Recognizing that contemporary environmental challenges transcend geopolitical boundaries, the Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) was formed to address the nature and magnitude of these challenges through cross-border global perspectives and collaborations. GERI brings together six major ecosystem research infrastructures (RIs) (i.e., SAEON in South Africa, TERN in Australia, CERN in China, NEON in the USA, and ICOS and eLTER in Europe) to federate the programmatic work needed for concerted operation, collaborations, and the provisioning of interoperable data and services. Here, we present the historical activities that brought these RIs together, establishing a structured governance, and current overview of GERIs data harmonization and common services. We will also present current programmatic challenges as GERI continues to develop internationally and seek community input and involvement.
How to cite: Loescher, H. W., SanClements, M., Zacharias, S., Bornman, T., Feig, G., and Mabee, P.: The Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI): How we got here?, Where are we going?, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-21300, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-21300, 2025.
Global environmental challenges, such as climate change, transcend international borders, requiring a unified approach to data management and analysis. The Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) was founded to address this need, building relationships and establishing data sharing practices among six of the largest ecosystem research infrastructures in the world. Data harmonization is required to standardize and ingest data products from these infrastructures into a findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable (FAIR) global dataset. Harmonized global data can improve existing global climate models and inform environmental research studies. Here, we present challenges involved in data harmonization and progress to date resulting from a U.S. National Science Foundation AccelNet award. This GERI-affiliated AccelNet project focuses on harmonizing ecological drought data collected by different countries and establishing a broader network-of-networks for pursuing ambitious global-scale environmental science research. We describe the analytical pipelines and the philosophical decisions made in designing the GERI framework, as well as some of the challenges and lessons learned along the way. We also present the initial harmonized drought data products, exploring how environmental variables like soil moisture and temperature vary across the world. Future work will be focused in two areas. First, working with our colleagues at DroughtNet and the International Drought Experiment, we will further explore the implications of these global harmonized drought data. Second, we will begin global data harmonization efforts for new data products related to other research areas, primarily led by the GERI early career researcher working group.
How to cite: Deshpande, K., Hagen, C., Bornman, T., Chiloane, L., Feig, G., Girola, E., Guru, S., Laney, C., Loescher, H., Mirtl, M., Morris, B., Mabee, P., Salmon, E., SanClements, M., Ruddell, B., Sullivan, P., Smith, M., Kutsch, W., Yu, X., and Zacharias, S.: Towards Globally Harmonized Environmental Datasets: a Proof of Concept Using Ecological Drought Data and the Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) Framework, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13612, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13612, 2025.
The European Long-Term, critical zone and socio-ecologicalEcosystem Research Infrastructure (eLTER RI) has been developed to provide a continental-scale site-based network for the observation, understanding, and addressing of critical ecological, geochemical, and socio-ecological challenges. A cornerstone of this initiative is the implementation of the eLTER Standard Observations, which constitutes a harmonised framework for the collection and analysis of long-term environmental data across diverse ecosystems.
These observations are characterised by a multidisciplinary approach, integrating biological, hydrological, geochemical, climatic, soil-related, and socio-economic variables and parameters. Key areas of focus include biodiversity, primary production, water quality, nutrient cycling, carbon storage, and climate dynamics. The standardisation of the methodology ensures the comparability of data across sites, regions, and timescales, thereby enabling robust analyses of ecosystem dynamics and human impacts.
The eLTER Standard Observations (SOs) are closely aligned with the concepts of Essential Variables (EVs), encompassing a wide range of critical environmental parameters necessary for understanding ecosystem dynamics. SOs are designed to integrate elements of e.g. Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), and Essential Socio-Economic Variables (ESVs), ensuring a comprehensive approach to environmental monitoring. The SOs provide the fundamental data necessary to track key processes, assess ecosystem health, and understand human-nature interactions across various scales. By harmonising data collection and focusing on long-term monitoring, the SOs contribute to the global framework of Essential Variables, fostering comparability and supporting evidence-based decision-making.
The presentation will outline the scope, methodology, and significance of the eLTER Standard Observations with respect to simultaneously covering existing EV concepts. It will highlight their role in addressing global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainable resource management, emphasizing their contribution to integrative ecosystem research.
