The Electronic Rothamsted Archive

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This document provides information about data collected by Rothamsted for the Environmental Change Network. Currently only meteorological data is stored in ERA.

• Introduction
• Metdata
• How the data is loaded

Introduction

The Environmental Change Network (ECN), launched in January 1992, is a mult-agency, long-term research program to record, analyse and predict environmental change within the UK. Rothamsted is a founding site in a network of sites operating a uniform system of data collection, involving many disciplines, managed by the Natural Environment Research Council. Physical, chemical, botanical and zoological variables are recorded, using strict protocols, to provide sound data which will provide early warning of environmental changes and enable policy to be formulated. Only through such long-term observation of sensitive indicators can genuine trends be distinguished from short-term fluctuations.

Rothamsted has made two appointments within the Soil Science and Entomology and Nematology Departments to underpin these monitoring and research requirements. The observations being recorded by the Soil Science Department include atmospheric deposition of the gases nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide and rainfall composition. Soil sampling of the Classical Experiments will be done on a regular basis and a method for using soil microbial biomass content as an indicator of environmental change is being developed.

The following biological observations have already begun:

• continuous monitoring of moth populations using standard Rothamsted Insect Survey light traps;

• a common bird census done in conjunction with the British Trust for Ornithology;

• a butterfly census using Institute of Terrestrial Ecology protocols;

• pitfall trapping for predatory carabid beetles and harvestmen on Park Grass, Geescroft Wilderness and Broadbalk Wilderness;

• spittle bug sampling on Park Grass.

Other sites on the estate have been identified for the sampling of mites, collembola, tipulid larvae, frogs and bats, which will begin in the 1993 season. A comprehensive vegetation survey of the Rothamsted estate, as well as more extensive studies of specific target sites, will also commence in 1993.