1. Develop and establish the analytical techniques for CRDS determination of N₂O concentrations, isotope ratios and isotopomers in gaseous samples
2. Apply these techniques to the study of the pathways and sources of these emissions to improve our understanding of the processes involved and where we might target future emission mitigation nutrient BMPs.

The role of the rhizosphere in regulating soil N cycling and N₂O emissions may also be investigated.

For full details, see the attached file (link below).

AHIA Call for Proposals 2015-2016

This call for proposals is aimed at scientists working at or affiliated to an ALTER-Net institute in order to deliver a high impact paper on hot topics related to biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystems services (for further explanation, see attached goals, procedure and template document). The purpose is to bring together existing knowledge from different partner institutes (not excluding non-members of ALTER-Net) and to create a high impact paper and other deliverables (see the attachment). For further details, see the file 'Call for proposals' (link below).

The available budget for one project is 20 000€ maximum.

Proposals should be send to the ALTER-Net Secretary, Tessa van Santen (email), before 1 September 2016, 12:00 CET.

Please, circulate this call amongst your colleagues.

MODSCAPES deals with rural landscapes produced by large-scale agricultural development and colonization schemes planned in the 20th century throughout Europe and beyond. Their implementation produced new rural landscapes which have seldom been considered as a transnational research topic. Hence, MODSCAPES aims to raise awareness around this largely underestimated, shared cultural heritage which stands today as a tangible evidence of recent European history.

The successful candidates will integrate within the EMÜ team, coordinated by prof. Simon Bell, which deals with three case studies (Collective farms in Estonia, Latvia and Eastern Germany).

From a methodological point of view, the candidate will contribute to the EMÜ team’s specific lead on one work package and also collect data necessary for other work packages.

For full details of these vacancies, please see the EMÜ website. The closing date is 05 August 2016.

Further details of the MSR-1 call are here. The submission closing date is 01 August 2016, 12:00 CET.

Proposals must be led by an ALTER-Net partner but may involve other organisations.

The European LTER community wishes to identify the future research needs and related infrastructure & service requirements in order to enable appropriate planning and design of the infrastructure (the research sites, etc.)

Therefore, the current flagship project for the development of LTER in Europe, the eLTER Horizon 2020 project, is conducting a horizon scanning to identify emerging research questions that may become relevant for future ecosystem research infrastructure development. This survey aims at collecting input from experts from different regions and fields of expertise.

You can find the short survey and links to background documents here. The closing date is 23 May 2016.

The Natura 2000 Communication Platform is maintained by ALTER-Net partner ECNC-European Centre for Nature Conservation, with assistance from two other ALTER-Net partners (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and ILE-SAS) and other consortium partners (Arcadis Belgium and Aspen International), under contract to the European Commission.

A full conference website with an online registration facility will go live by 31 January 2016.

Network representatives are requested to kindly circulate the call and to give it prominence on their websites.

Check out the Expert-in-training programme enabling trainees to develop and strengthen their taxonomic research skills through on-the-job-training and the Modern Taxonomy programme offering intensive theoretical courses in various subjects.

For course registration deadlines see the DEST website.

Applicants should hold a doctoral degree in physics, chemistry, microbiology, geosciences, environmental sciences or a related field of science. They should be familiar with modelling biogeochemical interactions between ecosystems and capable to further develop existing numerical ecosystem models. Programming skills (C) and modelling experience are therefore mandatory. Knowledge of R and of Unix/Linux environment will be an advantage. The candidate should have good written and oral communication skills. For work, good skills in the English language will be essential.

The project

Terrestrial and marine ecosystems are connected through groundwater, river discharge and nutrient outflows (especially N and P). River catchments in the Mediterranean are N-intensive regions, mostly due to intensive agriculture in the North and to crop N₂ fixation or food & feed import in the South. The fraction of nutrient reaching the sea constitutes significant anthropogenic forcing of many marine biological processes. For simulating the dynamics of the first levels of the marine food web (from nutrients to jellyfishes), the ocean biogeochemical model, Eco3M-MED, used and developed by the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO) within OT-Med, currently uses N and P measurements at river mouths, e.g. for the Rhône.

