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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. For over 20 years we have made 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.
Feature: Strengthening European LTER
ECN is participating in eLTER, an EU H2020-funded project involving many LTER-Europe partners and sites in collaboration with the European Critical Zone Observatory community. eLTER (European Long-Term Ecosystem and Socio-Ecological Research Infrastructure) is a major project that will help advance the development of European long-term ecosystem research infrastructures. The overall aim of the eLTER H2020 project is to advance the European network of Long-Term Ecosystem Research sites and socio-ecological research platforms to provide highest quality services for multiple use of a distributed research infrastructure. ECN will contribute data and welcome research visits to the Cairngorms LTSER platform.
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Featured Publication
A new approach to modelling the relationship between annual population abundance indices and weather data
Featured site: Alice Holt
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).
