e-RA: the electronic Rothamsted Archive
Contact the e-RA Curators to arrange a password for the database.
e-RA provides a permanent managed database for secure storage of data from Rothamsted's Long-term Experiments, the oldest, continuous agronomic experiments in the world. Together with the accompanying meteorological records, associated documentation and sample archive, it is a unique historical record of experiments that have been measured continuously for over 170 years. Users have access to experimental data and specialist background information on the effects of agricultural practices on crops, soils and associated ecosystems.
Currently, e-RA holds records of yields, species composition and other data for the following Long-term experiments:
| Crop | Experiment | Year started |
|---|---|---|
| Winter wheat (and other arable crops in rotation since 1968) | Broadbalk | 1843 |
| Permanent grassland | Park Grass | 1856 |
| Spring barley | Hoosfield Barley | 1852 | Winter wheat | Alternate Wheat & Fallow | 1856-2015 |
| Woodland | Geescroft & Broadbalk Wilderness | 1880s |
| Ley Arable rotations | Woburn Ley-Arable Experiment | 1938 |
Meteorological data for Rothamsted (from 1853), Woburn (from 1928), Brooms Barn (from 1982) and Saxmundham (1966-1985) are also available.
The data in e-RA are available for scientific research, but remain the property of Rothamsted Research and the Lawes Agricultural Trust. Most of the data are password-protected and access is subject to our Data Access Policy.
The Open Access data are available to all, no password is required, although we ask that users acknowledge Rothamsted Research as the data source.
Please contact the e-RA Curators to arrange a password, for further information, or to extract data on your behalf.
The Rothamsted Guide to the Long-Term Experiments (Macdonald et. al. 2018) (10.23637/ROTHAMSTED-LONG-TERM-EXPERIMENTS-GUIDE-2018) provides a comprehensive description from which much of the information on this website is derived.
The tri-fold brochure on e-RA provides a brief summary of e-RA.
The History of Rothamsted includes a timeline of the life and work of Sir John Bennet Lawes.
A recently published paper provides information on the history, development and uses of e-RA see "The electronic Rothamsted Archive (e-RA), an online resource for data from the Rothamsted long-term experiments " by Perryman et al, 2018 published online in the Nature Scientific Data collection of special articles on "Open research data resources". See also Rothamsted Research press release.
The e-RA database is part of the Long-term Experiments National Capability, which also includes the Long-Term Experiments, the Sample Archive and the Environmental Change Network. It is jointly funded by the BBSRC and the Lawes Agricultural Trust.
