Forests account for nearly 90 % of the world's terrestrial biomass in the form of carbon and they support 80 % of the global biodiversity. To understand the underlying forest dynamics, we need a long-term but also relatively high-frequency, networked monitoring system, as traditionally used in meteorology or hydrology. While there are numerous existing forest monitoring sites, particularly in temperate regions, the resulting data streams are rarely connected and do not provide information promptly, which hampers real-time assessments of forest responses to extreme climate events. The technology to build a better global forest monitoring network now exists. This white paper addresses the key structural components needed to achieve a novel meta-network. We propose to complement - rather than replace or unify - the existing heterogeneous infrastructure with standardized, quality-assured linking methods and interacting data processing centers to create an integrated forest monitoring network. These automated (research topic-dependent) linking methods in atmosphere, biosphere, and pedosphere play a key role in scaling site-specific results and processing them in a timely manner. To ensure broad participation from existing monitoring sites and to establish new sites, these linking methods must be as informative, reliable, affordable, and maintainable as possible, and should be supplemented by near real-time remote sensing data. The proposed novel meta-network will enable the detection of emergent patterns that would not be visible from isolated analyses of individual sites. In addition, the near real-time availability of data will facilitate predictions of current forest conditions (nowcasts), which are urgently needed for research and decision making in the face of rapid climate change. We call for international and interdisciplinary efforts in this direction.

CREAF Bellaterra Catalonia E08193 Spain

DendroGreif University Greifswald Soldmannstrasse 15 D 17487 Greifswald Germany

Departamento de Sistemas y Recursos Naturales Universidad Politécnica de Madrid 28040 Madrid Spain

Department of Civil Engineering University of Patras Rio Patras 26504 Greece

Department of Environmental Sciences Institute of Botany University of Basel Schönbeinstrasse 6 4056 Basel Switzerland

Department of Environmental Systems Science ETH Zurich Universitätstr 2 LFW C56 8092 Zurich Switzerland

Department of Forest Botany Dendrology and Geobiocoenology Mendel University in Brno Zemedelska 1 61300 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Geography University of Zurich Winterthurerstrasse 190 CH 8057 Zurich Switzerland; Eawag Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Surface Waters Research and Management Ueberlandstrasse 133 8600 Duebendorf Switzerland

Department of Geography University of Zürich Zürich Switzerland

Department of Natural Resource and Society University of Idaho 1800 University Lane 83638 McCall ID USA

Department of Physical Geography and Climatology Institute of Geography RWTH Aachen University 52056 Aachen Germany

Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Kamýcká 129 Praha 6 Suchdol 16521 Czech Republic

Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group Wageningen University and Research P O Box 47 6700 AA Wageningen the Netherlands

Forest Ecosystems and Society Department Oregon State University Corvallis OR 97331 USA

GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences Wissenschaftpark Albert Einstein Telegrafenberg Potsdam Germany; Geography Department Humboldt University of Berlin Rudower Ch 16 12489 Berlin DE USA

Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences Bělidla 4a 603 00 Brno Czech Republic

Institute for Applied Plant Biology Benkenstrasse 254A 4108 Witterswil Switzerland

Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research Atmospheric Environmental Research Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT Garmisch Partenkirchen 82467 Germany

Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems ETH Zurich Zurich Switzerland

Laboratory of Plant Ecology Department of Plants and Crops Faculty of Bioscience Engineering Ghent University Coupure links 653 9000 Gent Belgium

Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Dept of Biogeochemical Integration Hans Knöll Str 10 07745 Jena Germany

Northwest German Forest Research Institute Grätzelstr 2 D 37079 Göttingen Germany

Plant Ecology University of Göttingen Untere Karspüle 2 37073 Göttingen Germany

School of Geosciences University of Edinburgh Alexander Crum Brown Road Edinburgh EH93FF UK

School of Natural Resources and the Environment University of Arizona 1064 E Lowell St Tucson AZ 85721 USA; Laboratory of Tree Ring Research University of Arizona 1215 E Lowell St Tucson AZ 85721 USA

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL Birmensdorf 8903 Switzerland

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL Birmensdorf 8903 Switzerland; Department of Environmental Sciences Institute of Botany University of Basel Schönbeinstrasse 6 4056 Basel Switzerland

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL Birmensdorf 8903 Switzerland; Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline Khulna University Khulna 9208 Bangladesh

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL Birmensdorf 8903 Switzerland; Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research University of Bern 3012 Bern Switzerland

Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology Dübendorf 8600 Switzerland

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