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Funded by the European Commission ENRICH programme (ENV4-CT97-0434)
Objectives and Goals
To establish a network of European SOM modellers and long-term data holders and a database system of SOM models and long-term SOM experiments. To promote coordination of ongoing research, and facilitate collaboration between European (EU, CEES and NIS) research groups working on the effects of global environmental change on soil organic matter (SOM). This project compliments the GCTE-SOMNET programme, the database for which can be found at http://saffron.rothamsted.bbsrc.ac.uk/cgi- bin/somnet.
Project Methodology
This project will establish a) a network of European SOM modellers and long-term data holders, and b) a database system of SOM models and long-term SOM experiments. The network and underpinning database system will cover EU member states and other western European countries (e.g. Switzerland), and extend to the central and east european states (CEES), and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union (NIS). The general approach to acheive these goals will entail:
The work content will comprise the following activities:
Further details of each of these activities is provided below:
In order to provide a central contact point, an electronic bulletin board and list server for EuroSOMNET will be established. These will be used to exchange ideas and current findings, to aid bilateral and multilateral collaboration within the Network, and to inform members of forthcoming meetings etc.
The central site will also mount and maintain the EuroSOMNET central database which will contain summaries of all data available at the regional network co-ordination sites (see below). The site will be accessible via the World-Wide-Web, and a series of web pages will give the user both information and access to other data-holding sites. Any database tools developed by network participants (see below) will also be mounted here to be downloaded by interested parties.
Within the three regions (EU, CEES, and NIS), regional co- ordinators have identified most of the sites that will contribute to the network. More will inevitably come to light during the period of this project. Some of these sites will already have electronic databases containing data (and models used) from their long-term experiments and for these sites it will simply be a matter of participants formatting their data in the standard network format. This can be acheived relatively easily at individual sites. Network participants will also be asked to complete an electronic / hard-copy questionnaire to provide detailed information on the long-term data or SOM model they are contributing to the network. This information will then be stored on the central EuroSOMNET database in the UK but copies will be available at regional co- ordinating sites and at individual participant's sites.
Where technically possible (i.e. where an Internet connection exists), and where network participants wish to make their data more widely available for use by other workers (e.g. when it has been previously published), network participant site databases will be linked to regional co-ordinating site databases and the central database. The timetable of this part depends upon when funds can be secured from other sources to fund hardware and technical support to aid in establishing the information technology-based aspects (computer networking for East-West collaboration) of this proposal.
A EuroSOMNET database system will be constructed during the course of the project, using contributions from regional networks in EU, CEES and NIS. The database system will comprise: a) a central electronic EuroSOMNET metadata database (containing detailed information on each experiment / model participating in the network), b) a central electronic database (of actual data) of European long-term SOM datasets and SOM models for sites that wish to make models/data freely available, c) regional network databases (from EU, CEES and NIS), individual site databases of models and data in standard SOMNET format linked to the central database via the Internet [World-Wide-Web], gopher or FTP.
Individual network participants will assemble their data in the standard format and where appropriate, individual site databases will be linked to the sites of regional network partners or to the central EuroSOMNET database (either via the Internet [World-Wide-Web], gopher of FTP protocols depending on technology available at each site). Agreed quality control criteria will be applied by individual participants to their own datasets but lateral cross-checks to ensure parity in quality will be made at the regional network level. Indicators of data and model quality can then be attached to the metadata database entries and to the actual datasets (and models) held at individual network sites. Database tools written by partners (e.g. routines for converting standard data to the format required for particular SOM models) will also be made available via the central database system.
Project reports will be produced at the end of each year. A final project report will include regional data summaries (data synthesis) and a regional analysis (interpretation) of the data. Publications arising from use of the database (e.g. model evaluation, regional carbon sequestration potential estimates etc.) will be summarised in the final report and a full bibliography will be provided.
Publications arising from the regional summaries (data synthesis) and regional analyses (data interpretation) will be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. When published, these summaries and analysis will also be published in electronic format to accompany the data held on the WWW electronic database.
Milestones
Figure 1 : Regions of responsibility within EuroSOMNET
Three main partners will co-ordinate the three units of the network and each will be linked to a central network site in the EU. Rothamsted in the UK will co-ordinate the overall project and provide the central network sites and will co- ordinate the network of EU and western European countries. UFZ-Bad Lauchstadt in (former east) Germany will co-ordinate the network in CEES. VIUA-Moscow in Russia will co-ordinate the network in NIS. The geographical areas covered by each partner is shown in figure 1. Within their region, each partner is responsible for:
In addition to these regional responsibilities (for the EU and western Europe), Rothamsted is also responsible for:
The contract and technical deliverables, along with the times for completion of each task and the partner responsible for each, are shown below.
Contract deliverables:
Technical deliverables:
The development of the three regional networks will not be dependent upon the rate of development in other regions. After the initial project meeting to agree common questionnaires, data formats and quality control criteria, the development of each regional network will then be able to progress independently (but with a common structure). The final linked database (linking all regional databases) does, however, depend upon the successful completion of each regional network.
Although the success of this project does not rely upon the outcome of any other, it will contribute significantly to other EU-funded projects. EuroSOMNET will provide access to models and datasets that will be invaluable for two other EU- funded projects in particular. The ETEMA (European Terrestrial Ecosystem Modelling Activity) project (Contract: ENV4-CT95- 0052; Proposal: PL950995) co-ordinated by Prof. I. Colin Prentice of Lund University (Sweden) with input from PIK- Potsdam (Germany), ENS-Paris (France), Kings College London (UK), University of Sheffield (UK), ITE-NERC-Edinburgh (UK) and MTV-IRSA-EC (Italy) will benefit from access to data and models made available by EuroSOMNET. MAGEC (PL971038), also co- ordinated by this project's co-ordinator, Dr Pete Smith of Rothamsted (UK), with partners from PIK-Potsdam (Germany), and AB-DLO (The Netherlands) will also benefit from access to data and models made available by EuroSOMNET. There is no interdependence among these projects, but EuroSOMNET will provide a significant resource that will aid progress in the soils aspects of these projects.
EuroSOMNET will also provide added value to other ongoing EU- funded research into SOM, as well as providing a focus and a resource for this work. We will solicit contributions to EuroSOMNET from other SOM researchers in the EU (and other western European states), CEES and NIS.
Overall Co-ordinator (and co-ordination of EU and Western European regional network)
Rothamsted (other scientists involved in addition to co-ordinator)
UFZ-Bad Lauchstadt (co-ordination of CEES regional network)
VIUA-Moscow (co-ordination of NIS regional network)
