How is the temperature of the lysimeters controlled?

The lysimeters’ lower boundary condition can be controlled with a unit of parallel suction pipes, which were installed at the end of the filling procedure in an inverted lysimeter.

What are the main effects of land use dynamics?

Land use dynamics not only have an effect on water quantity but can also lead to changes in water quality, erosion, and the timing and size of floods.

What are the concepts to be considered for the selection of indicators?

The concepts to be considered for the selection of indicators include (i) ecosystem integrity as a basic concept, (ii) ecosystem services, and (iii) the Driver–Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) model (European Environment Agency, 2006) as a framework linking environmental and human systems.

What is the purpose of the TERENO concept for biodiversity monitoring and research?

The TERENO concept for biodiversity monitoring and research is to be compliant with other biodiversity monitoring schemes and to be innovative in terms of developing and testing new schemes.

What are the focal components that should be taken into account to represent ecosystem integrity?

The focal components that should be taken into account to represent ecosystem integrity are ecosystem structures and ecosystem functions (ecosystem energy balance, ecosystem water balance, and ecosystem matter balance).

How does the DEMMIN network help hydrologists?

It is by observing changes with time, and comparing observations from different sites, that hydrologists develop an understanding of hydrologic processes and responses.

Why is there a need for data from long-time monitoring studies?

Trace Gas Flux Observations at the Plot Scale Because uncertainties in estimates of annual greenhouse gas emissions from farmlands are still high (Schulze et al., 2009), there is ongoing need for data from long-time monitoring studies.

Why did the topsoil in the winter of 2009 be relatively dry?

This indicates that much of the infiltrated rainfall water had bypassed the relatively dry topsoil, possibly due to preferential flow, possibly induced by soil shrinkage and hydrophobicity.

What is the place to locate a rain scanner?

The rain scanner should be located in areas with high precipitation predictability, which can be estimated with the existing rain gauge network.

How long did the grass at the Graswang site last?

At the Fendt site, the grass had been cut about 2 wk earlier and was therefore relatively short, about 0.10 m, while the grass canopy height at the Graswang site was about 0.20 m.

What was the effect of the precipitation event on the soil?

during summer 2010, after a very intense precipitation event (20 mm/h), the soil moisture in the subsoil increased more strongly than in the topsoil.

What is the purpose of the water balance data?

in conjunction with modeling, the water balance data will help in determination of the magnitude of measurement errors, determination of how to diagnose these errors, and avoidance of the misattribution of water balance components (Kampf and Burges, 2010).

What is the plot design at the TERENO station Scheyern?

Fig. 11. Hydrologic instrumentation of the TERENO research station Wüstebach.www.VadoseZoneJournal.org | 966The plot design at the TERENO station Scheyern combines three tillage practices (conventional, reduced, and minimum tillage) and three N fertilization practices (−30%, conventional, +30%).

What are the two categories of precipitation monitoring?

In the second category are included a rain scanner and a fixed number of high sampling (15- min resolution) rain gauges (including weather observations).

(Open Access) A Network of Terrestrial Environmental Observatories in Germany (2011) | Steffen Zacharias



Originallypublishedas:



Zacharias,S.,Bogena,H.,Samaniego,L.,Mauder,M.,Fuß,R.,Pütz,T.,Frenzel,M.,Schwank,M.,

Baessler,C.,Butterbach‐Bahl,K.,Bens,O.,Borg,E.,Brauer,A.,Dietrich,P.,Hajnsek,I.,Helle,G.,

Kiese,R.,Kunstmann,H.,Klotz,S.,Munch,J.C.,Papen,H.,Priesack,E.,

Schmid,H.P.,Steinbrecher,

R.,Rosenbaum,U.,Teutsch,G.,Vereecken,H.(2011):Anetworkofterrestrialenvironmental

observatoriesinGermany.‐VadoseZoneJournal,10,3,955‐973

DOI:10.2136/vzj2010.0139

www.VadoseZoneJournal.org

| 955

2011, Vol. 10

A Network of Terrestrial

Environmental Observatories

in Germany

Mulcompartment and mulscale long-term observaon and research are important pre-

requisites to tackling the scienc challenges resulng from climate and global change.

Long-term monitoring programs are cost intensive and require high analycal standards,

however, and the gain of knowledge oen requires longer observaon mes. Nevertheless,

several environmental research networks have been established in recent years, focusing

on the impact of climate and land use change on terrestrial ecosystems. From 2008 onward,

a network of Terrestrial Environmental Observatories (TERENO) has been established in

Germany as an interdisciplinary research program that aims to observe and explore the

long-term ecological, social, and economic impacts of global change at the regional level.

