Floristic and faunistic surveys in the Kiskunság Region started in the last century and resulted in publication of the Fauna (1986) and Flora (1993) of Kiskunság.

From the fifties, phytosociological studies served the characterisation and classification of the vegetation types. From the late sixties, motivated by IBP the studies on primary and secondary productivity, turnover of organic matter and mineral elements have come into foreground.

The need for research work on fine scale pattern detection, population interactions, ecophysiology of plant species, herbivores activity, population dynamics of insects, resulted in the establishment of two small research houses by the Budapest and Szeged Universities in collaboration with the Kiskunság National Park.

The organisation of the KISKUN LTER started in 1994 with the aim to canalise and coordinate the numerous independent studies carried out in Kiskunság. A major driving force in selection was the sensitivity or the transitional forest-steppe biome to climate change. In the last ten years (1997-2007) the KISKUN LTER has been supported by more than 30 different research grants. In 1997 Kiskunság National Park provided the KISKUN LTER with a study area of 3700 ha that well represents the heterogeneous landscape of the region. In a cooperation between the National Park and the institutions concerned, the security of the long-term studies is ensured. The establishment of the site infrastructure is under development according to the requirements of the LTER standard installations.

Main fields of research

• monitoring of climatic variables
• analysis of the hierarchical mosaic structure of the semi-natural landscape at different scales
• landscape and landuse history
• analysis of biodiversity
• pattern of and controll on primary production
• effects of and interaction among climate change, land use change, and the decrease of the water table
• mechanisms of competition, patterns and effects of disturbances (fire, herbivory, invasion)
• the role of population interactions in structuring ecological communities
• comparative analysis of host-parasitoid systems in orchard types under various pest management
• long-term fluctuation patterns of various insect groups based on ligh trap collections
• restoration studies and experiments

• floristic
• faunistic
• soil maps
• vegetation maps
• basic climate data
• depth of water table
• vegetation composition
• plant biogeography
• spatial pattern of the vegetation phenology
• plant biomass allocation and dynamics
• plant ecophysiological characteristics
• plant-herbivore interactions
• secondary succession
• long-term fluctuation of Neuropteroidea, Coleoptera, Heberoptera, Trichoptera
• lange-scale spatial distribution of insects and arachnoids
• landscape scale distribution of mammals
• insect and arachnoid populations of agroecosystems
• host-parasitoid interactions
• food-web organization of ant communities
• habitat patchiness and patch dynamics of communities under stess and disturbance

• meteorological data from Kecskemét station
• ground water table monitoring data
• FLORA Database for the Vascular flora
• CoenoDAT Database (floristic and pytosociological data)
• phytomass dynamics of sand grasslands
• ecophysiological characteristics of plant species
• insect relative densities in grasslands
• data on insects of 8 light traps
• data on insect dynamics in apple orchards
• data on mammals-vegetation interactions