 At each location, vascular plant species and abundances are to be recorded in standardized permanent plots of different size at intervals of 5 to 10 years, along with continuous measurements of soil temperature.Several supplementary approaches, e.g., focusing on other organism groups, soil ecology or on socio-ecological features, are applied or are under development in some study regions.The network consists of dedicated ecologists and biologists from over hundred research institutions and many protected area authorities, distributed over six continents and it cooperates with other international efforts such as the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment of the Future Earth programme and the LTSER network.