The NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), a component organisation within the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), is the leading body in the United Kingdom for research, survey, monitoring and training in the terrestrial and freshwater sciences. CEH provides independent research and advice to inform government policy on natural resource management and environmental protection, and to raise public awareness of national and global environmental issues. CEH seeks, inter alia, to develop and apply knowledge of the factors which determine the composition, structure and processes of terrestrial systems, and the characteristics of individual plant and animal species; to understand the interactions between atmospheric, terrestrial and surface-water systems; to develop a sound scientific basis for modelling and predicting environmental trends; and to disseminate the results of research to decision makers.
CEH carries out research on all levels of biodiversity:
genetic (e.g. population genetics of oak),
species (e.g. plant, invertebrate and vertebrate diversity in woodlands, forests and agro-ecosystems),
habitat and landscape (e.g. ‘Landscape ecological network as the templet for biodiversity’ project (LANDECONET)).
At the national scale, CEH carries out regular Countryside Surveys (e.g. SC2000) and has produced national Land Cover Maps from satellite remote sensing.
At CEH Banchory research is based in two sections:
Community Ecology Section – research focuses on successional impacts and sustainable land use, and investigates the role of environmental factors (grazing, exotic species, climate and land-use change) on plant communities in Arctic, Upland and Mediterranean environments.
Population Ecology Section – research focuses on the population biology of animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, the interactions between animals, their host plants and their natural enemies, particularly their predators, parasites and pathogens, and the factors underpinning the conservation of animal communities.
CEH Monks Wood specialises in the dynamics and sustainability of disturbed ecosystems such as agricultural ones and ones around industrial sites.

RESEARCH TEAM: Phil E. Hulme, Rodolphe E. Gozlan, Dan Osborne, David Spurgeon, Sara Long, Claus Svendsen