LTER Fulophaza Site, KISKUN LTER - Hungary

LTER Fulophaza is a high diversity site, both in terms of habitats and species, in the Kiskunság Sand Ridge. It harbors some of the central facilities of the KISKUN LTER, such as the meteorological station and the field research station with accommodation opportunities, as well as highly equipped experimental sites, and a couple of long term monitoring sites and field experiments. One of the most important research infrastructures at this site is the Extreme Drought and Chronic Rain Manipulation Experiment (ExDRain). This ongoing study (2014-) is aimed at understanding how future extreme droughts and chronic changes in precipitation will alter the structure and function of open sand grasslands, such as plant diversity, net primary productivity, fine-scale plant species assembly, litter decomposition, soil arthropod diversity, nematode diversity, fungal diversity, plant root biomass and activity, organic carbon storage, and soil respiration.