NC-UK News and Events

UKCEH is undertaking a deep dive review, on behalf of NERC, into the National Capability funded long-term environmental terrestrial and freshwater monitoring currently undertaken in the UK. This review will help to identify the priorities required for an adaptable and flexible UK environmental monitoring network for the future.

We welcome anyone who is a researcher, practitioner or user of current terrestrial and freshwater monitoring data to complete the survey by 9am Monday 29th September.

The information from this survey will be synthesised and presented to a panel of experts from the UK environmental community. This independently facilitated session will help to build the criteria and vision for the UK environmental monitoring network in the future.

Following the panel session, a report will be presented to NERC to help inform decision making in the future. Please get involved and make your voice heard. Contact nc-uk@ceh.ac.uk if you have any questions.

NEMC 2025 – Building the UK Environmental Monitoring Community
15 December 2025
EICC, Edinburgh, 10am - 5pm

Building on the momentum of last year’s event, NEMC 2025 will move beyond knowledge-sharing towards fostering collective momentum for a shared UK environmental monitoring vision and supporting its practical delivery.

Our independent panel is currently reviewing and selecting from an exciting range of submissions for talks and interactive sessions from organisations across the UK’s environmental landscape – including Natural England, JNCC, Environment Agency, Welsh Government, Forest Research, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UKCEH, Defra, NCEA, and many others working at the forefront of environmental monitoring.

We’ve received submissions on a wide range of topics, including biodiversity and habitats, water, soils, greenhouse gases, chemicals, and social and economic issues—plus much more.

Community-led sessions and talks will include:
•    Case studies
•    Panel discussions
•    Interactive sessions 
 
NEMC2025 is Chaired by leading voices:
•    Andy Nesbitt – Natural England
•    Ann Humble / James Skates– Welsh Government
•    Martin Parr -CABI (TBC)
•    Mat Williams – University of Edinburgh
•    Mark Nason – CIEEM
•    Bridget Emmett – UKCEH
 
Be part of the change
Whether you deliver, use, or benefit from environmental monitoring, your voice matters. Help shape a community that drives greater impact and supports resilient, evidence-led environmental monitoring across the UK.

Registration closes on 11 November 2025.  Spaces are limited - we’ve had lots of interest already, so don’t miss your chance to attend and be part of NEMC 2025.

Open to all, the event is organised by the British Ecological Society (BES), UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, and the UK Environmental Observation Framework (UKEOF).

Are you involved in freshwater biodiversity and water quality monitoring and research in the UK? 

We’re inviting individuals and organisations involved in those fields to take part in a short survey (approx. 15 minutes), to help us understand community needs and priorities around freshwater monitoring and research and inform the structure of a follow-up expert workshop focused on detecting and understanding pollutant impacts on UK freshwaters. 

We would love your views to represented in the planning of this event. Take part in the survey HERE!

Interested in attending the workshop?
Wednesday 12 November 2025, On-line

This online workshop will bring together freshwater biodiversity experts to evaluate the effectiveness and representativeness of current UK monitoring approaches, with respect to providing the evidence we need to detect and understand ecosystem change in response to pollution. We will explore the essential elements needed to evaluate ecosystem impacts,  and identify key challenges and opportunities. We hope to identify and confront significant issues such as gaps in data coverage, hurdles to data integration, and the complexities involved in interpreting the data we have. At the same time, we will identify promising opportunities such as novel, cutting-edge monitoring and analysis techniques.

The changing status of freshwater biodiversity in the UK: current evidence, challenges, and possible futures is part of the NC-UK National Science Series.

The Bloomin' Algae app allows anyone with a smartphone to report suspected blue-green algal blooms across the UK, helping to speed up public health warnings about harmful algal blooms and can help teach you how to recognise the risks to you, children and animals. UKCEH freshwater ecologist Dr Linda May spoke to the Countryside Jobs Service about blue-green algal blooms to help raise awareness of the dangers and spread the word about the app. 

Download Bloomin’ Algae today and be part of the effort to keep your community safe!

Thursday 6 November 2025 

2025 marks the 10th year of the Cumbrian Lakes Research Forum and 80 years of continuous data collection on lakes in the Windermere catchment, now carried out by UKCEH under the NC-UK programme. We wish to mark this momentous achievement by hosting the biggest Cumbrian Lakes Research Forum to date and showcasing the importance of this long-term monitoring programme and where it has influenced research and management of lakes across local, national, and international scales. The event will also focus on the need for evidence-driven policy and management. 

