Long-term ecological research for sustainable environmental information

Abstract

The management of environmental resources requires long-term data sets concerning different scientific branches and information technologies for different time horizons and spatial scales. Environmental impacts have been caused environmental changes with certain rates of change. Therefore, data collected over long periods have become high importance for environmental analysis, for predictions of environmental changes, and decision making processes for environmental management. Long-term ecological research is designed to capture the interrelationships between ongoing ecosystem developments and environmental changes. Meta-models integrate former experiences and theoretical knowledge about a system with actual information gained by natural processes, man-induced activities, and by political decisions. Because of the great variety and complexity of processes considered for environmental management and their natural or anthropogenic origins different data sets have to be combined. In the paper, some ideas are presented how to combine principles of long-term environmental research and information with short-term environmental decision making.