Name: CzeCOS
Institution: Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Coordinator: prof. RNDr. Ing. Michal V. Marek, DrSc., dr. h. c., marek.mv@czechglobe.cz
Website
CzeCOS is a distributed environmental research infrastructure focused on global change research in the atmosphere and the most important ecosystems in the Central Europe such as forests, agroecosystems, meadows and pastures, wetlands, etc. CzeCOS provides to a wide range of users unique research infrastructure such as growth chambers, open-top chambers, experimental stations and bioreactors for conducting impact studies of the effects of global changes on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. CzeCOS ecosystems research sites are used to measure greenhouse gas emissions and to research greenhouse gas and energy flows in terrestrial ecosystems, including assessing the effects of changing environmental conditions. The atmospheric station allows for research of atmospheric matter fluxes and long-range transport gases and air pollutants. An indispensable part of CzeCOS is also its metabolomics and isotopic laboratory, which analyses the metabolic responses and metabolic processes of acclimation or adaptation of different parts of ecosystems to the effects of global change. For Earth Remote Sensing, a flying laboratory using laser scanning (Lidar) and hyperspectral and thermal sensors can be used to assess the spatial variability of the effects of global change on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and to investigate the carbon cycle and other biogeochemical cycles on the higher spatial scale. Linking these elements of the research infrastructure together with the high potential for interpreting research outputs from different
spatial and time series is attractive to research partners and is vitally important for decision-makers at both the national and regional levels, as well as for companies whose business is affected by climate change (e.g. energy, forestry, agriculture, etc.). CzeCOS also assists in fulfilling the international commitments of the Czech Republic in the areas of research, adaptation and mitigation of the impacts of global change. CzeCOS is an integral part of the ICOS ERIC (Integrated Carbon Observation System), AnaEE (Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems), DANUBIUS-RI (International Centre for Advanced Studies on River-Sea Systems), and EUFAR (European Facility for Airborne Research) European research infrastructures.
