Skip to main content

Natural England's Long Term Monitoring Network (RP00316)

The Environmental Change Biodiversity Network is a multi-agency long-term integrated research programme to record, analyse and predict environmental change in the United Kingdom. The focus of the network is to understand long term air pollution and climate change impacts on biodiversity. All sites operate a uniform system of long-term data collection of physical, chemical and biological variables recorded using strict protocols.

Since 2009 Natural England (NE) has contributed to the wider ECBN through its Long Term Monitoring Network (LTMN), which currently stands at 37 sites across England. Seven monitoring protocols are followed for weather, air quality, land management, vegetation, soil chemistry and communities, bird and butterfly populations, in order to allow comparability of 10 target habitats on a range of sites across the network. Below are links to protocols and data that have been published as part of this work.

The ten target types are:
1. Broadleaved mixed woodland
2. Heathland (upland and lowland)
3. Upland blanket bog
4. Lowland raised bog
5. Lowland fen
6. Calcareous grassland
7. Neutral grassland
8. Sand dune
9. Saltmarsh
10. Montane

The LTMN Evidence Catalogue, which you can download below, lists all the datasets published here on Access to Evidence, as well as further information about the datasets, such as recommended citations.

To download the datasets themselves, and to find out about the sites within the LTMN project, please see the individual protocol and Core sites data pages.

Via the links below you can find out more about the different protocols, the project as a whole, and the opportunities available.

Update May 2020: all LTMN vegetation surveys (no. 80 surveys, spanning 2010 – 2019) have been transferred to a new template to provide improvements and consistency, and are now fully Quality Assured and republished.

Update October 2023: all LTMN vegetation surveys up until 2022 are available.

Butterfly data for UKBMS transects on or near LTMN sites, up until 2021, are available.

If you download any datasets, please would you take a minute to drop us an e-mail, to tell us what you’ll be using the data for?

For more information please contact the LTMN mailbox LTMN@naturalengland.org.uk

Downloads available for this record

File Uploaded
Long Term Monitoring Network - Local Evidence Catalogue - updated October 2023, XLSX, 409.2 kB 2023/10/18
Long Term Monitoring Network - Local Evidence Catalogue, XLSX, 398.9 kB 2023/10/18
Long Term Monitoring Network - Local Evidence Catalogue, XLSX, 385.9 kB 2020/07/15

Related Access to Evidence records

Title
Long Term Monitoring Network Vegetation Protocol (LTMN001)
Long Term Monitoring Network Soils Protocol (LTMN002)
Long Term Monitoring Network Weather Protocol (LTMN003)
Long Term Monitoring Network Air Quality Protocol (LTMN004)
Long Term Monitoring Network Birds Protocol (LTMN005)
Long Term Monitoring Network Butterflies Protocol (LTMN006)
Long Term Monitoring Network Land Management Protocol (LTMN007)
Taking the long view - an introduction to Natural England's Long Term Monitoring Network 2009 - 2016 (NERR070)
Long Term Monitoring Network Volunteer Opportunities and Newsletters (LTMN008)