LTER-LIFE

Veluwezoom heide

LTER-LIFE is a scientific infrastructure aimed at supporting shared and integrated ecological research – towards the building of digital twins of ecosystems. We do this in three ways: (1) by bringing together geographically focused research communities; connecting people that do research on different aspects of the same ecosystem, (2) by creating a portal to find (legacy) data, models, and tools relevant for these regional research communities; helping researchers to share and reuse, and (3) by setting up a virtual research environment where these data, models and tools can be connected and/by enabling ease of reuse and development in virtual laboratories.
For the first years, we focus on supporting the community of researchers studying the Dutch Waddensea and the Veluwe. In due time we will extend this support to other regional research communities. 
In LTER-LIFE we do not build a digital twin of an ecosystem. We provide the means for researchers to build and re-use digital twins specific for their research in their specific ecosystem.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure

In addition to fostering crucial scientific breakthroughs, the LTER LIFE infrastructure will also enable research on societal questions, such as how biodiversity will benefit from specific interventions to reduce nitrogen deposition in the Veluwe area, or how mitigation measures will impact the species composition, and thereby ecosystem functioning, in the Wadden Sea. Hence, LTER LIFE will fit seamlessly into the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and its new EU Nature Restoration Plan, and into national initiatives such as the Deltaplan Biodiversiteitsherstel. By extending the instrument to other ecosystems and their services, LTER-LIFE will also contribute to the European initiative "Destination Earth", demonstrating technological capabilities in simulation, modelling, data science, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing in the context of biodiversity and ecosystems. Thus, the benefits of LTER-LIFE will be widely felt by scientists in the field of biodiversity, ecology and environmental sciences, as well as a broad range of societal organisations.

What is LTER-LIFE built on?

What is LTER-LIFE built on?

LTER-LIFE is built on three GWIs which are on the Dutch Roadmap for Large Infrastructure: Long-Term Ecosystem Research Netherlands (LTER-NL) carries out and connects time series on long-term ecosystem monitoring within so called LTER sites, and makes these data available for research. LTER-NL is part of LTER-Europe, which is on the European ESFRI road map for large infrastructure. National Environmental Monitoring Network (NemNet) runs a national scheme of abiotic monitoring of soils, water and air. Lastly, LifeWatch develops virtual laboratories to answer fundamental questions on the functioning and resilience of ecosystems. It is part of the European LifeWatch ERIC. LTER-LIFE will lead to, and capitalize on, synergy between these three GWIs.

Who is running LTER-LIFE

Who is running LTER-LIFE?

LTER-LIFE is a consortium that consists of five main applicants: Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), University of Amsterdam (UvA), National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), and Wageningen University & Research (WUR). In addition, LTER-LIFE is strengthened by a large number of scientific and societal cooperating partners, an educational partner, and data partners, and it is linked with various other large-scale scientific research infrastructures.

Contact

Contact

Please contact Prof. dr. Marcel Visser or Dr. Geerten Hengeveld (LTER-LIFE@nioo.knaw.nl) if you want to know more about LTER-LIFE. 

News

News about LTER-LIFE

  1. Digital twin: article in Dutch newspaper 'Volkskrant'

    News
    Multi-page article in Dutch newspaper 'Volkskrant' about LTER-LIFE project. 'Do you still have floppy disks with data? Share them with us!'
    article in Dutch newspaper 'Volkskrant'
  2. Developing digital twins to help understand ecosystems

    News
    LTER-LIFE aims to study and predict how global change affects ecosystems. It is one of nine projects that have just won Dutch funding earmarked for setting up and improving large-scale research infrastructure. The main applicant for the proposal was Marcel Visser (NIOO-KNAW).
    Veluwezoom heide
Project Description