TERENO Eifel-Rur Observatory. TERENO (TERrestrial ENvironmental Observatories) spans an Earth observation network across Germany that extends from the North German lowlands to the Bavarian Alps. This unique large-scale project aims to catalogue the longterm ecological, social and economic impact of global change at regional level.
The central monitoring site of the TERENO Eifel/Lower Rhine Valley Observatory is the catchment area of the River Rur. It covers a total area of 2354 km² and exhibits a distinct land use gradient: The lowland region in the northern part is characterised by urbanisation and intensive agriculture whereas the low mountain range in the southern part is sparsely populated and includes several drinking water reservoirs. Furthermore, the Eifel National Park is situated in the southern part of the Rur catchment serving as a reference site. Intensive test sites are placed along a transect across the Rur catchments in representative land cover, soil, and geologic settings.
The Rollesbroich site is located in the low mountain range “Eifel” near the German-Belgium border and covers the area of the small Kieselbach catchment (40 ha) with altitudes ranging from 474 to 518 m.a.s.l.. The climate is temperate maritime with a mean annual air temperature and precipitation of 7.7 °C and 1033 mm, respectively, for the period from 1981 to 2001. Soils are dominated by (stagnic) Cambisols and Stagnosols on Devonian shales with occasional sandstone inclusions that are covered by a periglacial solifluction clay–silt layer. The mountainous grassland vegetation is dominated by perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and smooth meadow grass (Poa pratensis).
The study site is highly instrumented. All components of the water balance (e.g. precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff, soil water content) are continuously monitored using state-of-the-art instrumentation, including weighable lysimeters, runoff gauges, cosmic-ray soil moisture sensors, a wireless sensor network that monitors soil temperature, and soil moisture at 189 locations in different depths (5, 20 and 50 cm) throughout the study site. Periodically also different chamber measurements were made to access soil or plant gas exchange.
This data set contains weekly updated flux-, meteorological and soil measurements of the permanent operating EC/Climate station Rollesbroich 1 (50.621°N, 6.304°E,515 m a.s.l.), which was installed in spring 2011 at the border of two fields of grassland (5.8 and 7.8 ha) within the study site. Management of both fields is typical for the low mountain range of the Eifel region with one fertilizer application and three cuts per year. The area within the fetch of the eddy covariance tower is relatively flat with slopes ranging between 0.35° and 3.12°. The station is equipped with a CSAT3 sonic anemometer and LI7500 gas analyser. Besides flux measurements and typical climate parameters (radiation, air temperature, air humidity, soil moisture, soil temperature etc.) also the plant height and farming activities are recorded.
Meteorological and soil data was at least controlled by visual inspection by using common plausibility ranges and cross checks with nearby stations. Afterwards the data was flagged according to it's quality (O.K., suspect, moderate, bad etc.). Flux data was processed and checked according to the TERENO QC scheme (Mauder, M., Cuntz, M., Drüe, C., Graf, A., Rebmann, C., Schmid, HP., Schmidt, M., Steinbrecher, R., 2012. A strategy for quality and uncertainty assessment of long-term eddy-covariance measurements. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 169, 122-135, 2013).
This data collection compiles the climate stations of the DEMMIN test site operated by the National Ground Segment Neustrelitz (Remote Sensing Data Center, German Aerospace Center DLR) in cooperation with GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). The site was originally installed by the DLR in 2000 and has become part of the TERENO Northeastern German Lowland Observatory in 2011. This data collection only comprises the DLR climate stations. Climate and soil moisture stations operated by GFZ are published as separate data compilations (Itzerott et al., 2018, 2018).The DEMMIN test site is located within the central monitoring sites of the TERENO Northeastern German Lowland Observatory. It covers 900 km² and exhibits mostly glacial formed lowlands with terminal moraines in the southern part, containing the highest elevation of 83m a.s.l. The region between the rivers Tollense and Peene consists of flat ground moraines, whereas undulating ground moraines determine the landscape character north of the river Peene. The lowest elevation is located near the town Loitz with 0.5m a.s.l. The region is characterized by intense agricultural use and the three rivers Tollense and Trebel which confluence into the Peene River at the Hanseatic city Demmin. The present climate is characterized by a long-term (1981–2010) mean temperature of 8.7 °C and mean precipitation of 584 mm/year, measured at the Teterow weather station by Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD). The Northeastern German Lowland Observatory is situated in a region shaped by recurring glacial and periglacial processes since at least half a million years. Within this period, three major glaciations covered the entire region, the last time this happened approximately 25-15 k ago (Weichselian glaciation). Since that time, a young morainic landscape developed characterized by many lakes and river systems that are connected to the shallow ground water table.The test site is instrumented with more than 40 environmental measurement stations (DLR, GFZ) and 63 soil moisture stations (GFZ). A lysimeter-hexagon (DLR, FZJ) was installed near to the village Rustow and is part of the SOILCan project. A crane completes the measurement infrastructure currently available in the test site installed by GFZ/ DLR in 2011.Data is automatically collected via a telemetry network by DLR. The quality control of all environmental data is carried out by DLR using visual inspection and automatic quality processing is performed by GFZ since 2012. The delivered dataset contains the measured data and quality flags indicating the validity of each measured value and detected reasons for exclusion. The dataset is also available through the TERENO Data Discovery Portal. The dataset will be dynamically extended as more data is acquired at the stations. New data will be added after a delay of several months to allow manual interference with the quality control process.The TERENO (TERrestrial ENvironmental Observatories) is an initiative of the Helmholtz Centers (Forschungszentrum Jülich – FZJ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology – KIT, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Center for Environmental Health – HMGU, German Research Centre for Geosciences - GFZ, and German Aerospace Center – DLR) (http://www.tereno.net/overview-de)..TERENO spans an Earth observation network across Germany that extends from the North German lowlands to the Bavarian Alps. This unique large-scale project aims to catalogue the longterm ecological, social and economic impact of global change at regional level.