Montpellier Ecotron - France

The Montpellier Ecotron is devoted to the analysis of the ecosystems, organisms and biodiversity responses to environmental changes. It is open to the international community through calls for proposals. Its principle is to confine samples of ecosystems or organisms in order to better simulate various environmental conditions and to accurately measure ecosystems or organisms functioning. Three platforms allow studies at different scales (ecosystem to organism) on different types of ecosystems (‘natural’ or cultivated, sampled in situ or reconstructed). The Ecotron has the flexibility to simulate a large array of climate (negative frost possible) and atmospheric chemistry (CO2) conditions. A major interest of the infrastructure is the high measurement performances of ecosystem processes, in particular the automated on-line flux measurements of H2O, CO2, CH4 and N2O. A specific emphasis is put on isotopic techniques (13C labeling of the organic matter and carbon dioxide 13C and 18O on line measurements). A real time access to the environmental conditions of each unit and to the on-line measurements on internet allows authorized researchers to follow the experiment from any location. A staff of 8 research engineers and technicians runs the infrastructure and secures the on-line measurements.