The Inselberg camp was established in 1986. It owes its name to the 411-m asl granite hill overtopping it. This site is ca 8 km North of the Arataye river. The camp itself is an ensemble of traditional ’carbets’, including one for the laboratory and one for the kitchen. The maximum housing capacity is 20 people.

The Pararé camp was created in 1995. It is located along the Arataye river, just downstream from a rapid (’saut’) that is difficult to pass by boat. The camp itself is an ensemble of traditional ’carbets’, including one for the laboratory and one for the kitchen. The maximum housing capacity is 18 people.

The COPAS project (Canopy Operating Permanent Acces System) is a canopy-access system of a novel type. Three 45-m poles have been set up spaced about 180 m from each other in a triangular shape. They are linked through cables above the canopy. A one-person seat is hung to the system and motors permit the passenger to travel in three dimensions of space. The three towers represent a total footprint of ca. 1.5 ha. (Forecast date of operation : 2014)

The Nouragues Ecological Research Station is a scientific station managed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. It is located at the heart of a tropical rain forest, in the Nouragues Natural Reserve, French Guiana. It is a privileged equipment for the study of the functioning of tropical forests and their biodiversity. The Nouragues station is organized around two permanent camps (Inselberg camp and Pararé camp), 8 km away from each other. These two sites are equipped to welcome scientists from a few days to several months.

The project Bridging Information on Tree Diversity in French Guiana, and a Test of Ecological Theories (BRIDGE) brings together researchers from nine different European research groups in tropical ecology, and seeks to improve our knowledge on the various dimensions of tree biological diversity in French Guiana. The project includes ten one-hectare old-growth forest tree plots across a range of geology and rainfall in French Guiana. The amount of niche conservatism across an ecologically relevant set of functional, reproductive, and defense traits have been measured in the field.

The site comprises three distincts experimental set-ups: (1) a long-term (>10 years) partial throughfall exclusion experiment replicated three times and crossed with a thinning (-30% basal area) experiment aimed at simulating long-term precipitation decrease in accordance with climate change scenario for the Mediterranean area (-30% of precipitation), (2) a total rainfall exclusion experiment using a mobile roof has been set up to simulate extreme drought events and modify precipitation seasonality, and (3) an eddy-covariance flux tower running continuously since 2001 to measure seasonal variations in ecosystem functioning and year-to-year flux responses to drought and climate.

Each site has three common treatments: a control (C), a compacted treatment (T), a compacted and decompacted treatment (D), and more specific ones, locally decompacted soil (P) at Azerailles 54, and, limed (A) and limed and compacted (CA) at Clermont en Argonne 55. Each treatment plot of 0.25ha is replicated three times (3 blocks). Azerailles site was installed in spring 2007 and Clermont in spring 2008. Since that time monitoring occured for: -mesoclimate: rainfall, air temperature, relative humidity, bulk deposition (continuous recording) - soil climate: soil moisture (TDR Trase system (5 replicates at 15 and 60 cm depth) in one replicate of C and T (recorded each four hours) - water table: 2 piezometers in each replicate of treatments (Divers hourly recorded); monthly sampling using specific devices for Redox problems - weakly fixed soil water: cup lysimeters inserted at 15 and 60 cm depth (4 replicates in one block for C and T treatments) + teatments A and CA at Clermont en Argonne. Automate for constant vacuum at 700hP. Monthly collection for chemical analysis - soil gas: specific captors installed at 5, 10, 20, 35, 50 and 70 cm depth in each C and T treatments of the 3 blocks in the 2 sites. Monthly collection for chemical analysis (N, CO2, CH4, N2O, O2) -soil solid phase: soil morphology, soils physics, chemistry and biology (pro parte) were initialy described. Soil physical parameters (strengh, bulk density, hydraulic conductivity, swelling/shrinkage, porosity...), chemistry (C, N, exchangeable cations, P) and biology (earthworms) are perediodicaly investigated (each year for physics; 2/3 years for chemistry and biology). vegetation: both understorey and oak plantation were annually observed soil biology: earthworms are periodically observed

