Regional Administrative Stakeholders: JA, XG, GenCat Key stakeholders (Institutions) National Research Stakeholder CSIC F. Valladares National Interest Groups: AEET & GlobiMed Sites Colserolla Aigüestortes Interested member: National Parks Network (OAPN) Sierra Nevada ROAGA Illas Atlánticas Arcos 4. National & Regional Stakeholders

22. Decentralized research and environmental policies through autonomies, challenging the network implementation. 4. National & Regional Stakeholders

24. 5. CSIC: Global change initiative New Axe for Research and Adaptation to Global Change with 35% of CSIC institutes involved. Aligned with the National Scientific Plan from the Spanish Ministry of Science (2008-2011)

26. International Laboratory for Global Change Laboratorio Internacional de Cambio Global Main LINGC goal is to understand, forecast and formulate response strategies to the Global Change Impacts on Marine and Terrestrial Ecosystems from the Southern most South America and the Iberian peninsula 5. CSIC: International Facilities for GC

28. 6. LTER-Spain Managing Structure LTER-Spain is currently composed by: 1. Member-sites/platforms (MS). Administrative and manager representatives of every site/platform member of LTER-Spain. 2. Scientific Groups Members (SG). Research groups of scientists working on long-term ecological issues in agreement with the LTER-Spain research lines and goals and at least in one of the network sites. 3. Scientific Individual Members (SI). Scientists working in one or more LTER-Spain research lines and at least in one of the network sites. 4. Interested Members (IM). Stakeholders with a manifested interest in working on long-term ecological monitoring and management together with the LTER-Spain network.

29. 6. LTER-Spain Executive Committee

30. 6. LTER-Spain Scientific Committee Site members and manager representatives

32. 7. LTER-Spain research core areas LTER-Spain Executive and Scientific Committee have agreed to promote long-term research at LTER-Spain sites into the next core areas: 1. Role of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning ( resilience ) and structure. 2. Disturbances patterns and frequencies. 3. Effects of Global Change on ecosystem functioning and structure (ecosystem thresholds). 4. Definition of adaptive management criteria and decision-making for conservation and their effects on ecosystems. 5. Long-term socio-ecological modeling.

34. 7. LTER-Spain strategic plan The bottom-up strategic plan in the special case of Spanish Autonomous Administration has to deal with: • Granting funds for basic monitoring according to LTER-Spain research core areas and methodological protocols from regional governments. • Developing a specific scientific programme on long-term ecological research based on LTER-Spain sites and platforms that should sustain long-term investigation on relevant ecological issues such as global change and biodiversity loss. • Setting up an official webpage , common database with public access , an administrative office and an effective communication network fostering educational activities , divulgation and outreach .

35. 7. Criteria for LTER-Spain membership Formal criteria • Basic commitment of stakeholders for at least 5 years (agreement) including, Funding, Staff, Infrastructure (field work, lab work etc.) • Explicit agreement on data exchange and access • Availability of information in English • Maximum response time to questions/requests of 10 days (email). Data criteria • Up-to-date/current documentation in the LTER-Spain database • Storage (shared database and metadata) • Availability for data sharing • Historical Time Series (depend on topics; at least two data sets with a sufficient time interval) • Frequency of measurements (thresholds for discontinuity?)

36. According to LTER-Europe recommended parameters Abiotic component 8. Coordinated LTER-Spain monitoring

37. Primary Producers 8. Sites & platforms common monitoring

38. Consumers 8. Sites & platforms common monitoring Others

39. 8. Sites & platforms common monitoring + 35 Socio-economic indicators

40. Data warehouses GIS Metadata collection Business intelligence Data mining software Collaborative software Collecting information Decision making Scientific research Popularization of environmental issues National meta-analysis International meta-analysis 9. LTER-Spain Information Management Web services Local Information Systems Site A Adaptative management cycle National (Spatial) data infrastructure Framework to connect data managed locally and in order to show them in an integrated way via web browsers and web services International (Spatial) data infrastructure Web services

41. LTER web page 9. LTER-Spain Webpage Main features We have developed a web powered by Mediawiki software (the same used by Wikipedia) A Wiki is a very powerful tool because it allows the collaborative working among the different groups. Each member of the network will be able to create and edit articles in a supervised way It is easy to create and maintain a wiki. And it is free ! (Mediawiki is free software) A wiki is a good tool to store non-structured information (text docs, slides, videos, maps, etc.). This wiki will be our first “proto” repository of information.