The Italian Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER-Italy) was officially admitted to the International LTER Network (ILTER), during the general meeting held in Namibia in 2006. At present, LTER-Italy consists of an integrated group of 20 sites developing long term ecological research, a Secretary's Office, a group of sites managers and a Coordinating Committee. 9 research stations are CON.ECO.FOR. permanent plots under National Forest Service coordination, with many other sites and research stations in terrestrial, transitional, marine and freshwater ecosystems. CON.ECO.FOR.

Nitrate (NO₃^-) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration in stream water after clear-cutting of trees and subsequent strip-cutting of understory vegetation, dwarf bamboo (Sasa spp.) were investigated to understand the effect of these disturbances on biogeochemical processes in forested watershed in Teshio Experimental Forest, one of the JaLTER site, in northern Japan. Trees of 8 ha watershed except riparian zone were clear-cut in January?March of 2003.

Cross-ecosystem energy flows link streams and riparian forests. Forest harvesting alters the composition of riparian tree species, which can affect the structure and functioning of stream ecosystems through changes in terrestrial resource subsidies. We examined how variation in riparian forest composition (coniferous, mixed, deciduous) affects stream invertebrate and microbial consumers and subsequent leaf litter breakdown rates of red alder (Alnus rubra) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) in small coastal rainforest streams of southwestern British Columbia.

Land use change is one of the most important factors contributing to CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere, but also to the loss of biodiversity and alteration of hydrologic cycle in different biomes. In Central-Northern Mexico, the shortgrass steppe is highly threatened by different types of land use change including, overgrazing, agricultural development, and shrub encroachment. Recent assessments along the shortgrass steppe reported between 15 to 110 MT C ha^-1 y^-1, which summing the large extent of semiarid grasslands (~ 100,000 Km²).

As an attempt to assess and monitor long term ecological processes among several biological areas of the country The Venezuelan Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network (EcoRed Venezuela) was established in September 1997 with government support, through the National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICIT), the encouragement of the US LTER Network, and the cooperation of scientific institutions throughout the country.

In the last fifty years, according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), driven by rapid social and economic changes, world population dramatically affected long-term stability of natural ecosystems and its capacity to provide vital services such as food, water and climate regulation.

A field training school has been organized in Nantes (France) in August 2008 about urban water hydrology. Twenty researchers (seniors and graduate students) attended this summer school intended to learn more about the quantification of pollution fluxes in urban water systems. The aim is now to extend this first experience and to organize an international field training school during the summer 2010.

Optical methods such as turbidimetry, UV-visible spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy are alternative methods for water quality characterization. They are reagent free and can be used in-situ or off-line. These methods have been used to assess and compare the quality of various streams in the Moselle watershed. Moselle (550 km) is a major tributary of the Rhine river and is flowing through three Western European countries (France, Luxembourg and Germany).

The field training program, GCOE-INeT International summer school on “Frontier in Ecosystem Ecology of Northern Forest” was held June 14-20, 2009 in Hokkaido University’s experimental forests that are included within the JaLTER (Japan Long-Term Ecological Research Network). Nineteen Ph.D. students from eight countries (Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines and UK) attended in this program.

    The goals of the EAP-ILTER information management are: 1. to create a data legacy for current and future uses; and 2. to provide policy makers with science-based environmental information. Metadata is one of the keys to achieve the goals. A framework of an ecological information management prototype based on EML is proposed, tested, and evaluated over the last five years in EAP-ILTER.