About ECN

ECN gathers information about the pressures on and responses to environmental change in physical, chemical and biological systems

The Environmental Change Network is the UK’s long-term ecosystem research network. We collect, manage, analyse and interpret environmental data collected at a network of sites across the UK.

ECN's objectives are to:

• Establish and maintain a selected network of sites within the UK from which to obtain comparable long-term datasets through the monitoring of a range of variables identified as being of major environmental importance
• Provide for the integration and analysis of these data, so as to identify natural and human-induced environmental changes and improve understanding of the causes of change
• Distinguish short-term fluctuations from long-term trends, and predict future changes
• Provide, for research purposes, a range of representative sites with good instrumentation and reliable environmental information.

ECN gathers information about the pressures on and responses to environmental change in physical, chemical and biological systems.

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When did it all begin?

ECN was launched in 1992 and the collection of data started formally in 1993 at terrestrial sites and 1994 at freshwater sites.

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Who is involved?

ECN is only possible through the combined efforts of many organisations and people. ECN is a multi-agency programme sponsored by a consortium of 14 UK government departments and agencies.  These organisations (our Sponsors) contribute to the programme through funding either site monitoring and/or network co-ordination activities. The network is coordinated by staff at the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. They manage the data, which are stored in a central database and are available through a variety of data access methods. ECN is also supported by several Research Partners.