In order to estimate the impacts of global change on the functioning of marine ecosystems, the project aims at modeling the dependency of N and P outflows to the Mediterreanean sea toward land management. Land management is modelled as part of the agro-ecosystem model LPJmL (Bondeau et al., 2007), that has been especially adapted to the Mediterranean cropping systems (Fader et al., 2015). Among others, LPJmL simulates the daily carbon and water cycles, and the river discharges to the sea. Following existing approaches in the scientific literature, the post-doc will implement the nutrient N and P transfer in LPJmL, covering the net nutrient inputs to the river catchments by accounting for the processes occurring at the agro-ecosystem level (N₂ biological fixation, fertilization, atmospheric deposition) and the net food and feed imports. Since only a minor fraction of the net nutrient inputs from Mediterranean basins reaches the sea, the retention along the nutrient cascade will have to be added to the LPJmL river routing scheme, similarly to the method used by the Riverstrahler model. Once the nutrient transfers have been introduced into LPJmL, simulations will be validated using current climate and land use forcing for comparisons with the existing observations from river outlets. Finally, future conditions will be assessed by using the model with scenarios of changing regional climate and land use / land management.

Your application

Applications should contain a suitable motivation letter describing your anticipated role in the project, a CV, a list of scientific publications and the names of at least two scientists that can be contacted for references. They must be sent to Ms. Gabriela Boéri ([email protected]). Please prepare your application as a single file in pdf-format.

Questions about the project or the position can be directed to Dr. Alberte Bondeau ([email protected]). The position will be filled as soon as a suitable candidate has been found – work should start soon after that date. The salary and contract conditions will be determined according to standards set by Aix-Marseille University – questions in this regard can be directed to Sophie Pekar ([email protected]).

ALTER-Net Summer Schools have been running since 2006 and offer students a unique opportunity to learn about current issues in biodiversity and ecosystem services. Open to young graduate and post-graduate scientists from both within and outside the network partners, the Summer School provides an innovative atmosphere for thinking about and resolving the sustainability challenges that society is currently facing. Our Summer School aims at contributing to the durable integration and spread of excellence within and beyond the network, with a view to promoting interdisciplinary approaches.

You can follow the Summer School on Social media:

Twitter - hashtag #ALTERNetSummerSchool

Facebook - visit the 10th Summer School Facebook page

Photoblog - watch out for photo posts by students, tutors and speakers on WordPress blog site.

eLTER is a major project that will help advance the development of European Long-Term Ecosystem Research infrastructures. It brings together the existing LTER-Europe network of research sites and European Critical Zone Observatories (CZO). 162 sites in 22 countries will provide data on long-term trends in environmental change. Test cases using these data will address a range of environmental and social issues to push innovation in network level services and steer conceptual developments.

eLTER has 28 partners, It is being led by ALTER-Net partner the Austrian Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt), and also involves these ALTER-Net members: SYKE (Finland), CNRS (France), UFZ (Germany), MI-PAN-ERCE (Poland), SLU (Sweden), NERC-CEH (UK), INBO (Belgium), MTA-OK (Hungary), UNIBUC (Romania), ILE-SAS (Slovakia), CSIC (Spain)

To find out more, visit http://www.lter-europe.net/projects/eLTER. You can also stay in touch via Twitter and/or  e-newsletter:

@eLTER_EU

The researchers are preparing a strategic paper with the tentative title "Mountains for Europe’s Future", which should be ready by early 2016. This will be presented at the Roundtable "Key research themes for European mountains" at the "Mountains of our Future Earth Conference" at Perth in October 2015, and then fed into the Horizon 2020 consultation process to influence the 2018-2019 work programmes.

The group are also asking people with an interest in mountain research to complete a short online questionnaire by 25th June. A blog post “Mountains for Europe’s future: Putting mountains on the Horizon 2020 agenda” provides more background information about this project.

