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 RI focused on global change research in the atmosphere and the most important ecosystems in the Central Europe, such as forests, agroecosystems, meadows and pastures or wetlands. CzeCOS provides to a wide range of users unique RI, 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 study greenhouse gas and energy flows in terrestrial ecosystems, including assessing the effects of changing environmental conditions. The atmospheric station allows for the 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 a higher spatial scale. Linking these elements 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 national and regional levels, as well as for companies whose business is affected by global 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 climate change. CzeCOS is the Czech national node to ICOS ERIC (Integrated Carbon Observation System), AnaEE-ERIC (Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems), DANUBIUS-RI (International Centre for Advanced Studies on River-Sea Systems), eLTER RI (Long-Term Research on Ecosystems, Critical Zones and Socio-Ecological Systems) and EUFAR (European Facility for Airborne Research).
