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The UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS) has released its 2025 Annual Report, coinciding with the start of Royal Entomological Society (RES) Insect Week, running from 23��29 June. This year’s theme is “Stand Tall for the Small��, celebrating the vital role of insects in ecosystems.

More information on insect week can be found on the RES website - 

RES events open to all;  

For more information, please contact Claire Carvell, UKCEH ([email protected])

To promote the new FEH work being included in the Peak Flows data set and being incorporated into national guidance, the Flood Estimation team are holding two seminars through the British Hydrological Society on 9 and 16 July at 12.30 (links below). The talks will be free to attend over Zoom.

The FEH methods have been the industry-standard for flood frequency estimation in the UK since at least 1999, when we published the Flood Estimation Handbook. New data and methods have been developed at UKCEH to best reflect what we believe to be the best approach to flood frequency given longer records and better spatial data in the UK from the Land Cover Map, the Met Office and river flow measurements. 

The FEH methods comprise a way of estimating the 2-year flood (QMED) based on catchment characteristics, a donor transfer method for accounting for model error using known gauged data, and a pooling approach which used regionalised flood frequency curves to improve locations with short or no flow records. We have updated these methods for 2025 along with a set of four descriptors which the new methods use which update annual rainfall, urbanisation, baseflow and reservoir impact estimates using new data sources. 

These two seminars will talk about 1) the new data, and 2) the new descriptors. Members of our NRFA team and Wallingford Hydrosolutions will discuss how the new methods and data will be accessible, and there will be recommendations from the national regulators on how users should be implementing the new methods.

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. 

Land and Water in a Changing Climate �� what’s next for Science and Policy? 

A two-day in-person event�� taking place at The Royal Society, London from the 24 - 25 September 2025 that will bring together the hydrological and land-surface modelling community, industry and policy makers across the UK to share insights on how research can influence policy decisions and address critical hydrological challenges. 

Registration and abstract submission will open shortly. Please email [email protected] or visit the Hydro-JULES website for further information.

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

This one-day conference will build on the success of NEMC 2024. It is aimed at those who deliver, use, or could benefit from national monitoring activities across the UK. The session will focus on strengthening the UK’s environmental evidence system by enhancing the visibility of existing data, improving access, identifying critical gaps, and exploring opportunities for a more cohesive approach.

15 December 2025, Edinburgh, EICC

Further details to follow shortly.

The paper ��A diversity of diversities: Do complex environmental effects underpin associations between below- and above-ground taxa?��, co-authored by Fiona Seaton, was shortlisted for the Harper Prize, awarded by the by an early career researcher.

The study explored whether high plant diversity correlates with greater diversity in soil animals, microbes, pollinators, or birds. Using data from the Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Programme - a field survey across Wales funded by the Welsh Government and supported by the UKScaPE programme, the findings highlighted complex environmental responses shaping biodiversity patterns.

The data that supports the findings of this study are openly available:

• (Robinson et al., 2019)
•  (Smart et al., 2020)
•  (Botham et al., 2020),
•  (Siriwardena et al., 2020)
• Soil microbial sequences data in the European Nucleotide Archive with primary accession codes: (16S), (ITS1) and (18S).