A bilateral project in the framework of the Swiss-Czech Cooperation Programme was awarded to two ICOS national networks: ICOS Czech Republic and ICOS Switzerland. The INETFLUX (Innovative technologies cross scales to disentangle carbon dioxide and evapotranspiration fluxes of forests) project brings together one Czech institution (Global Change Research Institute CAS / GCRI - CzechGlobe) and two Swiss research institutions (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich / ETH Zurich, Eidgenössische Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft / WSL) which all are part of ICOS.
The project aims to advance the understanding of forest net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) and evapotranspiration (ET), specifically, to develop and validate new approaches for partitioning NEE and ET into their individual components and to identify their environmental drivers, also in the context of climate change. Stem growth measurements, stable isotope applications and remote sensing techniques will complement the flux measurements and provide additional constraints on the partitioned fluxes.
The 3-year project boosts excellent scientific research and enhances bilateral cooperation between the two countries using the ICOS infrastructure. The research will take place at three ICOS stations: a subalpine spruce forest in Davos in Switzerland, a lower elevation spruce monoculture at Bílý Křiž and a floodplain hardwood forest in Lanžhot, both in the Czech Republic.