LTER IN HUNGARY
Edit Kovács-Láng, Institute of Ecology and Botany of HAS
Lajos Vörös, Balaton Limnological Research Institute of HAS
János A. Tóth, Ecology Department of Debrecen University
Long-term ecological research motivated either by environmental problems or by scientific purposes has traditions in Hungary.
Eutrophication of Lake Balaton, the maintenance of proper water quality of River Danube, the need for insect pest prediction in agriculture and forestry have initiated mainly long-term biodiversity studies. The international scientific programmes such as IBP and MAB stimulated the productivity and ecosystem studies from the seventies.
The demand for developing a nation-wide network to integrate the results of formerly separated long-term studies arose in the nineties.
The major impetus came from the cooperation with US LTER scientist in the frame of the project supported by NSF and HAS (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) "Development of Hungarian-American collaborative research efforts: Biodiversity and Long-Term Ecosystem Research (1994).
In 1997 the Hungarian Academy of Sciences initiated the development of a national ecological research network to increase the effeitiveness of the research work.
Site-based long-term ecological monitoring and research has central role in the scientific programme of the network.
In Hungary there are three research sites which are representative for the zonal biomes of the country, and have proper scientific background from earlier research activity. Their scientists want to fulfil the requirements of the standards of LTER sites and to take part in regional and global networking activites.
These are:
Lake BALATON LTER site
KISKUN forest-steppe LTER site
SÍKFŐKÚT oak forest LTER site
Their scientific program aims at learning of the lorg-term dynamics of the space and time patterns of the vegetation, following the effects of global change on structure and dynamics of ecosystems, discovering the regulatory mechanisms and the role of biodiversity in ecosystem functions.
Information management:
is most centralized at Lake Balaton LTER site and is still not centralized at the KISKUN and SÍKFŐKÚT sites.
The home pages of the LTER sites and the forming Hungarian network are under development.
Available datasets from the KISKUN LTER site.
Cross-site research:
inside the country there are established links between SÍKFŐKÚT LTER site and the REJTEK Forest Research Project.
The KISKUN LTER Site carries out cross-site grassland studies with USA SEVILLETA and CPER LTER sites.
Network management:
is in initial stage. The PI-s of sites are in close contact with each-other, and in the frame of the Hungarian Ecological Network established management is planned.
Application of LTER research:
the results and data coming from LTER research have wide applicability in National park management, for Nature Conservation Authorities in prognoses for biodiversity changes, pest control in forestry and agriculture, in assessing the status of environment in Europe by the European Environment Agency, in education of graduate and postgraduate students at universities.
Partnerships:
LTER in Hungary is supported by universities, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Hungarian Nature Conservation Authorities, and different national parks.
Collaboration among networks:
We have close contacts with the US LTER Network and UK ECN. Both have given us support, and good examples. Hungarian LTER is membet of International LTER Network (ILTER), partner in the ALTER-Net EU 6th FW Network of Excellence project, and founding member of LTER-Europe.