Wytham is 5 km north west of Oxford and consists of mixed woodland, mainly deciduous, and organic mixed farmland. Roughly a third of the wooded area is ancient woodland which, to our knowledge, has never been cleared and there has been continuity of tree cover since the prehistoric 'wild wood'. It has however had a long history of management, which for many hundreds of years took the form of coppicing. Within the woodland there are patches of semi-natural grassland, of both ancient and recent origin, and scrub.

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General Characteristics, Purpose, History

Site Status:

existing

Year Site Established:

1992

Size :

770.00ha

Purpose of Site :

The UK ECN site at Wytham was established in 1992 with the aim of studying the impacts of climate change on ecological systems and to compare the findings with those from other sites around the UK. Our research slots into 75 years of scientific research and long term monitoring projects set up since the woods were gifted to Oxford University in 1942. Notable events include the start of the tit population monitoring project in 1947, small mammal monitoring in 1962, grassland restoration project in 1984 and long term badger monitoring in1987. In 2006 the canopy flux tower was established, facilitating studies on canopy interactions.

History of Site:

Oxford University has owned the Estate since 1943 and many pioneering studies in ecology have been carried out. Long-term records exist on many topics, in particular on birds, small mammals, and badgers. Nearby, the Radcliffe Meteorological Station in Oxford possesses the longest series of temperature and rainfall records for one site in Britain. Wytham was a flagship site for NERC's Terrestrial Initiative in Global Environmental Research (TIGER) programme. ECN terrestrial monitoring has been carried out at Wytham since 1992, with additional research done on the impacts of drought on grasslands and woodland vegetation and stream water chemistry, canopy tree ecophysiology, forest microclimates, and the impacts of deer on woodland vegetation.

Parameters:

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Geographic

Coordinates:

Latitude: 51.766700000000
Longitude: -1.333300000000

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Site Details

Ecosystem and Environmental Characteristics

Elevation Range FROM:

60.00msl

Elevation Range TO:

165.00msl

Elevation - Average:

79.00msl

Air Temperature Range (Monthly Minimum) FROM:

-10.80°C

Air Temperature Range (Monthly Maximum) TO :

34.40°C

Air Temperature: Average Annual:

9.90°C

Precipitation Minimum Monthly :

2.40mm

Precipitation Annual :

714.90mm

Precipitation Maximum Monthly :

150.80mm

Biome :

Deciduous Forest

GEO-BON Biome:

Terrestrial

Ecosystem and Land Use:

Agricultural
Forest
Deciduous Forest

Biogeographical Region:

Atlantic

Vegetation:

The site comprises of 400ha of SSSI designated woodland, and 370ha of organic mixed farmland. The woodland at Wytham can be divided into three broad categories of roughly equal area: ancient, secondary and plantation. The ancient woodland has never to our knowledge been cleared and there has been continuity of tree cover since the prehistoric 'wild wood'. It has however had a long history of management, which for many hundreds of years took the form of coppicing. Although this was abandoned in the early twentieth century, the characteristic growth form is still clearly visible. The secondary woodland has grown up naturally in the last 200 years or so, after the abandonment of wood pasture, pasture or cultivation. The National Vegetation Classification places both ancient and secondary woodland in community W8, Fraxinus excelsior - Acer campestre - Mercurialis perennis woodland. Neither of these woodland types are actively managed today. The oldest plantations are beeches of approximately 200 years old, but most are 50 - 60 years old. Within the woodland there are patches of semi-natural grassland, of both ancient and recent origin, and scrub. The farm is mainly extensive managed grassland, with some arable land, interspersed with hedgerows and some small wetland areas.

Soils:

A change in geology and soil type parallels the topography with alluvium beside the Thames overlying Oxford Clay. Away from the river, the clay is exposed with a large area of deep, heavy soils which are often waterlogged in winter. Towards the top of the hill there is a thin band of sandstone, giving rise to sandy soil in places and the very top of the hill is composed of coral rag limestone covered by extremely thin, well-drained soils.

eLTER Parameters

eLTER Parameters:

Network Affiliation and Network Specific Information

Affiliation:

LTER
eLTER (H2020)
eLTER catalogue
UK Environmental Change Network

LTER related

LTER Site Code:

LTER_EU_UK_054

LTER Site Classification/Category:

Master

Accreditation Status by LTER Member Network:

Accredited formal LTER facility

Protection Status and Resource Management

Nat. protection

0 - 25%

Natura 2000

0 - 25%

Management of Resources :

Yes

Management of Resources - Percent of Site:

50 - 75%

Management of Resources - Notes:

There is 370ha of organic mixed farmland

Design and Scale of Site

Site Type (Spatial Design):

Complex Site

Scale of Observation:

plot without link to explicit catchment

Design of Observation:

mainly observation

Scale of Experiments:

micro sites

Design of Experiments:

partly experimentation

Infrastructure

Infrastructure notes:

The nearest mainline rail station is at Oxford and the nearest airport is Heathrow. There are frequent bus links to Oxford from Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. There is no bus service to Wytham, access would be by car or taxi.

Accessible All Year :

Yes

All parts of Site Accessible:

Access Type:

dirt road (4WD)

Permanent Power Supply:

Yes

Infrastructure:

Data infrastructure › Data storage › Structured file
Data infrastructure › Data storage › Spatial data file (GIS)
Data infrastructure › Data storage › Relational database
Data infrastructure › Data services › Data portal

Operation

Operation Notes:

ECN terrestrial monitoring was carried out weekly until 2018 when the frequency dropped to every 4 weeks

Permanent Operation:

Yes

Site Visit Interval:

Every 7 days

Maintenance Interval:

Every 7 days

Data Management

General Data Policy:

Access to the data is through an Open Government Licence

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:

data.ecn.ac.uk

Data Storage Location :

Central

Data services :

Data portal

Data Notes:

Data available via ECN Data Centre: http://data.ecn.ac.uk/index.asp

Associated Data

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