Scientific advances in research of soil-plant-atmosphere interactions demand strong integration of monitoring, modeling, and scaling. In recent years, several terrestrial observatories have been implemented, e.g., the Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) and National Ecology Observatory networks (NEON) in the U.S., the Hydrological Observatory (HOBE) in Denmark, the Heihe Hydrological Observatory in China, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network in Australia (TERN), and the Terrestrial Environmental Observatory network (TERENO) in Germany. This symposium will focus on long-term terrestrial observatories and how data obtained from such networks can support the understanding and prediction of the response of terrestrial systems to changing environmental conditions.