ROTHAMSTED Research has highlighted its archive of agricultural and meteorological data, dating back to 1843, which is available for the common benefit modern agriculture, agroecology and the environment.

The first official account of the electronic Rothamsted Archive and what it offers, published this week, highlights how this unique historical repository of information is the result of some remarkable forward thinking.

As the founders of Rothamsted Research noted in a paper published in 1864: “But if our knowledge of the chemistry of soils should progress as rapidly as it has during the last twenty years, the analysis of a soil will ere long become much more significant than it is at present."

John Bennet Lawes and Joseph Henry Gilbert began their fertiliser investigations with field experiments in 1843 and, from the start, they kept samples of soil, grain, straw, vegetation and fertiliser, plus data on crop and soil analyses, yields and the weather. More records followed.

The accumulated data has always been open and freely available for other researchers to use but the public launch of the electronic Rothamsted Archive (e-RA) in 2013 eased access, and e-RA has steadily become an increasingly well-used and internationally recognised resource.

A team of scientists from Rothamsted has now produced a detailed account of the archive as part of a commitment to promote open data, backed by the institute’s principal funders, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Lawes Agricultural Trust (LAT).

“Long-time series of data are increasingly valued and are relevant for research into sustainable agriculture, agroecology and food security, as well as for work in modelling, soil science and many other disciplines” said joint e-RA curator Sarah Perryman.

“And we’re more than just data,” added joint e-RA curator Margaret Glendining. “Users have access to supporting specialist background information, such as experimental field plans, fertiliser treatments and key references, and are fully supported by our curating team.”

The archive’s website is www.era.rothamsted.ac.uk; its Twitter handle is @eRA_Curator; and to contact the curators for a password to access the archive, email era@rothamsted.ac.uk.