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IntroductionPartnershipsPolicyScience
Monitoring, data and research to understand environmental change
We are the UK's long-term environmental monitoring and research programme. We make regular measurements of air, soil, water and a range of animals and plants across a network of sites to determine how and why the natural environment is changing.
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IntroductionSciencePartnershipsPolicy
Understanding environmental change. Supporting environmental science
Our data are used to detect and understand trends in the environment and in the presence and abundance of plants and animals. We support researchers by providing long-term environmental datasets and well-instrumented sites for field research.
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IntroductionSciencePolicyPartnerships
Science to support policymaking and management of natural resources
ECN’s data and expertise are relevant to a range of environmental policy issues including climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Long-term monitoring can inform policies and check how well they work.
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IntroductionSciencePolicyPartnerships
An active consortium with links across the globe
ECN is a partnership of UK organisations responsible for environmental policies and natural resource management. We also work with similar networks in other countries. ECN is the UK node of ILTER, the International Long-Term Ecological Research Network.
20 years of ECN data
Terrestrial ECN has been operational for 20 years, supporting scientific research and generating impressive time series of data on a range of driving and response variables. This special event will mark this anniversary by considering the role of long-term environmental monitoring and research, by exploring the value of ECN datasets and of sites as research platforms, and by considering how ECN should evolve to meet user needs over the next 20 years.
- When: 12-13 May 2014
- Where: Lancaster University
News
Events
Featured Publication
Resilience of upland soils to long-term environmental changes
Featured site: Alice Holt
| Bronwyn Hill, Permanent Secretary at Defra, recently visited Forest Research at Alice Holt, to learn about their research and monitoring activities. |
The history of Alice Holt forest can be traced back over 2000 years and is believed to have originated during the Atlantic period. Iron Age and Roman relics found within the forest point to a long history of human habitation. The forest has belonged to the crown since William the Conqueror adopted it as a Royal Hunting Forest. The Forestry Commission has actively managed the forest since 1924 and it has been the focus of research activities since 1946.
Alice Holt Forest Park covers 851 hectares of mainly Corsican pine but approximately 140 ha. of original 1820 oak still remain. The ancient forest is now a truly multi-purpose woodland where research, conservation, timber production and recreation co-exist.
Alice Holt Research Forest (AHRF) is one of three research forests in the UK (the others are the Dyfi Catchment and Woodland Research Platform, Gwynedd, Wales, and the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, Stirlingshire, Scotland). One of the main advantages to users of the AHRF is access to long term experimental and environmental data sets (including ECN data), ensuring that research and monitoring studies are carried out within a well-characterised environment. Forest Research is keen to encourage a wide range of forestry and environmental research at this site, and would welcome discussion about potential collaborations with interested individuals, institutes or universities (contact details are available here). You can read more about AHRF in this bulletin from the BES Forest Ecology Group (PDF file).
