The publication provides an overview of how climate change is affecting UK biodiversity and potential future changes based on the latest scientific evidence and understanding. It shows where observed changes in UK biodiversity are likely to have been caused by changes in the UK climate over recent decades . It also assesses potential future impacts of climate change on biodiversity. The Report Card summarises 15 technical papers that were commissioned from leading experts. Each technical paper covered a separate topic and was peer-reviewed by experts. The technical papers, which include supporting evidence and sections on knowledge gaps and confidence assessments, can be accessed via links in the Report Card.
The project has been overseen by a working group of senior scientists. Both the card itself and the review papers that support it have been peer-reviewed to ensure scientific rigour and that the consensus view of the scientific community is represented.
Among the ECN-related papers cited as evidence are:
To read more about the Report Card and to download a copy, see the LWEC website.
The call for proposals for research visits to these stations will be open at the INTERACT website from 1st August – 30th September 2013. This will be for Transnational Access visits taking place between October 2013 and October 2014.
Transnational Access includes:
For full details of the upcoming call, and to pre-register, visit http://www.eu-interact.org/topmenu/news/nyhet/article/save-the-date-61/
A similar Transnational Access scheme run by the ExpeER project provides research access to Moor House-Upper Teesdale and Rothamsted.
Read more...
These photos contrast with the wintry images taken at ECN Snowdon just a few weeks earlier.
In addition to this, Chris, our site manager at ECN Cairngorms, has written a blog article about the arrival of spring in his part of Scotland. Chris reports that migrant birds like wheatears and willow warblers have begun arriving from Africa, which must be a welcome sight.
We're using our Facebook page to share photos of ECN sites, along with other information about the network. We hope you enjoy it. If you do, and you have a Facebook account, please consider 'liking' us!
More information
Jan and Andy are primarily involved in INTERACT's outreach work. The Cairngorms site is also open for research visits funded through INTERACT's Transnational Access scheme. When the next TA call is launched we will announce it on the ECN website.
Andy has written a blog about the trip to Greenland.
Michèle managed the ECN site at Wytham expertly and she will be much missed. We wish her all the best for the future. Thankfully, Steffi and Denise have stepped in to take her place, and we’re confident they’ll do a great job!
Steffi is a molecular ecologist with a special interest in ticks, mosquitoes, and vector-borne pathogens. She completed her Diploma thesis at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn, Germany, in 1997 and joined CEH in 2003.
Denise is a plant virologist, qualifying with a Ph.D. from Dundee University in 1998. She began working at CEH the same year, and has worked on a range of projects concerned with viruses in plants.
The ECN Site Manager role is a varied one and involves a wide range of tasks such as taking regular measurements, collecting samples for analysis back in the lab, checking the equipment, managing all the data from the site and liaising with visiting researchers. Steffi and Denise are sharing the role, which enables them to continue their on-going scientific work at CEH. We wish them all the best in their new role.
]]>This walk in Cumbria follows the Pennine Way to the summit of Great Dun Fell, the second highest hill in the Pennines. It tells the story of Gordon Manley, the geographer who pioneered the collection of meteorological data.
This memorable walk also includes stories of sheep, socks, snow and spies!
See the Discovering Britain website for details. We're pleased to see that ECN gets a mention! The existence of Gordon Manley's meteorological records was one of the factors in choosing Moor House an ECN site.
Should the live webcast be disrupted or prove impracticable the presentations will be recorded and be published shortly thereafter, with the webcast and the subsequent individual recorded presentations listed in the web event catalog at http://mtsms.unm.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/Full/faea1a29e3704f6db907d8714a9b6f8a21.
Viewers will need the Microsoft Silverlight Player browser plugin to view the webcast. Most people will already have Silverlight installed on their machines; however, an installation link will be provided on the page for those who may not.
For more information about the LTER mini-symposium please see http://www.lternet.edu/node/64808 or the NSF media advisory at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=126865.
]]>We'll post occasional news items and photos on the page. Our aim is to reach a wider audience than is currently reached via our website, e-mail, etc. and hopefully introduce more people to ECN's long-term monitoring and the research undertaken at ECN sites.
]]>In his talk to the Aberdeen Entomological Club, which took place at the James Hutton Institute, Mr Davidson set out to explore whether spiders were suitable candidates as environmental indicators and whether a citizen science monitoring project would complement existing monitoring networks.
The attributes of spiders which might make them suitable indicators were considered and a comparison was made with freshwater invertebrate monitoring.
Various existing long-term spider data sources were explored, including the Spider Recording Scheme database, the Aphid Monitoring network (SASA) and the Environmental Change Network.
