Together with the Ecotron de Montpellier, the Ecotron IleDeFrance is part of the distributed “Infrastructure de Recherche” (IR) managed and supported by CNRS and Ecole normale supérieure since 2010. Ecotrons enable highly controlled manipulation and measurement of terrestrial and aquatic organisms, communities and ecosystems with unprecedented power and quality. On a technological side, an Ecotron is defined as a device allowing the precise conditioning of the environment and the detailed monitoring of states and activities of organisms and ecosystems. Ecotrons allow studying a range of small to medium sized biological systems from relatively complex ecosystems (e.g., intact samples of grasslands) to model plant and animal species up to reconstructed ecosystems (e.g., artificial life support models). Ecotrons can thus be used to confine ecosystems from in natura sites and therefore conduct detailed, controlled experiments on natural ecosystems. The Ecotron IleDeFrance is based on technologies implemented in the Ecolab equipment and developed primarily in collaboration with the French private company Cesbron. The Ecolab is a modular structure coupling together three environmental chambers and one laboratory room. Each environmental chamber can be independently controlled accurately for realistic climate and atmospheric conditions (temperature, humidity, CO2 and O2 content, lighting) with unprecedented power and accuracy. A stainless steel lysimeter with temperature-control on three independent levels makes it possible to incubate both terrestrial and aquatic systems and simulate thermal gradients. Artificial light can be provided with several technologies to adapt to the needs and constraints of each project. The Ecotron IleDeFrance combines several Ecolabs into a network making it possible to run powerful, replicated experiments.

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/

The site of EFELE (Effluents d’Elevage et Environnement) is part of the french network labeled as SOERE PRO. The objectives of EFELE are the same as QualiAgro and Colmar sites : the aim of the project is to characterize the long term effects of organic products applications on soil properties and to quantify their effects on water and air quality. The experimental site was initiated in 2012 and is located in Brittany, at Le Rheu. The soil is a loamy soil (neoluvisol à luvisol/redoxisol). The field is managed with a maize/ wheat crop rotation, and white mustard is sown after the wheat to cover the soil during the intercropping period. Two trials are studied at EFELE site : - A first trial named « PROs » is structured as a complete randomized block design with 4 replicates. The effects of 5 typical animal wastes are compared to control treatments : i) cattle farmyard manure and composted pig manure are applied every 2 years before maize sowing, and ii) layers manure, pig slurry and a digestate obtained after pig slurry digestion are applied in spring, on wheat vegetation at early spring or just before maize sowing. The rates of application range from 50 t ha-1 for cattle manure, 25 t ha-1 for composted pig manure, 20-25 t ha-1 for the slurry and the digestate and 3 t ha-1 for layers manure, - A second trial named « TS/MO » is structured as a band trial with 3 replicates. The objectives of this trial are to study the effects of cattle farmyard manure on soil properties under conventional tillage and reduced tillage. The meteorological data are monitored on the site, and 7 experimental plots are equipped with TDR probes (TRASE system), tensiometers (UMS T4e) and temperature probes placed at the depth of 13, 40, 60, 80 and 110 cm. Data are collected at a hourly time step. 10 plots are also equipped with wick lysimeters (0.25 x 0.50 m) placed at the depth of 40 and 90 cm. The monitoring of N2O and CO2 emission is done by a set of 6 automatics chambers. The soil surface layer (0-25 cm) is sampled every year before the animal wastes application, to characterize the evolution of the physical, biological and chemical properties. Soil, plant and animal wastes samples are kept in collection.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The site of Colmar is part of the French national network SOERE PRO (System of Observation and Experimentation for Environmental Research on Organic Residue Recycling). The objectives of the site of Colmar are to characterize the agronomic value of organic residues and their environmental impacts, in a long-term field experiment. It has been initiated in 2001 (INRA / SMRA68 / ADEME / Agence de l’Eau Rhin-Meuse partnership). The experimental site is located in Colmar (Alsace, France) with a continental climate. The soil is a calcisoil (surface layer: 24% clay, 69% silt, 7% sand / 2.4 % organic matter / pH 8.3). The trial is composed of 60 plots of 90 m² (10 m x 9 m) on 2.2 hectares with 4 replicate blocks of 6 organic treatments randomly distributed within each block: Urban sewage sludge, Composted sewage sludge, Biowaste compost, Farmyard manure, Composted Farmyard manure, Control without organic amendment. The organic amendments are spread every 2 years on the same nitrogen rate of 170 kg/ha. The different treatments received 2 levels of additional mineral fertilizer: without or optimum mineral fertilization. The crops rotation is corn maize / winter wheat / sugar beet / malting barley. Site and plots are equipped for continuous monitoring of meteorological data, soil humidity, water tension and temperature. One plot of each treatment is equipped with wick lysimeters to a depth of 0.45 m. Since 2009, six large lysimeters (4m² and 1m deep, bare soil) complete the field experiment, with 2 replicates of 3 organic treatments: Urban sewage sludge, Composted sewage sludge and Control without organic amendment. They are also equipped to measure the hydrodynamic balance: soil humidity, water tension, temperature, volume of leachate. A Large set of variables mainly including nutrients and pollutants (trace elements, PAH, PCB), are monitored on different compartments of the agro-system: organic amendments physico-chemical and biochemical characteristics, soils analytical characteristics per layer, crop yields, plants quality, rainwater chemical composition, leachate, microbial biomass and activities. Data will be stored in a common database specifically developed for the SOERE PRO network and connected with other SOERE. Soils, organic amendments and plants samples are kept in collection and available for further measurements.

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.

Long term study of mixed forest of Pinus halepensis and Quercus ilex 55. Currently focused on carbon and water cycles, with routine measurements at the soil, plant, and ecosystem levels. Ecosystem manipulation consists in rainfall reduction and irrigation. Site is composed of : - a main enclosed area of 80x80 m ; - a 16 m tower supporting weather and eddy covariance measurements (ICOS level 2) - four 25x25 m plots (two inside and two outside the enclosed area) for 30% rainfall exclusion (with gutters), irrigation, control, and control with reversed gutters. In all plots, measurements are carried out for soil moisture, sap flow, stem diameter growth, leaf area index, litterfall, leaf water potential, and soil respiration.