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EXEC’S CORNER A warm welcome to the September edition of ECT’s quarterly newsletter, after a very busy and memorably hot summer in which many of the active long-term experiments on ECT’s national register have been subject to the type of drought conditions that may become more frequent under our changing climate. Adding new data under such ‘real-world’ conditions to each existing long-term dataset remains vital if we are to fully understand ecosystem resilience to environmental change. There are two major highlights from ECT’s summer which I would like to draw to your attention and which you can read about further below. Firstly, our ‘main event’ of the year was held as a Fringe Event at the World Congress of Soil Science in Glasgow on 4 August, closely followed the next day by a delegate tour of the spectacular Whim Bog long-term peatland experiment in the Scottish Borders. All with the aim of increasing the exposure of LTEs to soil scientists as a national research resource. Secondly, we have been delighted to see our pilot data curation project with NERC come to fruition as the 30-year-plus dataset from the Somerford Mead grassland grazing experiment in Oxfordshire has now been secured for all in the Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) at UKCEH Lancaster. ECT hopes to embark on further such projects to protect and secure decades-long vulnerable LTE datasets. Ben Sykes
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BRITISH SOCIETY OF SOIL SCIENCE AWAY DAY AT WYTHAM At the end of June, ECT hosted an away day for five members of the British Society of Soil Science executive team at Wytham in Oxfordshire. Natalie Coles, Ann Generlich, Bruce Lascelles, Sarah Garry, and Christine Berrill (from left to right in the photo) all participated in some citizen science activities which included measuring chlorophyll levels and soil moisture with ECT trustee Kadmiel Maseyk (Open University). The team was given a detailed tour of the RainDrop long-term rainfall/drought experiment led by Andy Hector, University of Oxford. |
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ECT AT THE WORLD CONGRESS OF SOIL SCIENCE 2022, GLASGOW We attended the World Congress of Soil Science organised by the British Society of Soil Science in Glasgow in the first week of August, hosting a high-quality fringe event on the 4th with a series of talks showcasing five long-term experiments and focusing on soil health policy in relation to climate change and food security. The following day, we hosted a tour for conference delegates (pictured) of the spectacular Whim Bog long-term experiment in the Scottish Borders south of Edinburgh, led by Matt Jones and Netty van Dijk from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Look out for an ECT blog on this event, together with speakers’ slides, coming soon. |
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SOMERFORD MEAD EXPERIMENT DATA SECURED IN NERC’S EIDC! ECT is delighted to announce that the unique dataset from the Somerford Mead long-term restoration and grazing experiment going back over 30 years is now safely digitised and deposited with NERC’s Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) based at UKCEH Lancaster. Using grant funding from ECT, David Gowing and colleagues at the Floodplain Meadows Partnership were able to secure Alison Macdonald’s (pictured left between Jo Copping and Markus Wagner) vulnerable dataset which is now accessible to researchers and end users worldwide. The resulting dataset is unique both for its length and its rigour in comparing effects of grazing by different species. |
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UPCOMING WEBINAR & PREVIOUS RECORDING NOW AVAILABLE Save the date for our next webinar on 7 October (Friday) at 12:30pm, when we host Richard Bardgett (University of Manchester) speaking about the Colt Park Meadows long-term experiment in North Yorkshire. The recording of our previous webinar in July, with Mick Crawley speaking on the Silwood Park long-term experiments Nash’s Field and Pound Hill, can now be viewed on our YouTube channel. PODCASTS Two recent podcasts on the landscape-scale freshwater catchment experiments in mid-Wales are now available on our SoundCloud platform. We interviewed Alan Radbourne and Jack Cosby (left photo) (UKCEH Bangor) at the Plynlimon Research Catchments, and Steve Ormerod (Cardiff University) (right photo) at the Llyn Brianne Stream Observatory.
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NEW BIFoR-FACE PUBLICATION A new paper is out in the journal Trees from the BIFoR-FACE long-term experiment. Anna Gardner looked at the effects of increased carbon dioxide on specific forest health markers (chlorophyll concentrations and nitrogen) across the canopy of mature oak trees. She found that both of these forest health markers demonstrated traits that need to be considered for future analyses. Photo credit: Angeliki Kourmouli. |
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BIFoR-FACE: OPPORTUNITY TO WORK WITH THE SANGER INSTITUTE’S BIOSCAN INITIATIVE Kris Hart (BIFoR-FACE Operations Manager) writes about BIFoR-FACE joining the BIOSCAN initiative led by the Sanger Institute to collect data on flying insects, and how any long-term experiment can get involved.
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NEW BLOG FROM WYTHAM WOODS PhD student Sara Middleton, who works on the RainDrop experiment with Andy Hector, writes about her annual summer census on the diversity of grassland species at Wytham Woods for her blog ‘Beyond a green carpet’ for the Wellcome Collection. Photo credit: Dr Brooke Johnson. |
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THE NATIONAL BIODIVERSITY NETWORK (NBN)
CONFERENCE 2022 This year's NBN Conference is taking place at the Natural History Museum, London on Wednesday 9 November as a fully face-to-face event. The theme is "Making data work for nature" and the full programme will be announced over the next few weeks. For more information, and to book a place, please visit the NBN Trust website. |
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FOCUS ON… PLYNLIMON RESEARCH CATCHMENTS
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Habitat: Freshwater Location: Wales Experimental goal: To compare how the use of forested and moorland sites affects the water catchments. PI: Bridget Emmett, UKCEH Bangor Read: UKCEH blog- An open air laboratory for studying the environment – 50 years and counting Article in The Niche (Sept. 22) Plynlimon Research Catchments Added To ECT Network. Listen: Interview podcast with Alan Radbourne and Jack Cosby Share on Twitter: The @ECT_UK #LongTermExperiment focus in the Sept 2022 #newsletter was on the Plynlimon Catchments in #Wales #Cymru. Learn about this #LTE by listening to the #podcast with Alan Radbourne & Jack Cosby https://bit.ly/3Ppuzfv @NERCscience @NatResWales @DefraGovUK @Duress_HQ
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Do you like this newsletter? Is there anything you think we can do to improve it? What would you like to see in this newsletter? Tell us by emailing Danae Dodge.
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If you are an LTE researcher, please remember to send us your publications. Email Danae Dodge to ensure they are featured on our site pages. |
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The LTE User Group is a network of stakeholders passionate about long-term experiments and the results they generate. Benefits of joining this group include becoming part of a wider network, we can raise your profile, and you get to participate in knowledge exchange with others in different sectors. Find out more and how to join on our Join Us page. |
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