State-of-the-art methods from the eld of environmental monitoring, geophysics, and

remote sensing will be used to record and analyze states and uxes for dierent environ-

mental compartments from groundwater through the vadose zone, surface water, and

biosphere, up to the lower atmosphere.

Abbreviaons: EDK, external dri kriging; TERENO, Terrestrial Environmental Observatories.

Climate change and land use change are key factors in global environmental

change that have to be managed by society in the coming decades. e changes take place

on dierent spatial and temporal scales and the challenges for environmental research

are immense. Many important ecosystem functions are expected to change, jeopardizing

the life-sustaining resources and the future developmental options of mankind. Steady

long-term trends in temperature, precipitation, and other climatic gradients aect most

environmental niches, exhibiting very complex feedback mechanisms. Terrestrial envi-

ronmental research has to tackle this challenge, using new research approaches based on

integrated and long-term environmental data (National Research Council, 2008; Reid et

al., 2009; Richter and Mobley, 2009; International Council for Science, 2010).

One of the key problems in recent environmental monitoring is the gap in temporal and

spatial scales between measurement and management. e present understanding of water,

energy, or matter uxes, as well as their biological and physical drivers and the interactions

with and within the terrestrial system, are oen based on investigations performed at scales

not capable of explaining the system behavior. On the one hand, local system parameters

strongly aect the overall system, and on the other hand, eective parameters at a large scale

determine the processes and functioning of highly complex natural systems at a very local

scale. A comprehensive consideration of multicompartment interactions and scale depen-

dencies remains a major scientic challenge in current terrestrial environmental research to

predict the behavior of the terrestrial system in response to changing environmental condi-

tions. As a consequence, the development and implementation of large-scale, long-term, and

integrated research infrastructure for environmental monitoring and research has been the

subject of intense discussion during the past few years across all scientic disciplines (Quetin

and Ross, 1992; National Research Council, 2000, 2003, 2006; Zoback, 2001; Lin, 2003,

2010; Parr et al., 2003; Reckhow et al., 2004; McDonnell et al., 2007; Montgomery et al.,

2007; Nisbet, 2007; Willis et al., 2007; Burt et al., 2008; Keller et al., 2008).

Coupled with a growing awareness that holistic, synergistic approaches incorporating

regional heterogeneities that fulll the need for redundancy are urgently required, several

initiatives toward environmental observatory networks have been initiated around the globe.

Fro m 20 0 8 onwa rd , Ter res tr ia l

Environmental Observatories (TERENO),

a network of observatories for integrated

environmental research focusing on the

impact of climate change and land use

change on the terrestrial ecosystems, has

been established in Germany. The TERENO

research concept in general and conceptual

approaches for different environmental

compartments and terrestrial uxes in par-

cular are described and explained.

S. Zacharias, L. Samaniego, M. Frenzel, C. Baessler, P. Dietrich,

S. Klotz, and G. Teutsch, UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Envi-

ronmental Research, Permoserstraße 15, D-04318 Leipzig,

Germany; H. Bogena, T. Pütz, U. Rosenbaum, and H. Ver-

eecken, Research Centre Julich, Agrosphere Instute, 52425

Jülich, Germany; M. Mauder, K. Buerbach-Bahl, R. Kiese, H.

Kunstmann, H. Papen, H.P. Schmid, and R. Steinbrecher, Ins-

tute for Meteorology and Climate Research, Atmospheric

Environmental Research, Karlsruhe Instute of Technology,

Kreuzeckbahnstraße 19, D-82467 Garmish-Partenkirchen,

Germany; R. Fuß, J.C. Munch, and E. Priesack, Helmholtz Cen-

tre Munich, Instute of Soil Ecology, Ingolstädter Landstraße

1, D-85764 Neuherberg, Germany; M. Schwank, O. Bens, A.

Brauer, and G. Hello, GFZ German Research Centre for Geo-

sciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany; E. Borg,

German Aerospace Center, German Remote Sensing Data

Center, Kalkhorstweg 53, D-17235 Neustrelitz, Germany; and

I. Hajnsek, German Aerospace Centre, Microwaves and Radar

Instute, 82234 Wessling, Germany. *Corresponding author

(steen.zacharias@ufz.de).

Vadose Zone J. 10:955–973

doi:10.2136/vzj2010.0139

Received 8 Nov. 2010.

