Porton Down - United Kingdom

Basic Information
Site Name
Porton Down
Short name
T10
Country
United Kingdom
Web Address
ECN website
Operating Organisation
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
Site Manager
Sarah Atkinson
Site Description
UK ECN site. Dstl Porton Down is located in Southern England on the Wiltshire/Hampshire border. It is owned by Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and is used to deliver high-impact science and technology (S&T) for the UK's defence, security and prosperity. It has been closed to the public for over 100 years, resulting in it missing out on the agricultural revolution which affected the rest of the country. This is why it constitutes the largest uninterrupted tract of semi-natural chalk grassland in Britain. Over 1500 hectares is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Special Protection Area (SPA). The ECN monitoring takes place at the heart of the site on the chalk downland and takes in some of the sites special features. The ECN protocols that are undertaken on the site include Atmospheric chemistry, Precipitation chemistry and Weather data. Ecological data includes Rabbits, Birds, Butterflies, Moths, Ground Predators and Spiders.
Last modified
2023-07-28 10:07:11

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General Characteristics and Status
Site Status
Operational
Year Established
1992
Observed properties
Affiliation and Network Specific Information
Affiliation
ILTER✔This site is a verified "ILTER" member.
LTER Europe✔This site is a verified "LTER Europe" member.
UK ECN✔ (LTER_EU_UK_056)This site is a verified "UK ECN" member.
COSMOS-UK✖The affiliation of this site with "COSMOS-UK" is not verified by the network on DEIMS-SDR.
Projects
Natura 2000
eLTER (H2020)
eLTER catalogue
Photos
The antscape - Dstl
The antscape - Dstl
Simms Valley - Dstl
Simms Valley - Dstl
Automatic weather stations at Porton
Automatic weather stations at Porton
Juniper - Dstl
Juniper - Dstl
Geographic
View in site map
Centroid/Representative Coordinates

Latitude: 51.130695 Longitude: -1.658088

Size
ca. 1227.00ha
Elevation (average)
143.00msl
Elevation (min)
100.00msl
Elevation (max)
172.00msl
Related location(s)
Download

Site information [.json]

Centroid/representative coordinates [.shp] [.kml]
Bounding Box [.shp] [.kml]
Boundaries [.shp] [.kml]
GEO-BON Biome
Terrestrial
Biome
Grasslands
Ecosystem Type
Grasslands
Biogeographical Region
Atlantic Bio-geographical Region
EUNIS habitat
Grasslands and lands dominated by forbs, mosses or lichens (E)
Air Temperature: Average Annual
9.73°C
Precipitation Annual
759.00mm
Geology
Chalk
Vegetation
The site constitutes the largest uninterrupted tract of semi-natural chalk grassland in Britain, a habitat which has declined by more than 80% in the last 50 years. As well as the grassland the site supports large areas of mixed scrub, including juniper, and broadleaved, mixed and coniferous woodland. These habitats contain many rare and characteristic plants. The site also contains 20% of the Southern England juniper population, as well as 15 species of invertebrates endemic to Juniper.
Soils
Chalk soils
Site Type
Stationary land-based site
Design of Experimentation
partly experimentation
Scale of Experimentation
plot scale
Design of Observation
mainly observation
Scale of Observation
plot without link to explicit catchment
Permanent Power Supply
Yes
Equipment
Observation devices » Measurement tower » No tower on site
Data infrastructure » Data services » Data portal
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Structured file
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Spatial data file (GIS)
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Relational database
Supporting infrastructure » Transportation » Vehicle 4WD
Supporting infrastructure » Staff room at site » Unknown number of places
Supporting infrastructure » Lodging at site » No lodging possible
Energy and data transmission infrastructure » Data transmission » Data Transmission Type (from site) » No data transmission from site
Energy and data transmission infrastructure » Data transmission » Data Transmission Type (within site) » No within site data transmission
Energy and data transmission infrastructure » Energy supply » Permanent Power Supply Location » Central station(s)
Energy and data transmission infrastructure » Energy supply » Permanent Power Produced » 1-5 kW
Equipment notes
Accommodation nearby
Accessible All Year
Yes
All parts of Site Accessible
No
Access Type
dirt road (4WD)
Permanent Operation
Yes
Operation Notes
ECN terrestrial monitoring is carried out at least once every 7 days
Site Visit Interval
7
Maintenance Interval
7
Data Policy Notes
The ECN datasets are hosted by the NERC Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC - http://eidc.ceh.ac.uk/), managed by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) - https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/documents/4971bce4-8a81-4e23-9637-7fcff37c5f21. They are available under the Open Government Licence and can be cited via DOI's (digital object identifier).
Data Policy URL
http://data.ecn.ac.uk/datapolicy.asp
LTER Site Classification
Master
Related Resources on DEIMS-SDR
17 dataset(s) in total:
Porton Down: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) fine grain vegetation data: 1994-2015
Porton Down: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) meteorology data: 1991-2015
Porton Down: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) moth data: 1992-2015
There is EURO-CORDEX climate scenario data available for this site:
Projected Near Surface Specific Humidity ChangeRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Precipitation ChangeRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Sea Level Pressure ChangeRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Surface Downwelling Shortwave RadiationRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Near-Surface Wind SpeedRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Near-Surface Air TemperatureRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Daily Maximum Near-Surface Air TemperatureRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Daily Minimum Near-Surface Air TemperatureRCP26RCP45RCP85

You can also download the entire climate scenario dataset for this site from the EUDAT B2SHARE data store.