Prof Bob Scholes (Wits University, South Africa) presenting at the AusLTER Forum 2018

1. EFTEON
Enhanced Freshwater and
Terrestrial Observation Network
EFTEON
Enhanced Freshwater and
Terrestrial Observation Network
South Africa’s ecological
research infrastructure
Bob Scholes
EFTEON ‘champion’
University of the Witwatersrand
TERN workshop, Ecological Society of Australia
Brisbane, 27 Nov 2018

2. EFTEON
Enhanced Freshwater and
Terrestrial Observation Network
An institutional map
Department of Science and Technology
South African Research
Infrastructure Roadmap
South African Environmental
Observation Network
7 other
RI’s
4 more
possibles
Enhanced Freshwater
and Terrestrial
Ecological
Observation Network
Shallow Marine and
Coastal Research
Infrastructure

3. EFTEON
Enhanced Freshwater and
Terrestrial Observation Network
EFTEON
Enhanced Freshwater and
Terrestrial Observation Network
Enhanced Freshwater and Terrestrial
Ecological Observation Network
Announced end 2016, now in startup phase, will by 2020 have ~ 6 landscapes
Design features
1. Multi-user, long-term, large-scale social-ecological research platform, similar to
TERN, ICOS or NEON
2. Modular, nested, landscape-based design
3. High degree of disciplinary integration: biogeochemistry, hydrology, biodiversity,
human-ecosystem interactions
4. Tiered observation platform: satellites, highly instrumented core sites, sparsely
instrumented linked sites, experiments, social surveys
5. Open data system, including legacy data, contemporary data and projected data on
climate, soils, remotely-sensed land surface, fluxes etc.

4. EFTEON
Enhanced Freshwater and
Terrestrial Observation Network
What is in the national interest?
• Providing answers that will be needed, but
unavailable from other sources
• Exploiting comparative advantage in order to
maintain a position in intenational research

5. EFTEON
Enhanced Freshwater and
Terrestrial Observation Network
Monitoring and experimentation
• EFTEON does not set out to be representative or
comprehensive
– National monitoring is a separate responsibility
• One of the selection criteria for EFTEON
landscapes is the inclusion of long term
manipulative experiments
– 70 year burning plots in the Kruger National Park
– 60 year paired catchments at Cathedral Peak
– 60 year sheep-grazing trials at Middleburg

6. EFTEON
Enhanced Freshwater and
Terrestrial Observation Network
Science as a social process
The biggest impediments to establishing and
sustaining research infrastructures such as
EFTEON or TERN are often cultural
As much attention needs to go into ‘soft
systems’ design as into hardware

7. EFTEON
Enhanced Freshwater and
Terrestrial Observation Network
Bob.Scholes@wits.ac.za