How to cite: Zacharias, S., Bäck, J., and Mirtl, M.: eLTER Standard Observations: A holistic framework for integrated long-term environmental monitoring, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12915, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12915, 2025.
The distributed Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological Research Infrastructure (eLTER RI) is one of six partners of the Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI). eLTER RI comprises ecosystem research sites and socio-ecological research platforms for exemplary research covering major European environmental, social and economic gradients. In a holistic approach, the in-situ facilities are designed for standardized observation of the five ecosystem spheres – socio-econosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere and biosphere. To identify gaps and to optimize the spatial distribution of in-situ facilities within eLTER RI we conducted analyses of representativity. These analyses reveal under-, well or overrepresented conditions and locations. However, these current conditions shift dramatically due to Global Change. Therefore, we additionally investigated the suitability of eLTER RI to address land use change and climate change features, i.e. the fitness for future.
We identified three distinct geospatial gaps: the Iberian Gap, the Eastern Gap, and the Nordic Gap. These gaps resulted mainly from the underrepresentation of agricultural lands, regions with low economic density, mesic and dry regions as well as the Mediterranean, Continental and Boreal biogeoregions. The patterns of underrepresentation appeared to be driven by access to funding resources and the regional research history. Several sites that responded to the survey but do currently not fulfil the infrastructural requirements of the eLTER RI bear potential to contribute to gap closure. Additionally, incorporating research facilities from other research infrastructures or monitoring networks into the eLTER RI could cost-efficiently counteract gaps. Regarding the fitness for future, eLTER RI covers all facets of emerging research challenges, but is spatially biased. Gaps that were assumed to be consistent for a variety of potential futures manifested in the Southern Iberian Peninsula, Poland, Finland, Sweden and Norway.
This work demonstrated the power of geospatial representativity analyses to investigate spatial biases and to inform strategic network development on the European continental scale. Consequently, we additionally harness this power to investigate the spatial distribution of the GERI initiative, which strives to better understand the function and change of indicator ecosystems across global biomes. To that end, GERI aims to support excellent science that can also inform political and managerial decision-making regarding grand societal challenges. A fully functioning GERI shall deliver harmonized data, foster international partnerships and enable new understandings of global ecological processes—stretching across continents, decades, and ecological disciplines. Therefore, the collective coverage of global ecosystems through the physical networks of SAEON (Z.A.), TERN (AUS), NEON (USA), CERN (China), as well as ICOS and eLTER RI in Europe is of high interest. As first analysis we present a global scale coverage of GERI-associated in-situ facilities regarding climatic zones.
How to cite: Ohnemus, T. and Mirtl, M.: Learning from the European Experiences: Representativity on a Global Level, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13041, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13041, 2025.
Sustainability challenges are related to socio-ecological interactions that take place at different spatial and temporal scales. Processes at different scales are interlinked, so that place-based research - like the LT(S)ER approach in eLTER - needs to be embedded in larger, often global, contexts. This is all the more important today, as increasing geopolitical tensions, international conflicts and the increasingly frequent and severe effects of global warming are pushing the world towards a "divided world" scenario. For example, changing environmental conditions due to climate heating but also land-use change, pose major threats to biodiversity and ecosystems. Changes in their biophysical and socio-economic framework will force land users to rethink and adapt their land management strategies in terms of land cover and land-use intensity. To link societal and environmental drivers of land use change, we developed the land-use agent-based model (ABM) SECLAND. The model’s farm agents represent real-world actors who make decisions in pursuit of well-being, intrinsic motivation and global socioeconomic and political drivers for decision-making influencing their preferences for certain land-use strategies. We will present new simulations for the LTSER (Long-term socio-ecological research) region Eisenwurzen in Austria, for which we calibrated the model with quantitative census data, supplemented by qualitative data from interviews and workshops with stakeholders to represent the specific conditions of the study region. Model simulations produce spatially explicit parcel-level land use maps. Previous land-use trajectories proposed strong shifts toward organic and extensive agriculture as well as forest transition as result of (grass-) land abandonment. We refine these forecasts by focusing on farmers’ perception of extreme events as climate change threats and evaluate the effects of early climate change adaptation measures on future land management. Based on this research example we will discuss the power of such models for transformative research, linking the biophysical processes of land use change to actors, institutions and power relations. Such social ecology methods and tools are important for exploring the integration of social and natural sciences in studying the sustainability of globally embedded socio-ecological systems. The investigation of social-ecological research in an RI such as eLTER can thus make a crucial contribution to the integration of local, actor-centred and participatory research carried out in LTSER regions into larger-scale models and assessments.
