North Wyke - United Kingdom

Basic Information
Site Name
North Wyke
Short name
T05
Country
United Kingdom
Web Address
http://data.ecn.ac.uk/sites/ecnsites.asp?site=T05
Site Manager
Deborah Beaumont
Operating Organisation
Rothamsted Research
Site Description
UK ECN site. North Wyke (latitude 3o 54’ W; longitude 50o 46’N) lies in undulating countryside 7 km to the north of Dartmoor National Park, midway between the villages of South and North Tawton. The site covers 250 ha, of which 200 ha are grassland and 50 ha are deciduous woodland at an altitude of 120 m to 180 m. A lowland grassland site typical of conditions in wetter, western Britain, with predominately impermeable clays of the Culm Measures. ECN is funded through the Rothamsted Long-Term Experiments National Capability (LTE- NCG). Details available at http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/long-term-experiments-national-capability.
Last modified
2020-06-29 10:06:41
General Characteristics, Purpose, History
Site Status
Operational
Year Established
1992
Purpose
Lowland grassland agricultural ecosystem research site. North Wyke established itself nationally and internationally as a research centre for pastoral livestock systems. The research emphasis shifting from predominately agricultural production to one of more multi-functional land use taking account of the environmental implications of grassland farming. Current research at North Wyke is helping to address some of agriculture’s most pressing challenges, for example mitigating and adapting to climate change, protecting natural resources and sustaining the rural economy in grassland dominated regions. The North Wyke Farm Platform (https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/north-wyke-farm-platform) is a unique national and global research facility that is linked to real-world farming to study and improve grassland livestock systems.
History
North Wyke was an experimental farm from 1955-1981, belonging to Fisons Fertilisers, before the Grassland Research Institute acquired the site in September 1981 to study the efficiency of grassland production on heavy soils under high rainfall in SW England. A period of restructuring of research institutes resulted in the formation in the Institute of Grassland and Environmental research (IGER) in 1990. In March 2008 IGER ceased to exist and North Wyke was temporarily known as North Wyke Research before becoming part of Rothamsted Research in August 2009.
Research Topics
biology
ecology
biodiversity
animal ecology
ecosystem ecology
plant ecology
vegetation dynamics
terrestrial ecology
ecosystem service
chemistry
biogeochemistry
depositions chemistry
soil chemistry
soil solution chemistry
water chemistry
atmospheric chemistry
geology
hydrology
meteorology
climatology
climate change
climate monitoring
environmental science
agriculture
geography
Parameters
agricultural parameter
dissolved organic carbon in soil
atmospheric parameter
air humidity
precipitation intensity
snow depth
net radiation irradiance
solar radiation
net solar radiation irradiance
total radiation irradiance
wind direction
wind speed
biological parameter
tree diameter
tree height
percent organic carbon
total carbon
total organic carbon
available phosphorus
inorganic carbon content
percent carbon
soil pH
dissolved organic phosphorus
ecosystem parameter
floristic diversity
species composition
plant species composition
species presence
birds presence
bryophytes presence
soil solute amount
species turnover
diversity index
tree diameter at breast height
landscape parameter
land cover
land use
soil parameter
soil acidity
soil bulk density
carbon-to-nitrogen ratio
cation exchange capacity
soil moisture field capacity
soil temperature
soil solution concentration
dissolved organic nitrogen in soil
thickness of soil horizon
total organic carbon
water parameter
water acidity
conductivity
runoff amount
water quality
water table
water volume
Photos
not defined

not defined

not defined

not defined

not defined

not defined

not defined

not defined

not defined

not defined

Geographic
Size
250.00ha
Elevation (average)
159.00msl
Elevation (min)
120.00msl
Elevation (max)
180.00msl
Related observation location(s)
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_051)This site is a verified "UK ECN" member.
Projects
UK Environmental Change Network
eLTER catalogue
eLTER (H2020)
Download

Site information [.json]

Centroid coordinates [.shp] [.kml]
Bounding Box [.shp] [.kml]
Boundaries [.shp] [.kml]
GEO-BON Biome
Terrestrial
Biome
Grasslands
Ecosystem and Land Use
Agricultural
Grasslands
Biogeographical Region
Atlantic Bio-geographical Region
Air Temperature: Average Annual
9.34°C
Air Temperature Range (Monthly Minimum)
4.70°C
Precipitation Annual
1467.50mm
Precipitation Maximum Monthly
495.60mm
Precipitation Minimum Monthly
256.20mm
Vegetation
Most of the culm measure land is sown to long term leys, some of which have a high clover content. Deciduous woodlands cover 50 ha. In 1988 spaced trees were planted on 5 ha of land for an agroforestry experiment and a further 2 ha have been planted at conventional woodland density. Small pockets of semi-natural grassland and the deciduous woodlands have been left relatively unmanaged.
Soils
The land area extends to 250 ha, the majority of which is poorly drained Culm Measures clays principally of the Hallsworth and Halstow series. Seven hectares are of free draining redland of the Crediton series.
EUNIS habitat
Grasslands and lands dominated by forbs, mosses or lichens (E)
Site Type (Spatial Design)
Complex Site
Design of Experimentation
partly experimentation
Scale of Experimentation
micro sites
Design of Observation
mainly observation
Scale of Observation
plot without link to explicit catchment
Infrastructure
Data infrastructure » Data services » Data portal
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Spatial data file (GIS)
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Structured file
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Relational database
Accessible All Year
Yes
All parts of Site Accessible
Yes
Access Type
regular car
Permanent Power Supply
Yes
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 Notes
Data available via ECN Data Centre: http://data.ecn.ac.uk/index.asp
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
Data Storage Location
Central
Data Services
Data portal
LTER Site Classification
Master
Related Resources
19 dataset(s) in total:
North Wyke: Ecosystem services variables from the UK Environmental Change Network (ECN)
North Wyke: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) bat data: 1993-2015
North Wyke: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) bird data: 1995-2015
North Wyke: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) butterfly data: 1993-2015
North Wyke: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) common breeding bird data: 1971-2007
North Wyke: UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) frog data: 1994-2015
North Wyke: 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.