The SOERE-ACBB is a set of three platforms involving long-term (> 20 yrs) field experiments initiated in 2005-2009. Long-term studies are carried out on biogeochemical cycles and functional biodiversity (flora and fauna) in agroecosystems as affected by land use, management practices and climate change. The SOERE-ACBB covers three land use and climatic regions in France: temporary grassland, permanent grassland and arable land. The main hypothesis tested is that the evolution of the systems in response to anthropogenic disturbances and land use management is strongly linked to the dynamics of quantitative and qualitative composition of soil organic matter (SOM) and vegetation diversity. SOERE-ACBB is unique in enabling analysis of feedback loops between management practices, biogeochemical cycles and biodiversity by offering opportunities for simultaneous study of interactions between SOM dynamics, microbial communities and vegetation under various management practices of agroecosystems. The platforms are designed to characterize the trajectories of key variables of the systems throughout time as changes occur – elements such as carbon, phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen and the diversity of plants and organisms in the soil – over years or decades. The platform’s instrumentation continuously quantifies a broad range of physical, chemical and biological variables: climate forcing variables, physical conditions in soil, water fluxes and quality, carbon and nitrogen storage in soil, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), floral, faunal and microbial diversity. The ability to monitor quantitative and qualitative changes in SOM over time will allow scientists to relate the overall evolution to energy balance and resource elements. Although SOERE-ACBB is a national infrastructure, scientists from other countries are welcome and can benefit from the acquired experience and knowledge. SOERE-ACBB has been involved in many international projects such as the Global Research Alliance and the International soil warming experiment network and is still a partner in a number of ongoing projects such as ExpeER, AnimalChange, Ecofinders and Multisward.

AnaEE France has brought together in an integrated network a unique collection of experimental platforms in controlled, semi-natural or natural environments, analysis platforms and shared instruments as well as modeling platforms and Database Information Systems, all devoted to the biology of continental ecosystems. The infrastructure is built around three main service offerings that provide access to a range of experimental facilities: the Très Grande Infrastructure de Recherche des Écotrons - Écotrons Very Large Research Infrastructure, four experimental platforms in semi-natural environments, and some 20 natural sites in metropolitan France and French Guiana where long-term experiments are conducted in forests, pastures, lakes and crops. In the field of environmental microbiology, AnaEE France is also investing in the shared instruments and analytical resources required for a detailed characterization of the environment and microorganisms. In a single integrated network it provides all the tools required to study, understand and model biological systems and conduct innovative biological research on gene - environment interactions, biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems.

Research Infrastructure. Biology Green house Description : Infrastructure dedicated to living animals under controlled environment and vegetals cultures for teachings and Alpine garden Collections and researches. Users : Researchers ans PhD/trainees, Alpine Garden Staff.

This platform provide all the tools and skills required for answering fundamental or applied research questions in ecology, ecotoxicology, evolutionary biology, etc. It hosts multidisciplinary programs with applied issues concerning the evolutions of aquatic ecosystems under contrasted stressors: local stress (due to agricultural, industrial, urban activities) and/or global stress (due to climate change, but also to changes in land use or biological invasions). The PEARL facility consists in: - an experimental complex of two multipurpose halls (400 m² each), greenhouses (250 m²), an outdoor pond platform (500 m²) and about sixty aquatic mesocosms, located on the Rennes Agrocampus Ouest site. - A “pond” station of around 30 ponds (total surface of 5ha), in Le Rheu near Rennes.

