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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've been making regular measurements of air, soil, water and a range of animals and plants across a network of sites for over 25 years, supporting science 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.
Join us at BES 2020 online
We are partnering with the Ecological Continuity Trust to run a thematic session - Long-term environmental monitoring – challenges and opportunities - that will review the importance and application of long-term monitoring and experimentation in understanding the impact of environmental change on the structure and function of ecosystems.
Data
- Over 2 decades of data
- Complete datasets, 1993-2015
- Explore & plot summary data
- View data time series
- Request full datasets
- Explore environmental indicators
News
Events
Featured Publication
Biogeochemical and climate drivers of wetland phosphorus and nitrogen release: Implications for nutrient legacies and eutrophication risk
Featured site: Hillsborough
A lowland grassland site situated at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Co. Down, Northern Ireland and representative of grassland in much of the north-western United Kingdom. There are several long-term experiments, for example on slurry application and nitrogen cycling on grazed plots receiving different levels of nitrogen input. A large part of the site used for the biological aspects of ECN monitoring is estate woodland (Hillsborough Forest) consisting of mature mixed woodland and conifer plantation. Many of the vegetation plots are located within this forested area, as are sections of the butterfly, carabid beetle, spider and bird transects.