How to cite: Gaube, V., Egger, C., Bertsch-Hörmann, B., and Grammer, B.: Investigating sustainability across scales through social-ecological land-use studies in LTSER platforms, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20665, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20665, 2025.
Harmonised ecology systematic survey site-based data is critical for trans-geography and trans-disciplinary research. However, integrating site-based survey data from multiple sources remains challenging due to the lack of data representation and exchange standards.
TERN, Australia’s trusted name in research infrastructure development, has developed EcoPlots to integrate site-based survey data from multiple sources and provide integrated search and access capabilities. EcoPlots map source data to a standard information model and allow users to search based on multiple regions, data sources, methods used in the data collection, feature types, parameters, and observation date ranges.
Users can also search for species, filter parameters and attributes with exact values and ranges. They can download data in multiple formats, including a comprehensive ontology-based CSV file format, simple CSV, and GeoJSON, which contains all observations related to a site. In addition, users can mint DOIs for their search outputs to improve the reusability of data. In Australia, EcoPlots has enabled the integration of site-based survey data across research infrastructure projects, academia, and government agencies.
How to cite: Guru, S., Sanchez Gonzalez, J., Chandra, A., Ramesh, A. S., Yu, J., and Weis, G.: EcoPlots - The data Integration platform for systematic site-based surveys, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14907, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14907, 2025.
The Australian Government makes significant investments to improve the stewardship of Australia's environment and the sustainable management of natural resources. On-ground actions by natural resource management (NRM) practitioners aim to improve or restore natural ecosystems and the diverse species they support, including threatened and unique taxa. Ideally, government investments are directed towards highly effective activities that result in positive conservation outcomes. Quality scientific data is critical not only to improve our understanding of the effectiveness of funded actions and their impact on species and ecosystems, but also to track climate-driven change, and enable policy-makers to make informed decisions.
The Ecological Monitoring System of Australia (EMSA) is a collaboration between the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) and the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). EMSA provides the infrastructure, tools and resources to support NRM data collection, analysis, and evaluation, meeting the national requirement for a streamlined, consistent, automated, and robust ecological monitoring system.
EMSA builds on TERN's history as Australia’s terrestrial ecosystem observatory. EMSA’s consistent standardised observation methods provide on-ground practitioners with a modular suite of standardised survey protocols, comprehensive instructions manuals, a field data collection app, and centralised data management and storage system for the Australian Government's Biodiversity Data Repository. Ongoing support is provided via a help desk, community of practice, training and outreach activities.
The 24 EMSA modules include standardised methods for establishing plots, collecting landscape, soil, disturbance, vegetation community and floristic information, field vouchers, leaf tissue samples, and photopoints. Additional modules can be incorporated to target terrestrial fauna, pest fauna, and invertebrates through direct and indirect observation, camera trapping and acoustic monitoring. Modules are available to capture management activities, the severity of fire, and changes to tree condition and recruitment. Most modules offer multiple standardised options, depending on the detail required for the project. The field collection app is paired with an instruction manual and is written for entry to mid-level field ecologists and field practitioners.
EMSA is being delivered across Australia by partners funded under the Natural Heritage Trust. It is also encouraged for other NRM investment programs and is being considered for other future Australian Government programs. As a result, an Australian-wide network is being created, generating invaluable, science-rich data and improving our understanding of ecosystem restoration, biodiversity conservation, and climate change impacts, and supporting our planning, decision-making and reporting of investment programs Whilst developed for the Australian landscape, the EMSA model is adaptable globally.
How to cite: O'Neill, S., Irvine, K., Tokmakoff, A., Leedman, A., DeChazal, J., Cook, A., and Sparrow, B.: The Ecological Monitoring System of Australia – standardised methods to track environmental change, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-7674, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-7674, 2025.
