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| Field Site Network (FSN) - Research |
Each research team within the consortium will propose specific research protocols for that year, with precise descriptions of the
methods to be employed, any training that might be necessary, constraints on the timing of the work, and the approximate time
demands on the field staff. The field research coordinators of each research stream will then meet together to prioritise the research
and reconcile conflicting demands on time and resources to bring these into a single, practicable research agenda for each field team.
In 2006 the following projects were carried out:
The projects of the 2007 field season will be available soon.
2006-01 Survey of expansion and impact of invasive seed insects: rose hip seed predators
This survey aims at assessing the present distribution range of invasive seed chalcid wasps, their relationships with the native
species and their impact on the potential of natural regeneration of the host plants. We will sample rose hips and identify the seed
predators using X-ray.
2006-02 Epigeic terrestrial invertebrates as indicators of environmental change on a European scale
Ground-dwelling terrestrial arthropods represent an important part of animal biodiversity, both at the landscape and European scale,
and contribute to several ecosystem functions such as decomposition and pest control. This study uses pitfall traps to assess the
relation between land used and species diversity of predatory taxa such as spiders, ground beetles and rove beetles.
2006-03 A large-scale transplanting experiment using the ALARM Field Site Network
With this field experiment we aim at testing species' specific ecological limits in the field, by implementing a field-based
experimental approach in the FSN. We gather ground truth experimental data on germination and growth of several tree species which can
be integrated and combined with results from modeling and field monitoring studies.
2006-04 Pollinator abundance in relation to land use intensity and habitat type.
This experiment uses colored pan traps to sample pollinators and to test whether the abundance of pollinators is influenced by land use
intensity and habitat type.
2006-05 Pollination services and seed set in Raphanus sativus.
This experiment aims to test whether pollination services and seed set in Raphanus sativus(wild radish) are affected by
differences in land use intensity, different habitat types, and climatic differences across the European gradient.
2006-06 Recruitment of exotic trees in Europe's changing climate
In this survey we assess the potential effects of climate change on the establishment of exotic tree species within the European flora.
The aim is to gather simple information, such as the presence or absence of flowers, seedlings and saplings. This data will be used to
analyse the distribution of tree regeneration success in both exotic and native species.
2006-07 Linking macroclimate to microclimate: a first step using ibuttons.
Temperature data are generally available at coarse scale resolution, averaging out across landscapes. Temperature is, however, relevant
to many organisms at a much finer resolution. One way of creating ecologically meaningful climate data is to assess the deviations from
average temperature generated by different terrain features. The proposed project aims at setting the first step in this direction and
will simultaneously create a continuous dataset of temperature across all FSN CORE sites.
2006-08 Landscape structure analysis
Since land use differences are the main focus of the ALARM FSN work we need a sound way of defining landscape structure qualitatively
and quantitatively. In this pilot survey we use the BIOHAB protocol, which is likely to become one of the standard methods for landscape
surveillance and monitoring and has the advantage of being compatible to many other systems while still being sufficiently detailed for
our purposes.
2006-09 Survey for socio-economic activities in FSN sites
The questionnaire will be used to gather socio-economic information to characterize those sites for which data storage in the
Deliberation Matrix has been agreed. In addition, the data will be used to develop comparative analysis both between the natural and the
disturbed site and among sites of the FSN.
2006-10 survey of expansion and impact of invasive seed insects: horse chestnut leaf miners
In most cases, invasive species are already known from other parts of the world. However, sometimes the pest is new to science. A good
example is the horse-chestnut leafminer, Cameraria ohridella. This moth was first found in Macedonia in the early 1980's, but now
occurs from England to Ukraine and from Sweden to the Mediterranean. We will use the FSN sites to assess the status of the leaf miner at
a European scale.
2006-11 Social wasp communities in European woodlands
A simple beer trap placed in woodland in the FSN sites will allow us to assess the diversity of social wasps in European forests.
2006-12 Butterfly diversity in European landscapes
Line-transect counts have proven to be an easy and effective way to monitor diversity and abundance of butterflies. Monitoring schemes
using this method are currently being used in several European countries and will now be used across FSN sites.
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