{"id":"f9725fdc-2f20-4469-8164-7de106e4924e","uri":"https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/f9725fdc-2f20-4469-8164-7de106e4924e","type":"infrastructureRecord","title":"Sand Dune Ecohydrology Network","description":"The purpose of the Sand Dune Ecohydrology Network is to monitor the effects of climate change in dune wetlands across Britain.  Dune wetlands are highly biodiverse, but are particularly sensitive to climate change through subtle changes in the balance between rainfall and evapotranspiration.  Groundwater levels in dune systems are a good integrator of climate change, and directly affect vegetation communities and their ecological condition.  For example, the area of dune wetlands on protected sites in England has decreased by 30% in 25 years due to drying out.  This is an instrumented network of co-located groundwater, vegetation and soil monitoring locations in dune wetlands.  The Newborough Dunes site is also used for field experiments.","metadataDate":"2025-04-09T09:24:37","resourceIdentifiers":[{"code":"https://catalogue-staging.ceh.ac.uk/id/5fe5d48d-aded-4256-9e18-ce39c2c5d365"},{"code":"https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/f9725fdc-2f20-4469-8164-7de106e4924e"}],"keywords":[{"value":"Newborough Warren NNR and forest"},{"value":"Aberffraw dunes"},{"value":"Talacre Warren"},{"value":"Whitford Burrows"},{"value":"Sandscale Haws"},{"value":"Ainsdale & Sefton coast dunes"},{"value":"Braunton Burrows"},{"value":"Sandwich Bay"},{"value":"Tentsmuir"},{"value":"Coll"}],"capabilities":"The Sand Dune Ecohydrology Network provides co-located monitoring of groundwater, vegetation and soil at ten dune wetland sites with geographic coverage across the UK.  Groundwater is continuously monitored using automated dataloggers, supplemented with manual monthly measurements.  Vegetation surveys are conducted at varying frequency from annual to 5-yearly or longer.  The Newborough Dunes site also hosts a series of restored dune wetlands, annually monitored since 2014, plus a nitrogen x grazing manipulation experiment: three grazing treatments maintained via 10x10m enclosures (2003 onwards); five nutrient treatments nested within grazing (application period 2003-2011); three replicate blocks.","lifecycle":"The Sand Dune Ecohydrology Network has built over time.  Historical data for some sites goes back to 1964.  Experimental treatments at the Newborough Dunes site were established 2003-2011.  Automated groundwater monitoring across all sites has been available since 2010.","uniqueness":"The Sand Dune Ecohydrology Network is unique in the UK for monitoring ecohydrology and climate change impacts in dune wetlands.  Co-located and DGPS elevation corrected quadrat, water and soils data is unique globally with the possible exception of The Netherlands.","locationText":"The Sand Dune ecohydrology network is coordinated by UKCEH Bangor with ten sites across Britain: four sites in Wales (Newborough Warren NNR and Forest; Aberffraw Dunes; Talacre Warren; Whitford Burrows), four sites in England (Sandscale Haws; Ainsdale & Sefton Coast dunes; Braunton Burrows; Sandwich Bay) and two sites in Scotland (Tentsmuir; Coll).","access":"Sand Dune Ecohydrology Network data  will be freely available via the UKCEH Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC), meanwhile can be requested from Laurence Jones at UKCEH.  UKCEH does not manage access to individual sites, but can provide information on precise locations where monitoring data is collected to enable best use of the data; contact Laurence Jones at UKCEH ?Station.","fundingSources":"The Sand Dune Ecohydrology Network and experiment have been funded by many project grants over the years.  Annual monitoring is currently funded by small awards from Natural Resources Wales and PhD projects.","scienceArea":"Soils and Land Use","infrastructureCategory":{"value":"instrumentedSites","description":"Instrumented sites","infrastructureClass":"Environmental observatories","uri":"http://vocabs.ceh.ac.uk/ri/instrumentedSites"},"infrastructureChallenge":[{"value":"Sustainable ecosystems: biodiversity net gain"}],"owners":[{"displayName":"Laurence Jones","organisationName":"UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology","organisationIdentifier":"https://ror.org/00pggkr55","role":"owner","address":{"city":"Bangor"},"fullName":"Laurence Jones"}],"users":["The Sand Dune Ecohydrology Network and experiments are used primarily by researchers in UKCEH and Loughborough University, plus end users in Natural Resources Wales, Natural England and Nature Scot."]}