The forest landscape is of global importance for net radiative forcing. As the world warms, feedbacks within the ecosystems alter greenhouse gas (GHG) balances. Coordinated observations of GHG fluxes and concentrations, and of more chemically active species, as well as variables describing the ecosystem, are essential for understanding and prediction of feedbacks. ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System), ACTRIS (Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gas Research Infrastructure) and SITES (Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science) have already provided >10 years of data for open science. These measurements on the carbon cycle, air quality, and ecosystem behavior already provide key information for quantifying GHG emissions and sinks, and investigating feedbacks under a changing climate. ACTRIS Sweden, ICOS Sweden and SITES have developed a strategic plan for enhanced cooperation. This will better address the global challenge of understanding ecosystem influences on GHG fluxes as the climate warms, as well as the interplay of physical and chemical properties of the atmosphere on ecosystems.
Before summarizing that plan for deeper cooperation, it is worth noting some more about these three national networks. ICOS and ACTRIS are already ERIC RIs and SITES is involved in efforts to establish eLTER (Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, Critical Zone and Socio-Ecological Research Infrastructure) as an ERIC RI as well. The three national RIs are active partners within their respective ERIC consortia and collaborate with other RIs in the ESFRI environment and climate domain. All stations and the FAIR data they provide are widely used within research, earth system observation, education (students, PhD, post docs), and as test sites for new instruments and methods within academia and private-sector companies. The stations of the three RIs are also incorporated into the Copernicus services. The management structure of the RIs are closely related to developments in earth observation at European and international levels.
The strategic plan for enhanced cooperation between the three national RIs has a set of eight short term goals that should be achieved in the next 2-3 years. These include further enhancing co-location of measurements, integration of scientific leadership, as well as coordination of tools for accessing both the field sites and available data. This enhanced cooperation between the national networks of ACTRIS, ICOS and SITES also aims at five long terms goals.
- continuity of high-quality services
- strategic collaboration
- organizational optimization
- increased usage across our RIs
- fostering innovation
As a result of the enhanced cooperation, the RIs will achieve a new level of collaboration in observation systems for atmospheric pollution, including the effects of this pollution and climate change on ecosystems. Joint approaches to strategic development and outreach will further maximize synergies between these complementary infrastructures, giving ACTRIS, ICOS and SITES a more central, coordinated role in supporting Earth system science, and societal decision-making in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
How to cite: Krejci, R., Arnold, T., Holst, J., and Swietlicki, E.: Addressing research challenges of environmental change at the global scale via Research Infrastructures collaboration and alignment, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13250, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13250, 2025.
ATMO-ACCESS is a pilot project funded under the Horizon 2020 program (April 2021–October 2025) that addresses the needs of distributed atmospheric research infrastructures (RIs), including ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observing System), ACTRIS (Aerosol, Clouds, and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure), and IAGOS (In-flight Global Observing System). The project provides effective and convenient access to leading European atmospheric research facilities, including fixed monitoring stations, mobile observation platforms, simulation chambers, and central laboratories. It also offers virtual access to innovative cross-RI digital and training services.
These access opportunities are utilized by research communities worldwide to conduct experiments, evaluate instruments, and analyze data, ultimately advancing scientific knowledge and technological development.
Now in its final stage, ATMO-ACCESS is reviewing its main outcomes. The presentation will highlight how demand for access to atmospheric research facilities is shifting—from physical access to more hybrid and virtual modes, It will also discuss how transnational access projects can support both research and innovation and illustrate how access programs are used by the private sector or by international organization outside the academics.
Historically, access projects have been funded through short-term EU initiatives. However, findings from ATMO-ACCESS underscore the need for greater collaboration among funding agencies across Europe and beyond. Such cooperation within Europe and extended at international level is essential to establish more sustainable access programs that benefit the broader research community.
How to cite: Laj, P. and Philippin, S.: ATMO-ACCESS: Why Do We Need a Sustainable Access Program for Atmospheric Research?, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-3748, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3748, 2025.
