www.tereno.net

From 2008 onward, a network of Terrestrial Environmental Observatories (TERENO) for long-term environmental research was established in Germany. Today, four large-scale observatories in Germany are operated by six Helmholtz Centres and provide ground, air and spaceborne observing systems to bring together scientists from different scientific disciplines. The TERENO observatory operated by the UFZ, the Harz/Central German Lowland observatory covers an area of approx. 25.700 km2 and extends from the Harz Mountains in the West to the Elbe river in the East and from Magdeburg in the North to the Leipzig/Halle area in the South.

Research focus

• Study the long-term influence of land use changes, climate changes and socio- economic developments in terrestrial systems
• • Analyse the interactions and feedbacks between soil, vegetation and atmosphere from the point to the catchment scale
  • Determine effective parameters, fluxes and state variables for different scales
  • Provide long-term environmental data in a multi-scale and multi-temporal mode
  • Bridging the gap between measurement, model and management

Key data

• Location: Leipzig, Harz mountains (West) – Elbe river (East)- Magdeburg (North)-Leipzig (South), Bode river catchment, Elbe river floodplains, Leipzig-Halle area, Central German Lowland
• Platform type: Monitoring and research infrastructures for pedological, hydrological, atmospherical, biological research, field studies, long-term observation plots, ICOS-sites (e.g. 50 m high Eddy-Flux tower at a forest site), LTER-sites, experimental sites
• Research groups involved: Scientists from the UFZ, other Helmholtz Centres, several Universities, iDiv

Contact

Dr. Steffen Zacharias (TERENO Coordinator)
steffen.zacharias@ufz.de