The Barbeau research facility is located in a 33-ha forest located nearby the Fontainebleau forest. Barbeau is a mature sessile Oak stand with a Hornbeam understory. Since 2005, a monitoring facility has continuously been measuring : - the exchanges of carbon and water vapour between the forest ecosystem and the atmosphere (through the eddy covariance (EC) methodology, installed at the top of a 35-m “flux” tower, and through organ-scale photosynthesis and respiration set-ups; 30-min time step) - the atmosphere and forest microclimates (above and within the canopy, including incoming, absorbed and reflected radiations in several spectral bands, temperatures, humidity; 30-min time step) - key variables for understanding forest functioning (e.g. tree diameter / biomass growth and soil water content on a hourly to weekly basis, tree organs nutrient contents on a seasonal basis, leaf area index on an annual basis etc.) The instruments are co-located in a 2500-m² fenced area. However, the monitored “footprints” of sole instruments ranges from a few cm3soil (e.g. measurements of soil temperature) up to hectares (e.g. integrated measurements of co2 and h2o exchanges with the EC method). Beside this ensemble of continuously monitored variables, spatial surveys of the stand characteristics (e.g. tree growth, soil properties and C/N contents, soil respiration, leaf area) and large-scale experiments (e.g. 13C-enriched CO2 labelling) are regularly conducted in Barbeau.

The ambition of the XYLOSYLVE platform is twofold, to constitute a visible forest research facility for setting up innovative forestry practices and to build a scientific infrastructure of national and international interest for terrestrial ecology. XYLOSYLVE is an ensemble of three long-term complementary field experiments and laboratory facilities associated with. Each experiment is spatially distinct from the other but all are co-located in the INRA Hermitage area close from Bordeaux city. The experiments are designed to testing forest management alternatives dedicated to biomass and wood production in Atlantic conditions as follows: 1) Three large plots (8ha) are manipulated according to three management alternatives (Pine-Eucalypt mixture, pure enhanced Pine variety and environment-friendly Pine standard) and equipped with automated instrumentations for monitoring biogeochemistry in the different compartments of ecosystems (soil, soil solution, vegetation, atmosphere). The equipment and protocols implemented are installed in collaboration with the ICOS project according to common quality assurance standards (ICOS site Class 3). These 3 plots are not replicated here. 2) A fully randomised 4-blocks experiment includes the same three treatments than above and 5 additional treatments including various levels of species mixture, fertilisation, soil preparation and legumes introduction. The 32 plots are further split according to no till - deep tillage to a total of 64 subplots each covering 0.12 ha to a total of approximately 40ha. 3) The third experiment includes 2 levels of fertilisation (control - full annual NPK inputs), 2 levels of irrigation (control (rainfall) - daily irrigation at PET) and 2 species (local Pine species - Eucalypt hybrid) replicated in four blocks and covering an area of 8 ha (plot unit ~0.25ha). XYlosylve serve as a long term research and experimental site for temperate planted forest systems in close connection with a regional network of forest experimental sites where feasibility of new forest management alternatives is evaluated. The interest of XYLOSYLVE is double: - Allow the long term monitoring of the functioning of biophysics and biogeochemistry of new forest ecosystems with high production potential. Offer to the scientific community and to the forest-based industry a common platform to gather scientific data and wood samples and test ecosystems to better understand their dynamics and their environmental impacts; - Assess durability and environmental performance of various management options for dendro-biomass production systems (symbiotic nitrogen fixation, phosphorus uptake, long term fertility, water and energy use efficiency, evaluation of vulnerability to biotic risks /insects, pathogens/ and abiotic risks/wind, drought/ …).

Aims and Philosophy of the CoffeeFlux Collaborative Platform The aim of Coffee-Flux is to assess carbon, nutrients, water and sediment Ecosystem Services (ES) at the scale of a coffee agroforestry watershed and additional experiments. Observation, experimentation, modelling and remote-sensing are combined, collecting data and calibrating models locally, then upscaling to larger regions. The project has been running continuously since 2009, in order to encompass seasonal and inter-annual fluctuations of coffee productivity and ecosystem services. Coffee-flux is a platform where collaborative research on coffee agroforestry is promoted: data are being shared between collaborators and positive interactions are enhanced. The philosophy is to concentrate several investigations on one specific site and for several years, to share a useful common experimental database, to develop modelling and to publish results in highly-ranked scientific journals. Applied research is also highly encouraged (e.g. C-Neutral certification, NAMA, Agronomy, etc.). Coffee-Flux benefits from infrastructure, easy access from CATIE and very good security, ready to welcome complementary scientific investigations and collaborations. The project is wide open to complementary projects, scientists and of course to students. The core data base is for sharing.