The Lambir site is located within Lambir Hills National Park in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo, at 150-465 metres
asl. This national park is largely composed of mixed dipterocarp forest, with some small areas of heath forest. Several
research institutes have worked on long-term studies on this site, and contributed to its current infrastructure: Lambir has a
series of tree towers, a canopy walkway and a canopy crane that researchers use to gain access to different parts of the forest's
vertical structure. Tree census data exists over a 52-hectare plot in this area, called the Lambir Hills Forest Dynamics Plot,
which found as many as 1175 different tree species.

The Kruger National Park is the oldest national park in Africa, established in 1898, and one of the 10 largest national parks in
the world. The park is South Africa’s flagship conservation area and is regarded as one the best managed national parks in
Africa. Stretching 350 km from north to south, and at most 60km in width, the Kruger National Park is located to the
northeast of South Africa and is bordered to the east by Mozambique and to the north by Zimbabwe. The park is known for
its diverse range of species: 336 trees, 49 fish, 34 amphibians, 114 reptiles, 507 birds and 147 mammals. Among the mammal
species present in the park are the big five – lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo and rhino.

The Danum Valley Conservation Area is one of the best-protected areas of pristine lowland forest remaining in South East
Asia. It hosts species such as the rare East Sumatran rhinoceros, Bornean orangutans as well as over 200 bird species. The
region has no clear seasonality with an annual rainfall greater than 3000 mm. Within this area is the Sabah Biodiversity
Experiment, which is a long-term field study aiming at understanding the relationship between tree species diversity and the
functioning of lowland dipterocarp rainforest during restoration following selective logging (Hector et al 2011). The site is
run by the Danum Valley Management Committee, which is overseen by Yayasan Sabah.

The Laegern site is a mixed deciduous mountain forest located at approximately 680 metres asl, which is dominated by common beech (Fagus sylvatica) and Norway spruce (Picea abies). This site hosts numerous research activities from UZH, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape research (WSL), and thus benefits from a wealth of ready available ancillary data. Aside from the eddy-flux tower (FLUXNET site Laegeren) and PhenoCam available, this site is also an Aeronet station, Europe-LTER, as well as SpecNet and PhenoNet. Soil and vegetation parameters (leaf biochemistry, genetic microsatellite markers, leaf optical properties) are regularly sampled by the UZH Research Priority Program on Global Change and Biodiversity (www.gcb.uzh.ch). Furthermore, Laegern served as showcase for the ESA 3DVegetationLab project (http://www.geo.uzh.ch/microsite/3dveglab/) and data are still being collected for this site.

The geology of the Bavarian Forest National Park site is dominated by gneiss and granite, and the soils weathered from these
parent materials are naturally acid and low in nutrients. The main soil types are brown soils, loose brown soils, and podsol
brown soils. The park’s elevation ranges from 600 m to 1453 metres asl. The climate is temperate with a total annual
precipitation between 1200 mm and 1800 mm and a mean annual temperature of 5.1°C in the valleys, 5.8°C on hillsides, and
3.8°C in the higher montane zones (Heurich et al 2010). The dominant forest species are Norway spruce (Picea abies; 67 %)
and European beech (Fagus sylvatica; 24.5 %), with some white fir (Abies alba; 2.6 %), sycamore maples (Acer
psudoplatanus; 1.2 %), and mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia; 3.1 %).

Aldabra Atoll is the second-largest raised limestone atoll in the world, with on average only 6–8 metres above sea level. It is
managed by the Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF), listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site and its only human population
is a permanently manned research station. The climate is subtropical with distinct dry and wet seasons. The vegetation is a
mosaic of open grassland, low-canopy mixed scrub, and dense Pemphis scrub. Mangrove forests fringe the large central
lagoon. Aldabra is home to 100.000 giant tortoises, making it the world’s last ecosystem where the dominant vertebrate is a
reptile. These animals exert strong pressure on the vegetation and their presence shapes the structure of plant communities on
the atoll. In 2011, the Zurich–Aldabra Research Platform (ZARP) was launched by a small group of researchers, together
with the SIF, as an interdisciplinary long-term research partnership to study the terrestrial ecology of Aldabra Atoll and to
provide scientific guidance on the management of its biodiversity.

The Camargue Biosphere Reserve in the Rhône delta is a Ramsar site that covers natural habitats such as lagoons,
brackish/freshwater marshes with emergent or aquatic vegetation, as well as halophilous scrubs and steppes. These
ecosystems are intermingled with agro-systems dominated by rice, an irrigated crop. The Camargue hosts a richness of
species typical for Mediterranean wetlands, including 1200 plant species, 43 mammal species, 370 bird species, 10 amphibian
species, 19 reptile species, 70 fish species. The total number of insect species is unknown, but 1652 beetle species, 52
butterflies and 43 dragonfly species have been identified (Blondel et al 2013). Wetland ecosystems of the Camargue are
important for a range of ecosystem services such as climate regulation, flood mitigation, water purification, nutrient cycling,
agriculture, fishing, cattle grazing, wildfowl hunting and bird watching. The functional biodiversity and habitats of the
Camargue are predominantly influenced by the quantity and quality of water that is available year round and large parts
naturally dry up during the summer period. Ongoing research and existing long-term biodiversity observation dataset focus
on the monitoring of the state of wetlands within a global change context, integrating feedback processes occurring at local
scale through stakeholder management.

Toolik Lake is a low-Arctic tundra site located near the western boundary of the Alaskan Upper Kuparuk River region. The
site is underlain by continuous permafrost. Overall 14 physiognomic vegetation units (mainly tussock sedge, dwarf-shrub,
moss tundra and non-tussock sedge, dwarf-shrub, moss tundra) can be found on the site. The site includes a core 1.2 km²
study area (Toolik grid) which is under permanent research since 1989, and encloses a 20-km² area surrounding Toolik Lake
that stretches from the Dalton Highway on the east to Jade Mountain on the west. Research in this area started in 1975 and is
supported by the Toolik Field Station, which is operated and managed by the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of
Alaska Fairbanks in cooperation with the Division of Polar Programs, Directorate for Geosciences at the National Science
Foundation. Research topics are wide-ranging and dynamic. Currently they currently include the structure and function of
terrestrial and aquatic tundra ecosystems, the effects of climate change in these regions as well as feedbacks to climate
through gas and hydrological fluxes. Historic and on-going research data are available and allow the interpretation and
validation of RS-EBVs in the context of ecosystems responses to climate change.

Kytalyk is a low-Arctic tundra site is located in the Indigirka lowlands within a nature reserve, about 170 km south of the
East Siberian Sea coast. The site is underlain by continuous, ice-rich permafrost of several hundred-meter depth. On the
circumpolar Arctic vegetation map, the Kytalyk field site is located at the border between tussock sedge, dwarf shrub, moss
tundra and low shrub tundra. Six different tundra vegetation types can be found on the site. On-going research on this site
focuses on the carbon and energy budgets as well as on shrub encroachment and climate change impacts on biodiversity. This
site features required calibration/validation infrastructure and serves as Sentinel-2 calibration/validation site for the CEOS
LPV subgroup.