Speakers include:

• Stephen Thackeray, UKCEH “Celebrating 80 years of long-term lake research in the Cumbrian lakes”​

• Taylor Butler-Eldridge, University of Exeter “Tracing the socio-cultural relationships between outdoor swimming and environmental health at Windermere”​

• Lori Lawson Handley, UKCEH "Title TBC – eDNA, fish and biodiversity monitoring"​

• Katrina Woodfield, Lancaster University "Investigating the role of organic nutrient resources in controlling biodiversity and production in freshwater ecosystems"​

•  Ruth Forrester, Environment Agency "Turning research into delivery : the Love Windermere Partnership"​

• Bryan Spears, UKCEH, "Title TBC FUTURELAKES"​

• "PLURALAKES: Visioning positive nature futures for lakes"
   

All welcome. An in-person event at the Windermere Jetty Museum, Rayrigg Road, Bowness on Windermere, Cumbria, LA23 1BN

UKCEH recently hosted an early career researcher through the NC-UK internship programme, a six-week placement designed to build skills in environmental science, data analysis, and science communication.

Phoebe Kelsall's (U Bournemouth) project focused on “Eighty Years of the Long-Term Cumbrian Lakes Monitoring Programme – What Can It Teach Us About Our Changing Lakes?”. Her work involved:

• Summarising trends in key ecological and environmental variables
• Creating clear, engaging data visualisations
• Developing reusable code for future data updates
• Drafting a journal article on the history, methods, and key findings of the programme
   

NC-UK interns experience field science at Windermere

As part of the programme, interns joined UKCEH scientists in the field at Windermere, where they learned about the Cumbrian Lakes Monitoring Programme, now celebrating 80 years of water quality research. Activities included traditional sampling techniques like zooplankton tows and oxygen profiling, alongside demonstrations of cutting-edge methods such as sensors, eDNA, and drone surveys.

In the afternoon, Mel Fletcher (Natural England) introduced macroinvertebrate sampling and shoreline restoration work. Interns got hands-on with kick-sampling, identifying species from midge larvae to stoneflies.

The field day brought data to life and gave interns a chance to connect, share experiences, and deepen their understanding of freshwater monitoring.

With the dry weather conditions continuing and the fourth ‘heatwave’ of the year being declared this week, media interest continues to be high on this topic. The publication of the latest UK Hydrological Outlook funded by NC-UK and Hydro-JULES provided us with the opportunity to share the latest data across our communications channels and with media directly. View Wilson Chan’s video summary  on LinkedIn. This resulted in coverage across a number of media outlets with Glenn Watts interviewed live on the BBC talking about the latest hydrological situation and the impacts of the dry weather affecting the UK. 

For NC-UK, these conditions underscore the importance of our mission: to build a resilient, collaborative response to climate and environmental challenges. The current drought is a stark reminder of the pressures facing our ecosystems and communities—and of the need for coordinated action across science, policy, and practice.

Through our partnerships with organisations like UKCEH, the Met Office, and Vodafone, NC-UK is working to strengthen data sharing, community engagement, and innovation in climate adaptation.

August 27 marked the first-ever World Lake Day, a new United Nations observance dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of lakes and promoting sustainable lake management. Lakes are essential for providing fresh water, supporting biodiversity, regulating climate, and enabling agriculture, industry, and recreation.

To celebrate, UKCEH and NC-UK is highlighted its work in freshwater science:

• Listen to the latest Counting the Earth podcast: A Deep Dive into Windermere:79, featuring NC-UK freshwater scientists Eleanor Mackay and Heather Moorhouse discussing long-term monitoring and ecological changes at Windermere
• Track harmful algal blooms with the Bloomin’ Algae Citizen Science App
• UK Lakes Portal, an inventory that includes more than 40000 water bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man and catchment data for all water bodies with a surface area >1 ha.

The sixth and final session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) for the Global Plastics Treaty took place from 5 - 14 August 2025 in Geneva. The goal was a legally binding global agreement to end plastic pollution. With negotiations at a critical stage, UKCEH and NC-UK scientists attended as official observers to ensure science and evidence guide decision-making.

Find out more.

The UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS) has released its 2025 Annual ReportThis year’s theme is “Stand Tall for the Small”, celebrating the vital role of insects in ecosystems.

