Samaria National Park (SNP)
Samothraki Nature Observatory (SNO)
Finokalia Atmospheric Observatory
(FAO)
Hydrological Observatory of Athens (HOA)
Koiliaris Critical Zone Observatory (KRB-CZO)
Lesvos Biodiversity Observatory (LBO)
Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO)
Pinios Hydrologic Observatory (PHO)

About LTER-Greece

The Greek Long-term Ecosystem Research Network (LTER-Greece) is a collaborative network of scientists and their stakeholders engaged in long-term, site-based ecological, social and economic research in Greece. The vision of LTER-Greece is to improve the quality of life of all citizens through the application of long-term, large-scale research to the preservation and sustainable use of ecosystems. LTER-Greece is a national network, member of the European Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER-Europe) and of the International Long Term Ecological Research Network (ILTER).

Mission

The mission of LTER-Greece is to deliver to the scientific community, policy makers, and society in general, sound scientific information and predictive understanding of ecological and socio-economic processes and to inform solutions to current and future environmental problems at local, national, European and global scales.

Goals

  • To foster collaboration and coordination among long-term ecosystem researchers and research networks at local, regional, continental and global scales;

  • To improve comparability of long-term ecological, social and economic data from sites around the world, and facilitate exchange and preservation of these data;

  • To deliver scientific information to scientists, policymakers, and the public to meet the needs of decision-makers at multiple scales;

  • To facilitate the education of the next generation of long-term scientists.

Membership

An LTER-Greece member is defined as a site/observatory instrumented and managed by academic and research institutions whose scientists have agreed to conduct scientific research according to the LTER-Greece vision, mission  and goals.  The LTER-Greece characteristics of the sites/observatories are:

  • Site-based research – In-situ regular monitoring and research of broad spectrum of environmental variables at a local level (LTER Sites) and of environmental as well as socio-economic variables at a sub-regional level (LTSER platforms) that continuously feeds scientific analyses, up-scaling, synthesis and theory development.
  • Long term – LTER dedicates itself to consistent research and monitoring with the time horizon of decades. This produces a particular type of science, which requires its own statistics, tools and produce unique results.
  • System approach – a target of LTER-Greece research is to better understand complexity of ecological and socio-ecological systems, dynamics of abiotic and biotic variables, role and dynamics of system components, and interrelations between them.
  • Process-oriented research – tracing dynamics of interactions between different components of socio-ecological systems LTER-Greece aims at understanding complex cause-effect relationship and their dynamics in time.

The responsibilities of a member are:

  • Participation in the annual LTER-Greece Coordinating Committee meeting
  • Communication and responsiveness
  • Regular update of information of site facilities (sites, platforms) in the LTER DEIMS system (metadata)
  • Nomination of contact persons: One representative and up to two deputies
  • Annual status / progress report of site activities
  • A data management and accessibility policy including a commitment to begin the process of sharing and exchanging data and knowledge with other members of LTER-Greece

Application for membership will be accepted through a majority vote of the LTER-Greece Co-ordinating Committee.

Each elected member of the LTER-Greece Network shall nominate a representative and a deputy representative.

Co-Ordinating Committee

The LTER-Greece Co-ordinating Committee is composed of one official representative of each LTER-Greece member.

The coordinating committee elected officers are:

Officers Persons
Chairperson Prof. Nikolaos P. Nikolaidis
Vice Chairperson Dr. Andreas Panagopoulos
Secretary Prof. Evangelos A. Baltas
Treasurer Prof. Evangelos A. Baltas
Elected member Prof. Maria A. Mimikou
Web-master Dionissis Efstathiou
Publicity or Communications officer –
Fund Raising consultant officer Alexandros Psomas