Tereno – a Network of Terrestrial Observatories for Environmental Research.

Global change is affecting all compartments of the Earth’s terrestrial systems. In order to understand its impact and to develop adaptation and mitigation strategies and options, interdisciplinary research in terrestrial environmental science combined with the establishment of long term observational and experimental platforms is of critical importance. Several environmental research networks have already been established in order to monitor, analyse and predict the impact of global change on different compartments and/or matter cycles of the environment. However, many of them address either on specific research questions or focus on specific compartments. The infrastructure and research platform TERENO (Terrestrial Environmental Observatories, www.tereno.net), started in 2008, consists of a network of terrestrial observatories in Germany comprising the subsurface environment, the land surface including the biosphere and hydrosphere, the lower atmosphere and the anthroposphere. The network capitalizes on new monitoring and measurement technologies including newly launched satellite platforms and embraces integrative modelling approaches combined with data assimilation techniques. Hydrological units are used as basic scaling units in a hierarchy of evolving scales and structures ranging from the local scale to the regional scale enabling multi-disciplinary process studies. The network consists of four terrestrial observatories in Germany located in regions that are highly vulnerable in respect to climatic change. Observational data are being collected within the main compartments of the terrestrial system and made available to the science community using the TEODOOR data platform available under www.tereno.net. In this presentation we will report on the present status, highlight key results and discuss new developments and emphasize the need for international efforts towards a global networking.