Hillsborough - United Kingdom

Basic Information
Site Name
Hillsborough
Short name
T03
Country
United Kingdom
Web Address
ECN website
Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute
Operating Organisation
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI)
Site Manager
Colm McKenna
Site Description
UK ECN site. A lowland grassland site situated at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Co. Down, Northern Ireland and representative of grassland in much of the north-western United Kingdom. There are several long-term field experiments ongoing on the site. A large part of the site is estate woodland (Hillsborough Forest) consisting of mature mixed woodland and conifer plantation. Many of the vegetation plots are located within this forested area, as are sections of the butterfly, carabid beetle, spider and bird transects. The Hillsborough premises had formerly been the home of Marquis of Downshire and then during the 1st world war had been used for cropping by local farmers. When the war ended agric commodities prices ...
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Last modified
2023-07-28 10:07:09

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General Characteristics and Status
Site Status
Operational
Year Established
1992
Observed properties
soil parameteratmospheric parameterecosystem parameterchemical parameterwater parameterbiological parameterlandscape parameteragricultural parametercarbon-to-nitrogenratiocationexchangecapacitydissolvedorganicnitrogeninsoilsoilaciditysoilbulkdensitysoilmoisturefieldcapacitysoilsolutionconcentrationsoiltemperaturethicknessofsoilhorizontotalorganiccarbonairhumiditynetradiationirradiancenetsolarradiationirradianceprecipitationintensitysnowdepthsolarradiationtotalradiationirradiancewinddirectionwindspeedbirdspresencebryophytespresencediversityindexfloristicdiversityplantspeciescompositionspeciescompositionspeciespresencespeciesturnovertreediameteratbreastheightavailablephosphorusdissolvedorganicphosphorusinorganiccarboncontentpercentcarbonpercentorganiccarbonsoilpHtotalcarbontotalorganiccarbonconductivityrunoffamountwateraciditywaterqualitywatertablewatervolumetreediametertreeheightlandcoverlandusedissolvedorganiccarboninsoil
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_049)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
eLTER (H2020)
eLTER catalogue
eLTER PLUS (H2020) - VA
Photos
Aerial view of ECN Hillsborough
Aerial view of ECN Hillsborough
Geographic
1 km
3000 ft
View in site map
Centroid/Representative Coordinates

Latitude: 54.45 Longitude: -6.0667

Size
ca. 400.00ha
Elevation (average)
167.00msl
Elevation (min)
110.00msl
Elevation (max)
170.00msl
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
8.90°C
Precipitation Annual
1139.00mm
Geology
With reference to the Geological Survey of NI, they would class the hard geology (ie that underlying the glacial till) as belonging to the Gala Group, consisting of Silurian Sandstones. These are more commonly known as the Silurian Shales and Greywackes.
Vegetation
A lowland grassland site representative of grassland in much of the north-western United Kingdom. A large part of the site used for the biological aspects of ECN monitoring is estate woodland (Hillsborough Forest) consisting of mature mixed woodland and conifer plantation. Many of the vegetation plots are located within this forested area, as are sections of the butterfly, carabid beetle, spider and bird transects.
Soils
Most of the Hillsborough estate consists of drumlinized glacial till, and in terms of the World Reference Base soil description we would class it as Dystric Stagnosol.
Hydrology
The glacial till is generally regarded as having moderate to low levels of permeability. The hard geology is impermeable, however, near surface fracturing and areas of faulting can lead to local areas of high permeability ? not known if such areas exist at Hillsborough.
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
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 2WD
Supporting infrastructure » Transportation » Vehicle 4WD
Supporting infrastructure » Staff room at site » > 5 places
Supporting infrastructure » Lodging at site » No lodging possible
Energy and data transmission infrastructure » Energy supply » Permanent Power Supply Location » All over site/catchment
Accessible All Year
Yes
All parts of Site Accessible
No
Access Type
regular car
Permanent Operation
No
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
16 dataset(s) in total:
Hillsborough: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) bat data: 1993-2015
Hillsborough: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) bird data: 1995-2015
Hillsborough: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) butterfly data: 1993-2015
Hillsborough: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) carabid beetle data: 1992-2015
Hillsborough: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) common breeding bird data: 1971-2007
Hillsborough: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) frog data: 1994-2015
Hillsborough: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) Precipitation Chemistry 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.