LTER InfoBase Update Call 2011

Dear National Network Representatives, Dear Scientific Site Co-ordinators and Platform Managers,

the 2011/2012 update of information on your research sites/platforms has be started.

In the context of several projects, strategic processes and networks (EnvEurope, EXPEER, ESFRI, ILTER) a range of such parameters have emerged, which are of high interest as basis or judging the power and potential of our distributed research infrastructure. The collated data will be centrally used to update all related site databases (e.g. ILTER), saving you from reporting the same information twice. Another purpose is to repeat the 2009 analysis of coverage of our network with respect to environmental and socio-ecological zones and work on proposals for a re-design (key task of LIFE+ EnvEurope).

For the LTER Europe Factsheets all information collected in earlier years was collected to produce a central documentation of your sites and platforms for multiple uses. These LTER Site Fact Sheets are pre-filled with all data already reported as basis for checking, updating and completing site metadata.
The inquiry has 3 levels of documentation details, but we ask you to provide as complete information as possible:

• level 1: minimum documentation (15 minutes for first report; 5 minutes for update)
• level 2: basic documentation (about 1 hour)
• level 3: full documentation (about 2 hours)

Deadline

We ask you to reserve some time at least for the first two levels and return the information by the end of July. 

How the work is organised?

1. National Network Representatives (NNR) as well as the Site Co-ordinators and Platform Managers are contacted to update and complete the LTER Europe Factsheets for their sites
2. National Network Representatives (NNR) are asked to co-ordinate the collection of the LTER Europe Factsheets in their countries and make sure to distribute all information to all responsible site co-ordinators and platform managers. For details read here ...
3. Site Co-ordinators and Platform Managers are asked to complete the LTER Europe Factsheets for their sites and upload the files to the specified ftp-repository. For details read here ...
4. The LTER InfoBase Team check the completeness of the LTER Europe Factsheets uploaded and import to the central database.
   

The information from the LTER InfoBase was centrally extracted to a LTER Europe Factsheet containing all information available for the sites. For already registered sites in the LTER InfoBase this Factsheets are generated. The factsheets can be directly accessed and downloaded using the ftp-repository at the Umweltbundesamt ftp://ftp.umweltbundesamt.at/. To get username and password, please contact InfoBase Helpdesk.

• If the site is already registered in the LTER InfoBase you can find the LTER Europe Factsheet in the appropriate country folder Formal_Candidate/<Country>/1_original/ on the ftp-repository.
• If the site is not already registered please fill a new template for the LTER Site or LTSER Platform.

Please upload the files to the ftp-repository using the directory Formal_Candidate/<Country>/2_return/. Please add the date of metadata update or creation to the file name. In addtion please update the report file <#file-name/> with the uploaded files. More detailed information on how to access and upload the Factsheets can be found here --> Access LTER Europe Factsheets.

In addition to the LTER Europe Factsheet you are asked to provide the delineation of the LTER Site or LTSER Platform as ESRI Shapefile or KML file (using googleEarth). A short description how to delineate the site boundary with googleEarth can be found here --> Provide site boundaries.

Contact persons

The metadata collection is led by a mixed team of LIFE+ EnvEurope and LTER-Europe. It is also supported by ALTER-Net (central work). The contact persons are:

• Alessandro Campanaro (ale.naro@gmail.com) - overall co-ordination and checking the returned files
• Johannes Peterseil (LTERInfoBase@Umweltbundesamt.at) - for technical details
• InfoBase Helpdesk (LTERInfoBase@Umweltbundesamt.at) - for general questions 

HOW TO GET HELP? 

If you have any problems, please contact LTERInfoBase@Umweltbundesamt.at.

All the best

the LTER InfoBase Team