19 December 2024

EXEC’S CORNER

A very warm welcome to the final issue of ECT’s two-monthly newsletter for 2024. The image above is a suitably wintry aerial view of the Brignant Plots upland grassland restoration experiment at Pwllpeiran in mid-Wales, now running for 30 years.

ECT has just returned from the British Ecological Society’s 2024 Annual Meeting in Liverpool which was attended by over 1500 delegates. Our exhibition stand (pictured further below) was as busy as ever with both enquiries about long-term experiments (LTEs) and delegates keen to try out ECT’s latest rendering of an LTE as a virtual reality guided tour. This year we worked with Rothamsted Research at North Wyke in Devon to produce a VR headset experience of the North Wyke Farm Platform (NWFP), featuring close-up fully immersive encounters with the experiment’s livestock and two hot air balloon flights over the NWFP infrastructure. Our thanks go particularly to Bruce Griffith at North Wyke who manages the NWFP and features in the immersive 360-degree filming embedded with the VR experience. In 2025, we intend to take this VR experience to the Groundswell event in Hertfordshire as part of our efforts to reach the wider regenerative agriculture community with our message about LTEs, their design and the importance of long-term evidence.

On behalf of all staff and trustees here at ECT, I wish you a relaxing and enjoyable festive season. We look forward to continuing work with you all in 2025 to promote the importance of LTEs and their support for both science and society.

Ben Sykes

NEW ARTICLES

Following the 50th anniversary celebration of the Sally Edmondson Plots at the Ainsdale Dunes LTE on 3 October, ECT has published an article in the November edition of Liverpool Hope University’s Sand Dune and Shingle Network newsletter. Read it here.  

ECT trustee Ken Thompson writes about how LTEs can be used as a platform for all researchers in the latest edition of the British Ecological Society’s The Niche. Read it here.

DOCUSHORT FILM ON LTEs: REMINDER

In case you missed it, ECT has produced a new 6½-minute docushort film on the importance of LTEs and our role in supporting/championing them. View it here.

SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS: BLUESKY

We have recently reserved a new ‘handle’ on Bluesky. Find us @ect-uk.bsky.social.

CORRECTION

In the featured podcast in our last newsletter, it was incorrectly stated that the Palace Leas LTE started in 1985. It began in 1895, and is the longest-running grazing and hay-cutting experiment in the world!  

CHRISTMAS CLOSURES

ECT will be closed for the Christmas holiday from 25 December 2024 to 1 January 2025. We will return on 2 January 2025.

NEWS FROM BIFoR-FACE

The team at BIFoR-FACE have published an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education on how forests are responding to climate change.

PhD OPPORTUNITIES

RainDrop: Hyperspectral signals of change in grassland ecosystems | CENTA Studentship Based at: Open University. Deadline: 8 January 2025

Glen Finglas: Rewilding: integrating technologies and data to monitor upland food-web change | Iapetus Studentship. Based at: Newcastle University. Deadline: 3 January 2025.

Ainsdale Dune Slacks: Above-below ground interactions for nature recovery in coastal sand dune wetlands | Centa Studentship. Based at: Loughborough University. Deadline: 8 January 2025.

Ainsdale Dune Slacks: Resilient dunes: determining the impacts of winter flooding variability on coastal dune wetland plant communities using remote sensing. Based at: Loughborough University. Deadline: 8 January 2025.

Newborough Warren: A multidisciplinary study of dune environments; past to present. Based at UKCEH Bangor. Deadline: 8 January 2025.

Registration is now open for the eLTER Science Conference which is taking place 23-25 June 2025 in Tampere, Finland. Registration closes on 25 April 2025, and the call for abstract submissions is 17 January 2025.

Would you consider donating to the ECT? Help us secure long-term experiments for the future by making a donation Donate to the ECT.

The LTE User Group is a network of stakeholders passionate about long-term experiments and the results they generate. Find out more and how to join on our Join Us page.

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ECT receives core funding from the British Ecological Society.