The ExCO is a natural ecosystem field laboratory, through which students, academics and wider society are able to explore and learn about the role that terrestrial ecosystems play in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and the effects of climate change on the stability of carbon uptake and storage in these systems. The ExCO is expected to contribute to the development of Exeter students by improving the quality of research-based teaching, enhancing student’s employability in environment-related jobs and increasing student’s satisfaction through regular access to the field; fieldwork is almost always the most popular element of our courses. The ExCO has the support of Exeter University’s Annual Fund and Education Enhancement through their environmental sustainability strategy, which aims to embed environmental sustainability within School education policies, strategies and the curriculum, based on the perception of “Campus as a living laboratory”. The focus of the ExCO on building regional capacity to understand carbon cycling contributes to the University of Exeter’s Climate Emergency Declaration.
Create the ExCO training centre in a locality with easy access from the University of Exeter allowing the use of the outdoor laboratory during both existing and new modules to support the University’s Education for Sustainable Development initiative. Implement a series of long-term continuous climate and carbon flux measurements, at the site, providing students with an excellent resource for data analysis.
Specifically, we aim to use the site:
The initial grant funded running the site continuously for three years and we are now seeking funding from partner organisations for the further development and long-term operation of the ExCO. Our long-term aim is to add international scope by facilitating students developing comparative studies from ExCO with our partners at international field sites which use the same field methodologies, e.g., with the Geography undergraduate field trip to the Atlantic forest in Brazil with partners from the Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro.
We have initially selected 4 suitable sites (below). In the current stage of the project, we are implementing our measurements at Stoke Woods. This is a site at a walking distance from Streatham Campus, owned by the Forestry Commission. The site is being installed with the support of the School of Geography researchers and volunteer students.