The articles featured are:

• Using remote sensing to map natural habitats and their conservation status: key recommendations for scientists and policymakers
• DNA barcoding strengthens biodiversity monitoring
• Remote penguins monitored using low-cost camera network
• New Natura 2000 sites can be located using indicator species method
• Citizen scientists successfully monitor bat populations
• Volunteers can help on-going monitoring efforts of coral reefs by detecting long-term changes
• How to ensure monitoring delivers effective, evidence-based conservation
• Evaluating conservation programmes: what are the best methods?

Science for Environment Policy is a free news and information service published by the European Commission’s Directorate-General Environment, which provides the latest environmental policy relevant research findings. Science for Environment Policy publishes a weekly News Alert which is delivered by email to subscribers and provides accessible summaries of key scientific studies. Thematic Issues are special editions of the News Alert which focus on a key policy area. Find out more.

Every six years, EU Member States report on the conservation status of species and habitat types protected under the EU Directives. The report covers all wild bird species (about 450), 231 habitat types and more than 1200 other species of EU interest. This ‘State of Nature in the EU’ report is supported by a more detailed technical report prepared by the European Environment Agency, which also includes country-specific data. The reports serve as input to the coming Mid-Term Review of the EU Biodiversity Strategy. The findings of the report will also feed into the ongoing Fitness Check of the Birds and Habitats, which is part of a broader exercise of taking stock of EU legislation to ensure that it is fit for purpose.

Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, said of this latest report: "This report is significant and timely. While it shows a mixed picture overall, it clearly demonstrates that efforts to improve vulnerable ecosystems can be highly effective. It also underlines the scale of the challenges that remain. We have to rise to those challenges, as the health of our nature is linked to the health of Europe's people, and to our economy."

The report is the first assessment to cover both the Birds and Habitats Directives, and it results from the largest collaborative data-collection and assessment of nature ever undertaken across the Member States in the period 2007-2012.

Looking at birds, the report concludes that more than half of all wild bird species assessed (52%) have a secure status. However, around 17% of the species are still threatened and another 15% are near threatened, declining or depleted. This includes once common farmland species like the Skylark, Alauda arvensis and the Black Tailed Godwit, Limosa limosa.

"This report is significant and timely. While it shows a mixed picture overall, it clearly demonstrates that efforts to improve vulnerable ecosystems can be highly effective. It also underlines the scale of the challenges that remain. We have to rise to those challenges, as the health of our nature is linked to the health of Europe's people, and to our economy."
- Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella

Looking at other species protected under the Habitats Directive, almost a quarter (23%) have a favourable assessment. However, over half (60%) are still in an unfavourable status (with 42% considered to be unfavourable-inadequate and 18% unfavourable-bad). Grasslands, wetlands and dune habitats are of particular concern.

Status of EU habitats and species

Habitat types, on the whole, show a worse conservation status and trend than species, as only 16% of habitat-assessments are favourable. The overwhelming majority of habitats have an unfavourable status, with 47% of the assessments being unfavourable-inadequate and 30% being unfavourable-bad.

The main threats to habitats identified are certain agricultural practices (including modification of cultivation practices, over-grazing, abandonment of pastoral systems, fertilisation and pesticides), and human-induced “modifications of natural conditions” (mostly relating to hydrological changes).

The report also presents success stories of targeted conservation action led by the EU. The Bearded Vulture Gypaetus barbatus and the White-headed Duck Oxyura leucocephala both have EU Species Action Plans, and benefitted from the EU LIFE Fund, and their numbers have seen substantial improvements. The EU Natura 2000 network of protected areas, which is 18% of the EU’s land area and is the largest network of protected areas in the world, appears also to have had an important positive influence on the conservation status of species and habitat types.

Further information

• State of Nature in the EU – Commission report:http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/index_en.htm
• DG Environment website: General: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/index_en.htm; Important: Publications (brochure): http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/info/pubs/directives_en.htm
• State of Nature in the EU – EEA technical report: http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/state-of-nature-in-the-eu/; http://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/state-of-nature-in-the
• Look up tool for status and trends of habitats and species (EEA): http://art17.eionet.europa.eu/article17/reports2012/; http://bd.eionet.europa.eu/article12/

[Text adapted from EC press release]