TERN Australia, a GERI member in the southern hemisphere, produces systematically collected continental-scale time-series ecosystem data. These data are invaluable to a myriad of global models and sustainability reporting and help enable broader cross-continental ecological research. This presentation focuses on the challenges of federating recently introduced sea-level coastal ecosystem research infrastructure for future global impact. Understanding the vulnerability of vegetated coastal habitats is essential - they support biodiversity, filter pollutants, capture sediments and reduce coastal erosion and storm damage. They also on average sequester more carbon per unit area than terrestrial forest and maintain significant sedimentary carbon stocks. Australia has one of the longest coastlines in the world and to date, has over 300 surface elevation table (SET) instruments monitoring sea level rise impacts on coastal wetlands. SETs present a cost-effective methodology, collecting long term empirical datasets that may be integrated into remote sensed data. TERN aims ensuring all Australian SET operators adhere to ‘global standard’ for monitoring and data curation protocols so that the data can be harmonised with that of the 20-30 other countries, including other GERI members, to form the global SET network, systematically assessing and predicting coastal wetland responses to accelerating sea-level rise in the decades ahead.
How to cite: Goddard, M., Bennion, V., Lovelock, C., and Saintilan, N.: Assessing coastal ecosystem impacts of sea-level rise at the global scale via research infrastructure alignment, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14518, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14518, 2025.
Irrigation infrastructure, critical for agricultural water management, contributes significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during its operational phase due to energy and resource consumption for gate operations, water pumping, and maintenance activities. In Taiwan, the construction of new irrigation canals has largely plateaued, with current projects predominantly focusing on repair, replacement, and upgrades. This study seeks to address the carbon footprint of these engineering activities by developing a tailored Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework that evaluates emissions hotspots specific to irrigation infrastructure and explores Nature-based Solutions (NbS) as mitigation strategies.
The LCA framework focuses on the maintenance and operational stages (B1-B5) of irrigation systems while incorporating end-of-life considerations (C1-C4) where necessary. For instance, it assesses energy consumption during post-repair operations and simulates scenarios involving energy savings or material reuse. NbS interventions, such as vegetative soil stabilization, eco-friendly repair techniques, and energy-efficient water management systems, are analyzed for their feasibility and alignment with the eight NbS criteria and twenty-eight associated indicators. The framework is designed to quantify the potential of these interventions to reduce lifecycle emissions and enhance ecosystem resilience.
Aligned with the Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructures Initiative, this study incorporates harmonized methodologies and collaborative practices to evaluate carbon emissions and explore effective mitigation strategies. By addressing key environmental challenges through structured frameworks, the research highlights the potential for interoperability and scalability, offering insights into how localized practices can inform global efforts in sustainable water resource management and climate resilience.
Preliminary findings highlight the potential of NbS to address key emission sources. For example, vegetative solutions applied to embankments reduce soil erosion while simultaneously sequestering carbon, and energy-efficient upgrades to water pumping systems significantly lower operational emissions. These results underscore the value of integrating LCA with NbS to provide actionable pathways for mitigating environmental impacts while ensuring infrastructure functionality.
By focusing on a localized case study of Taiwan’s irrigation infrastructure, this research demonstrates how regional practices can contribute to global environmental research infrastructures, fostering collaboration and advancing efforts to address shared environmental challenges under the context of climate resilience.
How to cite: Yang Hung, C. Y., Chen, Y. J., Chuang, W. C., and Tung, C. P.: Developing a Life Cycle Assessment Framework with Nature-based Solutions for Carbon Footprint Management in Irrigation Infrastructure, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2451, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2451, 2025.
Large volumes of isotope data have been collected across many scales and for a diverse range of purposes. From international and national scale monitoring and measurement efforts to short term assessments such as academic projects and citizen science efforts. These all continue to contribute to creating significant data assets. Yet, the difficulty extracting and integrating these data resources into workflows limits the potential value. Data collection, management and analysis efforts are siloed by funding models and contractual agreements, resulting in a fragmented data landscape.
In Australia, environmental isotope data in environmental media, such as water, soil, rocks, plants and animals, have been accumulated over many decades in public organisations including federal and state government agencies and universities. Federal science agencies are key custodians of such data and already disseminates data through established organizational channels, such as the CSIRO Data Access Portal (DAP) and Geoscience Australia's Portal Core. However there remains an ambiguity about an institutional mandate for collecting and disseminating data, leading to a lack of coordination and sharing.
We present the process of harmonizing publicly held stable isotope data from Australian public organisations into a coherent user experience. Data across multiple Australian organisations has been harmonised through an interoperable architecture and common ontology, co-developed with wide consultation across the stable isotope community in Australia. This includes implementing robust data collection strategies, ensuring data quality control, and transparent data stewardship governance.