RMI scan for Invertabrates and small Vertébrates (Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds)

The site of Montiers, localized at the boundaries between Meuse and Haute-Marne departments, North-East of France, has a large surface area (143 ha). It comprises two soil successions (toposequence) and the climate, stand conditions (age, species, forest management) are equivalent on all the surface of the site. The facility comprises three biogeochemical stations of 10 000 m2 each and one flux tower above forest canopy (45 m-high) settled along a soil succession representative of soils of the region. The three stations include four substations of which three are strongly equipped and one is free for future experimentations. Each equipped substation comprises lysimeters at different soil depths (litter, -10 cm, -30 cm, -60 cm and -90 cm; 3 replicates in general), tensio-lysimeters (-10 cm, -30 cm, -60 cm, -90 cm and -120 cm; 3 replicates in general) and temperature and moisture probes at different soil depths (-10 cm, -30 cm, -60 cm and -90 cm; 4 replicates), litterbags (6 replicates), stemflows (6 replicates), gutters (4 replicates). These stations allow to follow-up on the long term the flows of water, and major (Ca, Mg, K, Na, P, Fe, Mn, Si, Al, S, C, N) and trace (Cl, Se, B, I, Cs) elements between the different compartments (soil, tree, atmosphere) of a beech forest. Each station is settled on a different soil type, i.e., alocrisol, calci-brunisol, rendosol thus allowing to assess the impact of the soil type on biogeochemical cycles and on tree growth. The flux tower is equipped with a Eddy Covariance system (CO2, H2O, and sensible heat) and a complete set of sensors recording the aerial and edaphic meterological conditions, the phenology and the canopy status. The data from flux tower are available on demand. The forest mainly consists in a beech timber of about 50 years: dominant species and forestry in the region. The effect of the soil on the biogeochemical and biological functioning of this beech forest is dealt with a very integrated approach (ecophysiology, microbiology, soil science and biogeochemistry). In addition, the flux tower permits to measure, at various levels of the canopy and above, meteorological parameters (temperature, radiation, and precipitation), the gaseous exchanges and the particular deposits.

PLANAQUA is the National experimental platform in Aquatic Ecology . It consists of 3 levels of research platforms : Microcosms, from one to several litres of volume, can be used in the plankton-dedicated laboratory to set up continuous cultures experiments. They can also be used in the climatic chambers of the Ecotron IleDeFrance, a device that allows the precise conditioning of the environment and the detailed monitoring of states and activities of organisms and ecosystems. Microcosms allow studying plankton communities in marine or freshwater ecosystems under highly controlled environmental conditions such as temperature, irradiance, nutrients, and gas concentrations. A series of dedicated sensors enables monitoring of gas exchange (O2 and CO2) between the air and the water in the experimental system and to follow the related plankton metabolic activity. Mesocosms, with a volume of several cubic metres, have a high degree of replication. They are installed outdoors and equipped with devices for the experimental control of thermal gradients and water mixing. For example, twelve mesocosms are equipped with beaters that generate waves, making it possible to control the physical structure of the water column. These tools have been developed for studying the link between physical constraints and the functioning of aquatic systems. The large volume of these mesocosms (15 m3) makes it possible to house complex communities of organisms. Sixteen artificial lakes of 650 m3 have been conceived for incorporating the natural complexity of the environment and the spatially heterogeneous nature of ecological processes in natural ecosystems. These very large experimental systems, shaped with littoral, benthic and pelagic zones, will be inter-connected to each other by dispersal channels and equipped with automated sensors and data loggers. The artificial lakes will facilitate the studies on the functioning of complex communities with heterogeneous spatial distributions, and will allow understanding and managing the consequences of anthropogenic pressures on biodiversity, up to the species at the top of the food chains.

Rubberflux is a flux tower site aiming at providing a complete picture of CO2, water and energy budget of a rubber tree plantation using the eddy-covariance (EC) method combined with ground-based measurements of carbon/water stocks and flux among the different components of the ecosystem. This approach allows quantifying flux (NEE an ETR), partitioning them among tree organs, soil, understorey vegetation (etc.…), and eventually understanding the interactions with climate and the availability of soil resources (water, nutrients). This is a common approach to 3 other flux tower sites on tropical tree plantations managed by CIRAD’s researchers within the umbrella of the SOERE F-ORE-T network. The Rubberflux site is located in Thailand, about 140km east of Bangkok. It was set-up in 2006 in a 12 years rubber plantation of the Chachoengsao Rubber Research Centre (CRRC), a research facility of the Rubber Research Institute of Thailand (RRIT). The collaboration with CRRC staff has also permitted to implement studies on a chronosequence of rubber plantations. A CIRAD’s researcher has been permanently based in Thailand since then to ensure the functioning of the site in collaboration with the staff of CRRC and a research team from Kasetsart University (KU). The research works conducted on the Rubberflux site have been funded by CIRAD and KU with substantial contribution of the Thai Research Fund (TRF), the SOERE FORET and the French Embassy in Thailand.

