The Snowdon ECN Site

CCW and the Welsh Assembly Government co-sponsor the UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) site on Snowdon. The UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) is the UK's long-term, integrated environmental monitoring and research programme.  ECN gathers information about the pressures on and responses to environmental change in physical, chemical and biological systems.

The ECN on Snowdon is at 500 metres and is visited year round. A large amount of data is collected each week as well as data collected continuously from the Automatic Weather Station (AWS)

The information from the AWS is automatically put on a website and accessed by many people travelling to Snowdon. It is also linked to other weather stations on Snowdon. To look at our weather site please see the link at the bottom of the page.

 

A large range of variables are collected from beetles & bats to butterflies (one of the butterflies commonly found on Snowdon is the green veined white shown here). All the butterfly data is linked to the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. See the link to their web page below for more information.

 

In 2006 we started a freshwater ECN site at Nant Teyrn on Snowdon to run alongside our terrestrial site. A range of things will be looked at including diatoms and macrophytes this will bring to three the number of ECN freshwater sites in Wales.

 

The collection of phenological information is an important part of the work on the Snowdon site. This involves collecting information on the timings of a range of species from tadpole hatching to the first bud of the purple saxifrage. All this information is sent to the UK Phenology Network where it is combined with thousands of other data sets to  give us information on changes in our environment due to climate change. To look at their website please click on the link at the bottom of this page.

 

We also have an ammonia site at Dyffryn Mymbr which is part of the UK national Ammonia Monitoring Network. Follow the link to the webpage at the bottom of this page to see the results of ammonia monitoring on this site since 1997.

Monitoring of ozone is also carried out by the ECN team at Marchlyn Mawr the results of which are linked to the Welsh Air Quality Forum.  Click on the link at the bottom of this page to learn more.

As well as collecting rain samples on site for ECN we also collect them as part of the Acid Water Deposition Monitoring network.

All the data we collect is sent to and archived by the Environmental Change Network Central Co-ordination Unit based at CEH Lancaster. A summary of all the data collected by all the sites can be seen by following the link at the bottom of the page. This website will also explain all you need to know about ECN