Existing data silos of big data repositories were translated in an aligned manner through a flat ontology, so data can be gathered and reused across different isotopic data sources. This was done while maintaining FAIR standards and preserving the autonomy of source institutions' internal data structures and governance systems. The isotopes.au platform and ontology are presented as a bottom-up solution with an additive architecture to be flexible across multiple future applications.
The goals of this multi-institutional effort are to create greater usability and availability of publicly-held data, increase collaboration of research infrastructure, and realise greater value from public data. This supports good outcomes for both private and public usage. The next step is to expand the network of connected data sources and facilitate development of modelling applications supported by isotopes.au.
By leveraging big data through platforms like isotopes.au and fostering international collaboration, Australia and Europe can work together to establish robust and efficient data sharing mechanisms
How to cite: Welti, N., Noble, W., Fraser, G., Flick, L., Gerber, C., Hawkins, S., Hughes, C., Kohlmann, F., Stobaus, T., Suckow, A., Theile, M., Waltenberg, K., and Zhang, X.: Harmonizing Stable Isotope Data in Australia: The isotopes.au Platform for Enhanced Data Sharing and Collaboration, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14534, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14534, 2025.
National governance plays a pivotal role in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under limited resources. Therefore, it is necessary to prioritize SDGs and their underlying targets to support informed decision-making. Among the scientific approaches, integrated priority analytical models have led to the consideration of interwoven interactions among targets and the involvement of both traditional analytical and interaction-related criteria. However, existing models have limitations in maximizing the benefits of interactions, as they tend to overlook negative and high-order interactions. To address this issue, this study proposes a new model that integrates impacts of direction-specific high-order interactions and temporal trends in a tri-dimensional framework to assign target-specific “temporal priorities” and “resource priorities” at the national scale. We applied this model to the priority analysis of SDG targets in China to demonstrate its usefulness in leveraging the benefits of interactions within a complex sustainability framework. Our analysis shows that, for temporal priorities, 10.7% of targets require urgent action to promote progress or address trade-offs, and 23.8% demand low levels of urgency. The urgent targets focus on energy efficiency, augmented funding for forest management, and biodiversity preservation. Concerning resource priorities, 27.4% of targets necessitate elevated resource allocation, clustering primarily within Goals 12, 15, and 16. Accordingly, we recommend policy actions to enhance funding for biodiversity preservation and forest management and to foster energy efficiency measures. Additionally, allocating extra resources to the responsible consumption goal is imperative due to pronounced trade-off effects.
How to cite: Wang, Y., Zelingher, R., Strelkovskii, N., Song, C., and Gao, P.: Maximising Benefits of Sustainable Development Target Interactions: An Integrated Priority Analytical Model Applied to China, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2356, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2356, 2025.
This presentation provides an overview of a recent initiative and large investment in biodiversity undertaken in Italy. It focuses on establishing the Italian National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), the first National Research and Innovation Center dedicated to biodiversity, funded through European Union funds—NextGenerationEU. The NBFC includes key actions to monitor biodiversity, enhance conservation efforts, restore ecosystems, and value terrestrial, marine, and urban biodiversity. To deal with such a complex roadmap, the NBFC is designed following the Hub&Spoke model. It comprises 6 thematic Spokes dedicated to the sea, land and wetlands, and cities, with two crosscutting spokes dedicated respectively to training, communication, knowledge sharing, innovation, and policies through international connections. A primary objective is to encourage data sharing among various institutions, organizations, and countries to foster international collaboration in biodiversity protection. The NBFC is working to create a national digital platform for data analysis and biodiversity informatics, as well as collecting biodiversity data and acting as a digital twin for monitoring and conservation. This digital platform will connect biodiversity to ecosystem functions and services. This multilevel digital platform is a vital resource for the national and international scientific community, policymakers, and organizations responsible for protecting biological diversity in various environmental contexts. All actions undertaken by the NBFC are based on the Nature-based Solutions approach, providing a wide range of options for biodiversity restoration and management. Additionally, Citizen Science initiatives contribute to the NBFC's objectives by raising public awareness about the need to understand, monitor, conserve, and restore biodiversity. The NBFC's activities also aim to promote human health and well-being. In line with the One Health approach, healthy ecosystems are essential for resilience to diseases, food security, and improved quality of life. Through this initiative, Italy aims to strengthen its commitment to safeguarding biodiversity while promoting sustainable development and ecological resilience.
