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Intensive Study Sites (ISS) are large scale ecosystem plots (a few thousands of hectares) where trees and selected associated species are mapped, genotyped and phenotyped. The sites comprise entire portions of landscapes (agricultural land and woodlands) where trees are present in different configurations (from single trees to edges and woods).
Five ISSs covering borel, temperate, mediterranean, alpine and riparian ecosystems, as well as one fully untouched ecosystem and one intensively managed site, have been selected in order to generate a data set on the impact of environmental changes on natural ecosystems distributed over Europe.
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For each ISS, one partner is responsible for the development, maintenance and update of a comprehensive database linked to a Geographic Information System.
Presentation about State of Progress at the Evoltree Annual Meeting 2007:
Intensive Study Sites: State of Progress
 Objectives
- Set up of an european network of sites for long term research on the evolution of biodiversity at different hierarchical levels (from genes to phenotypes, from populations to community)
- Assess the spatial structure of biodiversity at various scales and at different hierarchical levels
- Monitor the population dynamics through demographic and genetic approaches, in trees and their associated species, over different spatial scales
- Monitor the interaction between species (trees, other plants, vertebrates, insects and microorganism)
- Provide a large-scale support for training, education and dissemination acitivities
- ISS are large scale infrastructures, researchers are more used to local scale plots
- Each ISS combines intrinsic value and complementarity with other ISSs
- Each ISS effectively achieves integration among partners
- Each ISS is a long term infrastructure, beyond short term financial support
- ISS serve multiple scientific objectives
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