Long Term Monitoring Network - Soils Analysis 2019

Tender description

The Long-term Monitoring Network (LTMN) comprises 37 sites, mainly on National Nature Reserves, in England, where a wide range of environmental parameters are being monitored with the aim of detecting long-term changes in biodiversity and ecosystem function associated with climate change, pollution and land management. A suite of soil parameters are included in this monitoring to enable interpretation of above and below-ground environmental changes and to indicate long-term changes in soil characteristics, functions and biodiversity. This contract requires no fieldwork, and relates to sample processing, analysis and reporting of results only. Currently all sites where soils monitoring is required will have their fieldwork and sampling carried out by Natural England staff and volunteers. We need processing, analysis and reporting for soils samples collected during two years of sampling: 2018 and 2019. This is because in 2018 samples were collected, but not analysed, and have been stored frozen at -20o. These samples can be made available shortly after the contract is awarded, to enable early processing and analysis. For 2019 samples, the fieldwork and sampling will be completed in September/October and the samples will be made available for processing from late September to mid October 2019.