How to cite: Spano, D., Calfapietra, C., Labra, M., Di Minin, A., Frachetti, S., Sarà, G., Chiantore, M. C., Luna, G. M., Rebecchi, L., Frati, F., Pastore, M. C., Galimberti, A., Cena, H., Bertoli, G., Saggio, I., Bubacco, L., Coratella, R., Mereu, S., and Brundu, G.: Building the Future of Biodiversity: Italy's National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC) Initiative, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4820, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4820, 2025.
Access to reliable information and FAIR compliant data is essential in understanding and addressing the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity and ecosystems. However, these resources are often fragmented and their combined use for delivering integrative knowledge to meet the above research challenge is difficult. The BiCIKL project (Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library) showcases the transformative potential of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing biodiversity and climate research challenges. By integrating biodiversity data from research infrastructures, scientific repositories, and expert communities, BiCIKL has bridged the gap between fragmented knowledge systems and actionable insights for conservation and resilience.
A key achievement of BiCIKL is the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH), an innovative platform enabling seamless access to biodiversity data, tools, and workflows. The BKH fosters interoperability between diverse resources, empowering researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to make data-driven decisions that support biodiversity preservation and climate adaptation. This platform exemplifies open science principles and facilitates long-term, scalable solutions that support ongoing collaboration, innovation and resilience in biodiversity research and management.
Through its collaborative approach, BiCIKL has advanced biodiversity informatics by demonstrating best practices in data integration, capacity building, and stakeholder engagement. This positions BiCIKL as a benchmark for future efforts to harmonize biodiversity and climate resilience initiatives globally, exemplifying how interoperability and harmonized standards can transform the accessibility and utility of biodiversity data. The hub offers tailored tools that cater to a wide spectrum of users, from academic researchers conducting advanced analytics to policymakers seeking actionable insights for sustainable development.
BKH’s modular design allows for continuous expansion and adaptation, ensuring its relevance in addressing emerging challenges in biodiversity and climate resilience. By fostering active stakeholder engagement, BiCIKL has cultivated a thriving community of practice, ensuring the long-term sustainability and growth of its initiatives
This presentation will outline the methodologies and technologies contributing to BKH, emphasizing its role as a pioneering model for integrated biodiversity knowledge and action.
How to cite: Arvanatidis, C., Penev, L., López Lérida, J., Huertas Olivares, C., Sáenz Albanés, A. J., Basset, A., Montinaro, S., Vaira, L., Minadakis, N., Griniezakis, M., and López Paneque, J.: Biodiversity Knowledge Hub: Addressing the impacts of environmental change by linking Research Infrastructures, Global Aggregators and community Networks, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12990, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12990, 2025.
The eLTER-SO-Costs web application is a specialized tool designed to assist the eLTER (integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological Research) community in estimating the costs associated with upgrading and operating standard observations (SOs) across various eLTER sites. It provides a flexible and efficient approach to cost estimation by tailoring calculations to specific site characteristics, ensuring that cost assessments are relevant and accurate. The tool considers key factors such as the site category, habitat types, focus spheres, and the potential for co-location with other research infrastructures, all of which influence the costs. The application is designed to be highly adaptable, allowing users to customize the output according to specific needs and exclude or adjust certain predefined cost elements based on the unique conditions of their sites or platforms. The core functionality of the application allows users to input unique site-specific data and receive an automated, detailed annual cost breakdown for SOs. The eLTER-SO-Costs facilitates financial planning, enabling eLTER site managers to optimize their eLTER site management, reducing the time and effort traditionally spent on manual cost calculations, democratizing access to essential financial data for the broader eLTER community. The tool's user-friendly interface ensures that site managers and researchers, even those without expertise in cost analysis, can efficiently plan for the long-term sustainability of their sites while meeting the scientific and operational demands of ecological monitoring.
How to cite: Souza, A., Alam, S. A., Rasilo, T., Zacharias, S., and Bäck, J.: Simplifying cost calculations for eLTER sites and platforms: A flexible web application for site managers , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-16083, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-16083, 2025.
