Long-Term Field Experiments: Lift the Agricultural Data Treasure

Long-term field experiments (LTEs) are agricultural experiments for monitoring soil and crop properties under changing climate conditions and different management practices. Within the framework of the BonaRes (www.bonares.de) program, a data infrastructure has been developed to collect, process and curate the metadata and research data of LTEs with a minimum duration of 20 years in Germany and Europe. In November 2022, researchers on LTEs from six European countries met in a workshop to exchange experiences with LTE management, data analysis, and modelling. The presentations and discussions focused on understanding the activities and advantages in publishing and using LTE data, including, i) LTE data management and reuse through the LTE overview map (lte.bonares.de) and the BonaRes Repository in which an increasingly large number of LTE research data are offered for free reuse, ii) use of structured LTE data for model applications, iii) research on soil management with LTE. The importance of up-to-date LTE standards, the requirements for data acquisition and the statistical analysis of LTEs were concluded. The outcomes emphasized the paramount importance of LTE in understanding management and climate change impacts in agriculture. A close collaboration between leading LTE groups (BonaRes, EJP SOIL, GLTEN) was concluded as relevant to increase the visibility of LTEs for boosting European research initiatives in soil research. A position document about the future need for LTE sites, management, and data analysis is envisaged as the next step.