- Resilience describes the capacity of a system to maintain its state and recover from disturbances. To be able to compare the resilience of different ecosystems, ecosystem processes or ecosystem services a common currency is needed, but has been lacking. A new paper emerging from the REGARDS project, published in Trends and Ecology and Evolution, establishes a framework for comparable attribution and integration across the various components underlying resilience. This framework also permits an evaluation of management measures for increasing the resilience of socio-ecological systems in a rapidly changing world. Follow this link for further information

- A press release has been issued by the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany regarding the REGARDS publication "Land use in mountain grasslands alters drought response and recovery of carbon allocation and plant-microbial interactions". Follow this link for further information

- Sandra Lavorel and Michael Bahn take part in Future Earth, an international sustainability research platform. Follow this link for further information

- Two new publications have been completed by WP4 and are available in the Publications section of the REGARDS web site.

- REGARDS third annual meeting held in Innsbruck from the 16-18 December 2014. The presentations from this meeting can be accessed in the secure REGARDS intranet.

- The final harvest of the Lautaret climate manipulation experiment was carried out during September 2014  at the French REGARDS field site.
- During late April the 2014 season early snow melt treatment was imposed at the REGARDS field site. Below are some photos showing the amount of work required to remove the snow from the plots!

- The 2nd REGARDS plenary meeting was held from the 17th to the 19th of December 2013 in Lyon, France. Presentations from this meeting are now available in the secure area of the REGARDS intranet.

- The REGARDS Lautaret field site was the subject of two documentary films during 2013. These films starred Jean Christophe-Clement and Lionel Bernard of the Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine in Grenoble - and were filmed by TeleGrenoble, and the documentary program Chroniques d'en Haut. Watch clips from these documentaries below:


- All of the soil monoliths and mesocosms have been installed and planted at the Kaserstattalm field site in the Subai Valley in Austria (see the photo below). The rain shelters will be installed in 2014.

- Installation of the WP1 and WP2 monoliths at the Lautaret field site, August 2013 - All WP1 rain out shelters, weather stations and environmental sensors (soil moisture and temperature probes) have been installed, initial soil sampling and plant trait measurements have been completed, and the fertilisation and drought treatments will soon be imposed. The 16 WP2 grassland monoliths have also been installed into inox cylinders in the middle of the WP1 mesocosms, together with soil moisture probes in each monolith.

- The first WP4 interview rounds at the Stubai site were conducted during the spring of 2013. Melanie Steinbacher also visited the Oppdal field site in Norway, and a zip file containing her photos can be downloaded from the REGARDS intranet for use in presentations etc.

- Presentation of REGARDS by Sandra Lavorel at the BiodivERsA kick-off meeting, Almeria 13-14 June 2013 (Powerpoint presentation available in the REGARDS intranet secure area)

- Construction of the WP1 rain out shelters at the Lautaret field site, May 2013

- Establishment of the REGARDS project web site (7 May 2013)

- REGARDS kick-off meeting - EPFL Department of Ecology (ECOS) Lausanne 24-25 January 2013. A copy of the summary document and presentations from this meeting can be found in the secure REGARDS intranet

- Installation of the WP1 mesocosms at the Lautaret field site, September 2012