Some results were shown from a recent review of ECN carabid data and this was briefly compared with a provisional analysis of trends in spider data from ECN Cairngorms (kindly supplied by Chris Andrews of CEH). Other museum and survey data sets were also considered as useful additions to the overall data resource.
Spider monitoring is an optional protocol at ECN terrestrial sites.
The British Arachnological Society to promote the study of arachnology in Scotland. To find out more about the BAS, see the Society's website.
]]>ECN's Dr Jan Dick (CEH) is among the authors contributing to the paper, as is CEH's Dr Jill Thompson.
The International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network can coordinate ecological research to provide observations of the ecosystem changes, and their socio- economic impacts on human societies at different scales. In this paper we demonstrate the importance of the ILTER network in the study and monitoring of environmental changes at a global level. We give examples of how biodiversity and ecosystem service data can be used to study impacts and adaptation options in response to climate change. Analysis of the 107 recent publications from LTER networks representing 21 countries show that LTER studies are often local and heterogeneous. There are some ecosystem types, such as agricultural or coastal ecosystems that are not covered with current ILTER network. Standardized monitoring schemes and techniques should be considered for future steering of ILTER collaboration. Integrating and synthesizing the collected data should be prioritized for future cooperation, and integrated in decision- making.
Research staff and students can take the opportunity of the call to develop international research collaborations.
The ExpeER scheme is a great opportunity to obtain funding for short research visits in another country. Here's what one user of the scheme said about her visit to Whim Bog (another UK ExpeER site):
"A very interesting experience. I usually work in Mediterranean environments and at Whim bog I had the opportunity to work in a completely different environment."
Full information about this call can be found on the ExpeER website. ExpeER makes a contribution to cover travel and subsistence costs of visiting scientists and students. The 33 facilities involved are located in 13 European countries and Israel. They include Highly Instrumented Experimental (HIES) and Observational Sites (HIOS), Analytical Facilities and Ecotrons, which provide state of the art analytical equipment and controlled environment facilities for ecosystem research.
The two ECN involved are Moor House-Upper Teesdale and Rothamsted. There are two other UK sites included in the call: Plynlimon and Whim.
The scientists monitored beetle populations at a national scale over fifteen years in the UK Environmental Change Network. They found declines in the overall abundance of ground beetles that are comparable to those reported for butterflies and moths. But they also found that declines were not consistent across UK regions and habitats, being at their worst at sites studied on mountains, in upland moorland in the north and in pasture in the west. Conversely, populations sampled from woodland and hedgerow habitats remained stable, and increased at a downland site.
David Brooks of Rothamsted Research, who receive strategic funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), said “Carabid beetles contribute to the viability and health of ecosystems. They are particularly important in agriculture because they help control pests and weeds”.
Further research will be required to discover how management of these habitats may offset adverse, wider-scale changes in climate or the environment. In particular, retaining woodland and hedgerows in the landscape, and managing them in appropriate ways, may help to conserve beetles undergoing adverse changes in their wider environment.
Brooks has warned that “these rather alarming trends in carabid beetle decline do contribute to growing evidence that insects are undergoing serious losses”.
[Text adapted from Rothamsted Research news article]
CEH has just published a briefing note on the 2010-2012 drought and its dramatic termination [PDF]. A comprehensive report on the transformation is currently being compiled.
During the poster session she explained the work done at the science-society interface at the site and in the surrounding area. The Eco-SEE project, which involved surveying over 300 residents and visitors designed to gauge their personal perception of the environment and the ecosystem services it delivers, is currently being compared to similar studies in Israel and Russia.
The work was part-funded by the EU project INTERACT, in which Jan is participating. INTERACT runs a very successful Transnational Access (TA) scheme providing funds for short research visits to northern latitude research stations (including the ECN Cairngorms). INTERACT has just opened its latest TA call, which will fund research trips during summer 2013 and winter 2013/2014. The closing date is 31 October 2012.
Jan's poster concluded that "The LTER community is well-placed to conduct socio-ecological research as many sites are developing as LTSER [Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research] platforms which integrate the LTER sites into a larger social context. In addition managers are familiar with their local environment, they have a wealth of relevant data and cross country collaboration is fostered both by donor grants (e.g. INTERACT) and international networks (e.g. LTER-Europe and ILTER)."
The aurora results from activity on the surface of the Sun. Occasionally the Sun emits huge amounts of charged particles into space. These particles sometimes travel towards Earth where they are caught in the Earth's magnetic field and guided towards the polar regions.
The Earth's atmosphere slows the charged particles which then collide with gas molecules in the atmosphere. The energy released in these collisions is given off as light.
Although the aurora borealis (Northern Lights) are more commonly seen from higher latitudes, sightings from the UK are not uncommon.