Ingo Heinrich, Daniel Balanzategui, Oliver Bens, Gerald Blasch, Theresa Blume, Falk Boettcher, Erik Borg, Brian Brademann, Achim Brauer, Christopher Conrad, Elisabeth Dietze, Nadine Dräger, Peter Fiener, Horst H. Gerke, Andreas Güntner, Iris Heine, Gerhard Helle, Marcus Herbrich, Katharina Harfenmeister, Karl-Uwe Heussner, Christian Hohmann, Sibylle Itzerott, Gerald Jurasinski, Knut Kaiser, Christoph Kappler, Franziska Koebsch, Susanne Liebner, Gunnar Lischeid, Bruno Merz, Klaus Dieter Missling, Markus Morgner, Sylvia Pinkerneil, Birgit Plessen, Thomas Raab, Thomas Ruhtz, Torsten Sachs, Michael Sommer, Daniel Spengler, Vivien Stender, Peter Stüve, Florian Wilken

• The Northeast German Lowland Observatory (TERENO-NE) was established to investigate the regional impact of climate and land use change. TERENO-NE focuses on the Northeast German lowlands, for which a high vulnerability has been determined due to increasing temperatures and decreasing amounts of precipitation projected for the coming decades. To facilitate in-depth evaluations of the effects of climate and land use changes and to separate the effects of natural and anthropogenic drivers in the region, six sites were chosen for comprehensive monitoring. In addition, at selected sites, geoarchives were used to substantially extend the instrumental records back in time. It is this combination of diverse disciplines working across different time scales that makes the observatory TERENO-NE a unique observation platform. We provide information about the general characteristics of the observatory and its six monitoring sites and present examples of interdisciplinary research activities at some of these sites. We also illustrate how monitoringThe Northeast German Lowland Observatory (TERENO-NE) was established to investigate the regional impact of climate and land use change. TERENO-NE focuses on the Northeast German lowlands, for which a high vulnerability has been determined due to increasing temperatures and decreasing amounts of precipitation projected for the coming decades. To facilitate in-depth evaluations of the effects of climate and land use changes and to separate the effects of natural and anthropogenic drivers in the region, six sites were chosen for comprehensive monitoring. In addition, at selected sites, geoarchives were used to substantially extend the instrumental records back in time. It is this combination of diverse disciplines working across different time scales that makes the observatory TERENO-NE a unique observation platform. We provide information about the general characteristics of the observatory and its six monitoring sites and present examples of interdisciplinary research activities at some of these sites. We also illustrate how monitoring improves process understanding, how remote sensing techniques are fine-tuned by the most comprehensive ground-truthing site DEMMIN, how soil erosion dynamics have evolved, how greenhouse gas monitoring of rewetted peatlands can reveal unexpected mechanisms, and how proxy data provides a long-term perspective of current ongoing changes.…