Posted online 29 July 2011.

Freely available online through the

author-supported open access opon.

5585 Guilford Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA.

be reproduced or transmied in any form or by any

means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-

copying, recording, or any informaon storage and

retrieval system, without permission in wring from

the publisher.

Special Secon:

Crical Zone Observatories

Steen Zacharias*

Heye Bogena

Luis Samaniego

Mahias Mauder

Roland Fuß

Thomas Pütz

Mark Frenzel

Mike Schwank

Cornelia Baessler

Klaus Buerbach-Bahl

Oliver Bens

Erik Borg

Achim Brauer

Peter Dietrich

Irena Hajnsek

Gerhard Helle

Ralf Kiese

Harald Kunstmann

Stefan Klotz

Jean Charles Munch

Hans Papen

Eckart Priesack

Hans Peter Schmid

Rainer Steinbrecher

Ulrike Rosenbaum

Georg Teutsch

Harry Vereecken

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Accordingly, an integrated approach toward a better understand-

ing of natural systems has to be able to capture (Lin, 2010)

• the external and internal forcing as well as their interconnection,

• the coupling of the dierent environmental cycles,

• the most relevant interfaces of the system, and

• all relevant spatial and temporal scales adapted to the scale of

system management.

An integrated framework combining monitoring, modeling, and

regionalization is necessary to address the complex interactions

and geographic aspects of natural systems (Parr et al., 2003; Paola

et al., 2006; Ohl et al., 2007; Lin, 2010). e design of appropriate

monitoring and research concepts and networks is challenging and

expensive and requires input from dierent scientic disciplines,

both fundamental and applied. It is obvious that to implement a

network of environmental observatories on a continental or even

on the global scale, a community eort bringing together dierent

teams, organizations, and also funding is needed (Parr et al., 2002;

Keeling, 2008; Lin, 2010).

To address these challenges, the German Helmholtz Association

started the infrastructure activity Terrestrial Environmental

Observatories (TERENO) in 2008 (Bogena et al., 2006). e

TERENO observatories started to investigate the consequences

of climate and land use change in Germany and will provide

long-term observation data related to the so-called “critical zone,”

including multiple spatial and temporal scales of the hydrosphere,

biosphere, pedosphere, lower atmosphere, and anthroposphere. We

describe here the methodological aspects and the interdisciplin-

ary framework of observatory implementation and present the

TERENO network as a community platform for research in ter-

restrial science in general and critical-zone processes in particular.

Important elements of the TERENO monitoring concept, with

specic focus on processes within the hydrosphere, lower atmo-

sphere, pedosphere, and biosphere, are presented, and potential

applications of the TERENO data are highlighted.

The TERENO Observatories

It is a given fact that climate change is aecting Germany. e mean

annual temperature has risen about 1°C during the past 100yr

(Fig.1). At the same time, the precipitation slightly increased, which

is mainly due to an increase in winter precipitation. ese changes

in precipitation are characterized by strong seasonal and also

regional variations. While the increase in winter precipitation is

particularly pronounced in western Germany, in eastern Germany

a decline in summer precipitation is already notable (German

Federal Environmental Agency, 2008). Recent climate projections

for Germany predict a further intensication of these trends (Fig. 2).

e general aim of TERENO is the long-term integrated observa-

tion of climate change and global change impacts on the terrestrial

system for Germany, for which a terrestrial system in the context

of TERENO is dened as a system consisting of the subsurface

environment, the land surface including the biosphere (organized

in ecosystems), the lower atmosphere, and the anthroposphere.

ese systems are organized along a hierarchy of evolving spatial

scales of structures ranging from the local scale to the regional

scale. Furthermore, temporal scales ranging from directly observ-

able periods (up to several years) to long time scales (centennial to

multimillennial) derived from geoarchives are considered. With

regard to the latter, TERENO focuses on precisely dated and annu-

ally to subseasonally resolved synchronized long-term data from

lake sediments and tree rings. From monitoring and process studies

on climate and environmental signal transfer into these archives,

Fig. 1. Annual average mean daily temperature in Germany, 1900 to 2010 (data source: German Weather Service).

