Long-term studies have been central to understand fundamental ecological processes that influence the structure and dynamic of natural and agricultural ecosystems. They are also a powerful tool to assess the effects of the environmental changes produced by human activities and help finding solutions to mitigate their impact on the ecosystem and society. Silwood Park host several active long-term field studies, some of which have been run for decades. They are helping to test a broad range of hypotheses that explain the impact of agrochemicals and alteration of grazers-plant interactions in plant and microbial communities, the effect of climate change on the assembly of natural communities and ecosystem function, and the effect of complex species interactions and habitat structure in population dynamics and animal behaviour.
Our experiments are part of the Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet and several national and international research groups like the Nutrient Network (NutNet), The Ecological Continuity Trust (ECT), the European Join Program on Agricultural Soil (EPJ soil), the Bug Network (BugNet), the Ecological Fractal Network, Studies of Populations of Individual Bird Network & Database (SPI-Birds) and the Rothamsted Research Suction Trap Network.