Development of LTSER platforms in LTER-Europe: Challenges and experiences in implementing place-based long-term socio-ecological research in selected regions

This chapter introduces place-based, Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) Platforms conceptually and in practice. LTER-Europe has put strong emphasis on utilising the data legacy and infrastructure of traditional LTER Sites for building LTSER Platforms. With their unique emphasis on socio-ecological research, LTSER Platforms add a new and important dimension to the four pillars of LTER-Europe’s science strategy (systems approach, process-oriented, long-term and site-based). In this chapter, we provide an overview of the regionalised or placebased LTSER concept, including experiences garnered from Platform models tested within LTER-Europe, and we discuss the current status of LTSER Platforms on the European continent. The experiences gathered in 6 years of practical work and development of regional socio-ecological profiles as conceptual frameworks in the Austrian Eisenwurzen LTSER Platform will be used to assess weaknesses and strengths of two implementation strategies (evolutionary vs. strategically managed) and to derive recommendations for the future. The chapter represents the close of the first substantive loop of LTSER research that began in 2003 from conceptualisation to implementation and, through the introspective analysis here, a reconsideration of the central concepts.