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| 957

novel transfer functions will be developed. Data sets from these

archives can then be generated for a direct calibration and veri-

cation against present-day instrumental data. e result will be a

database of greatest precision on the natural background variability

of climate and landscape evolution for multimillennial time scales.

e TERENO observatories aim at combining observation with ded-

icated larger scale experiments and integrated modeling to increase

our understanding of the functioning of terrestrial systems and the

complex interactions and feedback mechanisms among their dierent

compartments. A geographically distributed framework combining

monitoring with regionalization is mandatory for covering this range

of spatial and temporal scales. To capture the given climatic gradients,

terrestrial and atmospheric feedback, socioeconomic disparities, and

demographic gradients, the spatial scale of a terrestrial observatory

covers the landscape scale (>10

). By combining observatories

within Germany, larger scale atmospheric feedbacks and impacts

can be investigated, and thus a more pronounced general link to the

atmospheric research community can be established.

Within TERENO, four terrestrial observatories were selected

as being representative for Germany and other central European

regions with the highest vulnerability with respect to climate

change eects (Fig. 3). Furthermore, these regions can be expected

to represent dominant terrestrial processes and the dierent roles of

groundwater, surface water, soils, and their links to the atmospheric

boundary layer. All of the selected regions are either already aected

by climate change or will probably react sensitively in the foresee-

able future. e establishment of three of the observatories started

in 2007 and will be nished in 2011. e implementation of the

Northeastern German Lowland observatory commenced in 2011.

The observed regions have different vulnerabilities (German

Federal Environmental Agency, 2005):

• Eastern Germany (northeastern German lowland, central

German lowland): low water availability, strong coupling

between a shallow groundwater table and water availability

in the root zone, risk of summer droughts, further decrease in

summer precipitation expected, ooding in the river basins of

the Elbe and Oder rivers;

• Rhine Valley: critically high temperatures (upper Rhine

valley) and expected strongest increase in temperatures,

higher risk of flooding due to an expected increase in

extreme precipitation events and precipitation shi from

summer to winter;

• Prealpine Region: high sensitivity of the ecosystem, higher

risk of ooding in the Alps, risks for winter tourism due to

temperature increase.

In general, the TERENO observatories

• provide real-time measurement platforms that will allow

observation of terrestrial systems directly influenced by

human activities,

• carry out and monitor controlled scientic experiments

across a nested hierarchy of scales ranging from the local

scale (small test sites) to large catchments, and

• provide long-term environmental data in a multiscale and

multitemporal mode to study the long-term inuence of

land use change, climate change, socioeconomic develop-

ment, and human interventions in terrestrial systems.

e multiscale approach is based on scale and regionalization con-

cepts developed and extensively used in hydrology (e.g., catchment

and representative elementary area) and terrestrial sciences, such

as soil science, geology, hydrogeology (regionalized variables, rep-

resentative elementary volume, local scale, and field scale). The

multitemporal approach refers to a hierarchy of time scales ranging

from event based, continuous, and periodic measurements requiring

Fig. 2. Predicted mean relative change (%) in seasonal precipitation in Germany for summer (le) and winter (right) for the period 2071 to 2100 compared

with 1961 to 1990 (ensemble mean from 12 regional climate simulations; www.regionaler-klimaatlas.de, veried 2 July 2011, Meinke et al., 2010).

www.VadoseZoneJournal.org

| 958

precisely dated geoarchives (annually layered lake sediments and

tree rings) and technological platforms such as ground-based geo-

physical, meteorologic, and remote sensing techniques, low-cost and

dedicated ying platforms (small and large airplanes, zeppelins, or

helicopters), up to satellite-based remote sensing. A detailed descrip-

tion of the implementation framework, the implementation plan

and a description of the single observatories can be found at the

project website (teodoor.icg.kfa-juelich.de/overview-de; veried

2July 2011; in German and English). e implementation plan also

contains detailed descriptions of data management and communica-

tion strategy as well as a description of the integration of modeling

activities and data assimilation approaches used in TERENO.

In this sense, TERENO is a initiative complementary to the exist-

ing measurement networks in Germany and all over the world, such

as the Critical Zone Observatory Program, FLUXNET, Long-

Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, or the Integrated

Carbon Observation System (ICOS), and can be perfectly linked

to the existing initiatives to

• study the impact of land use changes, climate change,

socioeconomic development, and human intervention

in the evolution of terrestrial systems and to analyze the

interactions and feedback between the soil–vegetation and

atmosphere compartments in these systems across scales;

• develop methods for upscaling of parameters, uxes and state

variables (PFS) that describe processes controlling matter

and energy uxes across the soil–plant–atmosphere systems

Fig. 3. Map of Germany, indicating the locations of the four selected TERENO observatories, including the experimental catchments and research stations.