More can be found on the RES website - https://www.insectweek.org/

RES events open to all; FIT Counts available April to September 

For more information, please contact Claire Carvell, UKCEH (ccar@ceh.ac.uk)

The latest UKCEH Land Cover Map now includes easy-to-access statistics showing how habitats vary across UK counties and nations. Using high-resolution satellite data, the map reveals the distribution of broad habitats—from woodland to urban areas—down to 10-metre detail.

For the first time, users can view land cover statistics without specialist software, making insights more accessible for policymakers, NGOs, water companies and land managers. The data is available in hectares and percentages, and can be explored interactively via our new spatial explorer tool.

Maps and data are free for academic and non-commercial use via the Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC).

The development of the new dataset and the spatial explorer tool was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council through the National Capability for UK challenges (NC-UK) programme. 
 

NC-UK is delivering data-driven solutions for a changing environment at BES2025.

Join NC-UK and UKCEH at BES2025 to explore how we’re supporting environmental science through integrated monitoring, modelling, and data.

We’re working with the community to make environmental data more accessible and useful - helping researchers, policymakers, businesses and practitioners respond to today’s challenges.

Our focus areas include:

• Hydrological Extremes
• Land Use & Net Zero
• Biodiversity
• Pollution

Underpinned by our Digital Research Infrastructure and Integrated Environmental Monitoring Network, our work brings together science and technology to better understand the UK environment.

Visit us at our stand to explore our tools, access datasets, and discover opportunities to collaborate.

New findings from the UKCEH Countryside Survey reveal the first national-scale evidence of recovering soil organic carbon in British croplands, reversing decades of decline. After losing around 11% of topsoil carbon between 1978 and 2007, cropland soils have shown significant recovery from 2007 to 2020.

This turnaround is linked to shifts in land management practices, such as reduced tillage and straw removal, and marks a hopeful step toward restoring soil health and resilience at scale 2.

Read more via the British Society of Soil Science or access the full study in the European Journal of Soil Science.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has relaunched its Plants for Pollinators lists, now featuring nearly 10,000 qualifying plants. Following a rigorous review led by Dr Andrew Salisbury, the updated lists ensure every plant meets strict criteria for supporting pollinators.

The review, which began in 2022, evaluated 354 plant taxa and incorporated the latest research. As a result, some plants were removed, while others were added—making this the most comprehensive update to date.

The refreshed lists aim to better guide gardeners, growers, and landscapers in choosing plants that benefit bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

Plants for Pollinators Counts project

Ongoing RHS research includes the Flower-Insect-Timed Count (FIT) surveys being led by Helen Bostock and Stephanie Bird of RHS Plant Health team as part of the NC-UK UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS).

The RHS Plants for Pollinator Counts project is collecting data using the standardised pollinator monitoring method called Flower Insect Timed (FIT) Counts, a repeatable 10-minute survey developed by the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme. This provides information on the number and type of pollinating insect (to pollinator group) visiting a flower of interest.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the recent Community Conversation held on 6 May 2025, as part of the National Capability for UK Challenges (NC-UK) programme.

This online workshop brought together members of the environmental science community to co-develop ideas and digital solutions aimed at improving the discoverability and accessibility of spatial data—starting with the Land Cover Map. We greatly appreciate the thoughtful contributions and engaging discussions shared throughout the session.

We’re pleased to share the post-workshop report, which summarises key insights, challenges raised, and proposed actions. Additionally, the Spatial Data Explorer (Beta version) showcased during the session is now available via the Environmental Data Information Centre (EIDC) Catalogue for Land Cover Map 2024.

We look forward to continuing this collaboration and fostering innovation with the community. If you have any follow-up thoughts or would like to stay involved in future initiatives, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

The recently published 2024 annual report marks the tenth year of the National Plant Monitoring Scheme (NPMS), which since its first full season in 2015 has grown to cover over 5,000 plots surveyed by more than 1,000 volunteers, yielding upwards of 250,000 botanical records that feed into the UK Biodiversity Indicators. 

This UK-wide citizen science scheme aims to survey plant species across different habitats in the UK. The data collected from the survey allow us to look at the abundance and diversity of plants and help us to understand the health of different habitats. The survey was designed and developed by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, UKCEH, Plantlife and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

UKCEH’s contribution to the National Plant Monitoring Scheme is funded by the National Capability for UK Challenges (NC-UK) programme. 
 

UKCEH aims to co-produce, with the nature recovery practice community, a free to use data and knowledge hub.  The platform will meet the needs and requirements of different stakeholders through activities such as digitising and mapping restoration and rewilding activities and providing data on what is being monitored; species, habitats of interest, extent, wellbeing etc.