The SOERE PRO is a network of long-term field experiments dedicated to the quantification of all effects of organic residue (OR) application in agriculture. It has been created in 2011 to evaluate benefits and risks associated to organic residue recycling in agriculture. The SOERE PRO provides data (1) to better evaluate the effects of regular OR application on organic matter dynamic and potential C storage in soils, biogeochemical cycles of nutrients (C, N, P), fate of potentially present chemical and biological contaminants, soil biological activities; (2) simulate the long-term consequences of regular application and integrate them in environmental analysis that will allow to (3) test various alternative scenarios of application. The experimental sites allow measuring the long-term evolution of the agro-system after repeated applications of organic residues derived from urban and agricultural activities (sludge, composts, manures) and undergoing various treatments (none, composting, anaerobic digestion). The SOERE PRO network involved different research institutes and collaborations with concerned professional partners. The SOERE PRO sites are managed to provide field experiments to support research programs (ex. FP7 GENESIS, ADEME Bioindicateurs, ANR Isard, ANR CESA CEMABS, SNOWMAN, PhD works). 3 on-going sites of the SOERE PRO network are involved in ANAEE-France: QualiAgro located in the Paris basin comparing urban composts and manure (started in 1998), EFELE located in Brittany comparing different manures and different treatment processes (started in 2012), Colmar located in north east of France comparing composted and non-composted residues (started in 2000). In addition to those 3 sites involved directly in ANAEE-France, the SOERE PRO network includes also 4 other sites covering larger agro-pedo-climatic contexts with: 1 site located in tropical conditions in La Réunion Island comparing urban OR and farm effluents (started in 2014), 2 historical sites OR where OR spreading has stopped but allowing to study system resiliency and including high contamination levels (La Bouzule and Couhins), 1 site located in Burkina Faso devoted to the study of the OR input mode of various composts and conducted under tropical conditions. The same analyses and measurements are managed on the 3 sites involved in ANAEE-France. The same instrumentations are installed to monitor the hydrodynamic functioning of soil: TDR probes, tensiometers, temperature sensors, lysimeters. Climatic data are monitored on all sites. Greenhouse gas emissions (N2O, CO2) will be continuously measured by gas measurement chambers. The applied organic residues, soils, crops and waters (rains and leached waters) are sampled and analysed similarly (parameters, analytical methods, laboratories). Data management is centralized at the SOERE PRO level with the development of web interfaces (data integration and extraction) and data bases for field experiment data, analytical data of organic wastes applied in France and for traceability information concerning SOERE PRO samples. The information system is developed by the INRA EcoInformatique team devoted to develop and manage the information systems of the INRA long-term observatories (INRA Orléans). Samples of OR, soil and crops are long-term stored under harmonized conditions to allow future analyses and/or future investigations by scientists.

An experimental research infrastructure dedicated to the study of ecosystems, organisms and biodiversity in the context of environmental changes. The Ecotron is a laboratory of the Institute of Ecology and Environment (CNRS) open to national and international scientists’ consortia in the fields of ecology, population and community biology and agronomy. The Ecotron allows a precise conditioning of the environment and on line measurements of states and activities (fluxes) of organisms and ecosystems at various scales. This facility bridges the gap between the complexity of in natura studies and the simplicity of laboratory experiments. The research topics to be addressed in the Ecotron include fundamental questions about biogeochemical cycles and the role of biodiversity in ecosystem processes, but tests of ecological theories as well as the applied aspects of optimizing ecosystem services are also desirable projects. http://www.ecotron.cnrs.fr/index.php/en/