ECT Newsletter August 2024

21 August 2024

A group of sheep graze in a field. Behind them there are trees.

EXEC’S CORNER

Welcome to the August issue of ECT’s two-monthly newsletter, packed as usual with updates on long-term ecological field experiments (LTEs) across the UK together with news on events, articles, blogs and new publications.

Our chosen image (above) for this issue is a suitably summery picture of grazing Exlana sheep on one of the fields of the North Wyke Farm Platform (NWFP) at Rothamsted Research in Devon. Located on the northern fringes of Dartmoor National Park, this important LTE is looking at the impacts of different livestock grazing systems on sustainable management of lowland grassland and has now been running for 13 years. It is the subject of our ‘focus’ section further below, where you can access more information.

ECT has just visited the NWFP in late July to film the experiment in 360 degrees in preparation for our latest (fourth) virtual reality (VR) rendering of LTEs on our national register. This latest VR tour features the NWFP’s site manager Bruce Griffith taking us through the various components of this LTE, and I would like to thank Bruce and his team publicly for their time commitment to the project. The finished VR tour will be installed on ECT’s Oculus Quest 2 heasdets this autumn, and will be first available to you all to try out at the British Ecological Society’s (BES) annual meeting in Liverpool in December. It will include a virtual hot air balloon flight over the entire site, giving you a bird’s-eye view of the scale of the experiment and a view of Dartmoor in the distance. Headsets will be available to try out from the ECT’s exhibition hall stand at the BES meeting.

Ben Sykes

OUR NEWS

TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF ECT SMALL GRANTS SCHEME

Due to unprecedented demand for our Small Grants in the first half of this year, we have had to close our Small Grants Scheme temporarily for the remainder of 2024. Demand for ECT’s small grants highlights how important these awards are in preserving long-term ecological experiments (LTEs) and enabling the evidence emerging from them to contribute towards policymaking, sustainable land-use and education. The scheme will re-open for new applications on 1 January 2025.

A ground level photo of a grassland plot at Palace Leas. The sky is clouded.

NEW BLOG ON ECT WEBSITE

ECT awarded Cicely Marshall (University of Cambridge) a Small Grant for work at several LTEs on our national register during 2022/3. This grant contributed to her work to assess the validity of Natural England’s Statutory Biodiversity Metric 3.0 that has now been published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Read Cicely’s blog.

RECENT EVENTS

Following on from the joint symposium Resilient Landscapes For People, Nature and Climate that we co-hosted with the British Ecological Society (BES) and other NGOs in June, the BES published an article via LinkedIn that summarises the keynote presentations and main themes emerging from the breakout sessions. Read it here.

Landscape advert for the past event: Resilient Landscapes for People, Nature and Climate, 24-25 June, Birmingham

In late July, we visited the North Wyke Farm Platform in Devon to meet with Bruce Griffith (Rothamsted Research) and our technology provider Maple Bay to film the site for ECT’s latest (fourth) virtual reality headset tour of LTEs on our national regsiter. This new experience will first be presented at the BES annual meeting in December in Liverpool.

From left to right: Bruce Griffith, Julia Cimino (Maple Bay), Gerjohn van den Bosch (Maple Bay) and Ben Sykes (ECT)

From left to right: Bruce Griffiths, Gerjohn van den Bosch, Julia Cimino and Ben Sykes inside a barn at North Wyke Farm Platform.

JOURNAL SPECIAL FEATURE: SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED

Following on from the symposium “Resilient Landscapes for People, Nature and Climate” the call-for-proposals for the joint special feature between the journals People and Nature, and Ecological Solutions and Evidence has been extended until 15 September. See Call for Proposals: Resilient Landscapes for People, Nature and Climate Special Feature to find out more.

UPCOMING EVENTS

In September, ECT will be co-hosting the Northern Soils Network Annual Meeting through our partnership with the British Society of Soil Science (BSSS). This will take place at Newcastle University’s Cockle Park Farm. Alongside talks, there will an opportunity to see the 128-year-long Palace Leas grazing/cutting LTE. Register here.

On 3 October, we will be co-hosting an event to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Ainsdale Dune Slacks grazing experiment in West Lancashire, also known as the Sally Edmondson Plots. This will be held at the Ainsdale Dunes NNR in partnership with Natural England, Loughborough University and Lund University in Sweden. Due to limitations on the site, the event will be invitation-only for around 50 guests.

