e-Digest Statistics about: Wildlife
Environmental Factors and Pressures
The United Kingdom Environmental Change Network
The Environmental Change Network (ECN) is the United Kingdoms's long-term integrated monitoring network. It aims to obtain comparable long-term data to identify and quantify environmental changes by distinguishing man-made change from natural variations and trends. ECN measures driving variables of environmental change and ecosystem response variables that have been identified as being sensitive or responsive to such change. Many of the response variables are wildlife or biodiversity measures as wildlife populations respond directly (e.g. climatic effects on reproduction) and indirectly (e.g. cumulative effects of atmospheric pollution on soil and water quality) to environmental change.
ECN currently has 12 terrestrial sites (ranging from small 2km² intensively-managed lowland agricultural establishments to large, 65 km², semi-natural upland areas) and 44 freshwater sites. Standardised recording began at most terrestrial sites in 1993 and covers sets of 'core' measurements on: meteorology, surface water drainage, surface water quality, atmospheric chemistry, precipitation chemistry, soil solution chemistry, soils, vegetation, invertebrates (moths, butterflies, ground predators, spittle bugs and crane-flies), vertebrates (rabbits, bats, common birds, moorland birds, frogs) and site management. Recording of animals is directed towards groups that should be good indicators of environmental change and for which there are already good ecological data that can provide a sound background to interpretation. Birds, moths (macrolepidoptera) and butterflies already have national monitoring programmes and ECN sites follow the existing methods of these surveys to allow ECN sites to be placed in a regional and national context. At river and lake sites, wildlife data on freshwater invertebrates, macrophytes, phytoplankton, zooplankton and diatoms are collected. The use of standardised methods of data collection is an important principle of ECN and is achieved by using agreed standard protocols for all the measurements. Full details of all the measurement protocols and the associated quality assurance procedures in data collection, data processing and data management are given in Sykes and Lane (1996) and Sykes, Lane and George (1999).
The terrestrial sites are briefly characterised in Table 21. Sites are grouped according to the environmental zone within the UK in which they are found, based on the categories used by Countryside Survey 2000. The ordering of sites based on this grouping is used in all subsequent tables. However, it should be borne in mind that sites within each zone may vary considerably in terms of land cover, land use, soil and the extent and nature of semi-natural habitats within them. Some of the wildlife data from the first twelve years of data collection for these 12 sites are summarised in Table 22 and Table 23. In this summary, total number of individuals and total number of species in some broad groupings of species are presented for each site to give an indication of major changes over the past ten years. This summary of results is not designed to pick-up subtle signals of change. Results from detailed analyses based on more sensitive indices and groupings of species, which will be indicative of specific aspects of environmental change, are being developed. Some data on the environmental characteristics of the site are also presented (Table 24) as an aid to making site comparisons and to illustrate the integrated nature of data collection within ECN.
The summers of 1995 and 1996 were two of the driest on record, with prolonged drought being recorded in southern parts of the UK. They were associated with an increase in the number of moths and butterflies recorded at most ECN sites. There was no consistent change in the counts of bats, birds and ground beetles, suggesting that the exceptional weather conditions were, in the short-term, not a major factor in determining numbers in these groups. Between 1994 and 1996 the total counts of butterflies and moths across sites for which measurements were available in all three years increased by 62 per cent and 59 per cent respectively and there was a corresponding, but smaller, increase in the number of different species of moths (+9%), and butterflies (+10%). This increase has been reversed in succeeding years.
In Detail:
- Species at risk and wildlife protection
- Amphibians and reptiles
- Butterflies, dragonflies and grasshoppers
- Mammals
- Otters
- Seals
- UK Biodiversity Action Plan
Further Information:
- Source:
- Environmental Change Network
- Key Facts:
- Population of wild birds
- Scarce and threatened native species
- Environmental Change Network
Data Tables:
- References, further reading and links to other resources:
- [22] Sykes, J. M. & Lane, A. M. J. (eds.) (1996) The UK Environmental Change Network: Protocols for standard measurements at terrestrial sites. Stationery Office, London.
- [23] Sykes, J. M., Lane, A. M. J. & George, D. G. (eds.) (1999) The UK Environmental Change Network: Protocols for standard measurements at freshwater sites. Natural Environment Research Council.
- Internet Links:
- Environmental Change Network (ECN)
- Defra: Wildlife and Countryside Directorate
- Defra: Wildlife & Countryside, The UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UKBAP)
Your questions and comments about information presented on this page are welcome. Contact information and Email . Copyright of data and/or information presented or attached in this document may not reside solely with this Department. Please see guidance on Copyright.
Page last modified: 3 November 2005
Page published: 23 May 2005