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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.
Connecting the networks
Through co-location of measurements and the sharing of data, ECN sites collectively contribute in many ways to other UK and international observation and research networks/initiatives. These contributions are made through a mix of standard ECN monitoring and additional monitoring / research. For terrestrial ECN sites, here is a summary of these connections.
Data
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Featured Publication
Soil dynamics under an oak forest at Alice Holt
Featured site: Wytham
Wytham is 5 km north west of Oxford. About half the site is woodland, the rest organic mixed farmland. Roughly a third of the wooded area is ancient woodland which, to our knowledge, has never been cleared and there has been continuity of tree cover since the prehistoric 'wild wood'. It has however had a long history of management, which for many hundreds of years took the form of coppicing. Within the woodland there are patches of semi-natural grassland, of both ancient and recent origin, and scrub.