On 12-14 October ECT will be exhibiting at New Scientist Live in London (ExCel Centre) where we will showcase our virtual reality experiences for three of the LTEs on our national register. For more information and to register for the event, see New Scientist Live.

Photos from left to right: Palace Leas and Ainsdale Dune Slacks

Landscape photo of the grassland at Palace Leas. In the background, there is a line of trees, and there are few clouds in the sky.

3 cows are in a field at Ainsdale Dune Slacks. 2 look at the camera, and the third is grazing. A large tree line is in the distance.

NETWORK NEWS

FENCE REPAIRS AT GLEN FINGLAS LTE

At the end of summer 2023, cattle broke out of one of the experimental grazing plots at the top of Gleann Meann, Glen Finglas, Scotland. This was a relatively small length of fence, but the cattle then broke through the fence of the plot they had broken into, taking down quite a long length! Robin Pakeman (James Hutton Institute) would like to thank ECT who contributed half the repair costs for 530 metres of reposting (£2028). This has allowed the Glen Finglas LTE to carry on into its twenty-third year of monitoring.

Photo: New posts on the fencing below Block E at the top of Glenn Meann. Credit: Debbie Fielding

Photo of a fence that divides a plot from the exterior of the plot. In the distance, there are hills, and the sky has clouds.

A landscape view of Moor House showing the horizon, and a few clouds in the sky.

MOOR HOUSE MINI-CONFERENCE

Rob Marrs (University of Liverpool) reports on the mini-conference that took place in June on the 5 Moor House LTEs in Upper Teesdale. Alongside talks, delegates had the opportunity to tour the experimental plots.

READ ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

OPEN DAY AT TULLOCH AGROECOLOGY ROTATION

An open day at SRUC Aberdeen took place in July and showcased the Tulloch agroecology rotational long-term experiment. Co-PI Rob Graham reports on the event below. This LTE was established in 1991 and is unique in Europe as the only rotational experiment that uses livestock for grazing experimental plots. A new ECT webpage on the Tulloch rotational LTE is currently in development.

A group of sheep cluster together in front of a fence. In the distance, there are more fields, and trees line the horizon.

READ ABOUT THE OPEN DAY

NEW PUBLICATIONS

The Conversation has published an article on the BIFoR-FACE LTE, authored by Rob MacKenzie and Richard Norby. The article is based on the paper published recently in the journal Nature Climate Change: ‘Enhanced woody biomass production in a mature temperate forest under elevated CO₂’.

A new POSTNote Enhanced rock weathering: potential UK greenhouse gas removal has also been published recently which includes data from the Plynlimon Research Catchments LTE.

PARTNER NEWS

NATIONAL BIODIVERSITY NETWORK TRUST CONFERENCE 2024

The NBN Trust are delighted to announce that bookings for this year's NBN Conference are now open.

The conference is taking place at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool on Thursday 21 November and the NBN Trust is working in partnership with Tanyptera Trust and National Museums Liverpool on this year's event. The programme will comprise the annual Sir John Burnett Memorial Lecture, a panel discussion and a ceremony to celebrate the winners and highly commended nominees in this year's NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording. Further details on the programme including speakers will be forthcoming.

BOOK THE CONFERENCE

FOCUS ON…NORTH WYKE FARM PLATFORM

Habitat: Grassland

Location: Devon, England

Experimental goal: To understand how different types of grazing systems affect the flow of nutrients from soil to food

PIs: Jane Hawkins & Martin Blackwell, Rothamsted Research (North Wyke)

See: Our dedicated webpage on the experiment

Read: A blog by Graham McAuliffe and Laura Cardenas

Photos from left to right: Filming for our latest virtual reality experience with Ben Sykes, Bruce Griffith and Gerjohn van den Bosch; Stabiliser cattle; platform grazing field.

Ben Sykes and Bruce Griffiths in the background speak to a 360 camera as Gerjohn van den Bosch watches on

Landscape view of the grassland plots and trees in the distance.

OUR REACH

Please bear with us whilst we resolve issues with ECT’s X account

LinkedIn followers: 378 +2.7%

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LTE User Group members: 238 +1.7%

Quote overlaid on photo of the Buxton site by Raj Whitlock: "Because of that early work... we have a really good understanding of the responses of... calcarious grassland vegetation... to climate change".

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