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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 make 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.
Spotlight on research
From microbe to mountain
Biodiversity encompasses variation from the smallest soil microbes, through to the whole landscape level. At the ECN Moor House site in the moorlands of northern England, researchers are looking at how diversity at different scales affects carbon cycling.
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15 years of monitoring on Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon
Featured site: Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon
Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon is an upland ECN site incorporating the summit of Yr Wyddfa or Snowdon, the highest mountain in England and Wales, 19km south-east of Bangor in North Wales. It is co-located with the Nant Teryn freshwater site. The dominant vegetation is acidic grassland with Festuca ovina (sheep's fescue) and Agrostis species (bent grass) in the drier areas and Nardus stricta (mat grass) in the wetter areas. The site is part of the Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon National Nature Reserve, managed by the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) under agreement with the owner. The land is unenclosed and grazed by sheep and a small herd of feral goats.
