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This chapter examines the role of invertebrates in ecosystems. It discusses significant contribution of Oxford researchers in ecology and ecological genetics such as Charles Elton, Edmund Ford, and Richard Southwood. It also highlights the Wytham Ecological Survey's studies in understanding the dynamic relations between populations of species living in an area and finding out which species tended to associate together in particular habitats. It presents a detailed case study of the winter moth found in the Wytham Woods in analysing population dynamics in woodlands.

This chapter explores the different field biology studies of mammals living at Wytham Woods. It focuses first on research done on small mammals such as wood mice and voles, and examines their ecology to environmental factors. It emphasizes the 13-year study of Henry Southern concerning the small mammals. It investigates the two mammals' population cycles and looks into D. H. Chitty's hypothesis in the regulation of the size of mammal populations. It discusses the effects of habitat management on mammals and their roles in the ecosystem such as being indicators for agro-pollutants and pesticide residues. It also investigates the ecology of large mammals such as deer, weasels, foxes, badgers, hedgehogs, and squirrels.

This chapter examines the role of Wytham Woods in the field of ecological research. It describes the area's role in helping to understand how ecology works at the medium to large landscape scale. It emphasizes on how the Wytham landscape provides a test bed for researchers in finding out how would species might thrive in a changing environment. It briefly looks first into the woodland distribution in Oxfordshire, and explains the basis of retaining and managing ‘ancient’ woodlands. It describes the biological diversity of the woodlands, and studies the grasslands and fens located in Wytham. It also highlights the numerous species' movement between patches within the Wytham Woods and the changes in the relationship between Wytham and its surroundings.

This chapter reviews the various long-term population studies of birds at Wytham Woods. It looks into studies that address significant issues in field biology, including the evolution and ecology of reproductive parameters such as the timing of breeding in relation to food availability or the number of eggs that a female lays. It enumerates some of the bird species discovered in Wytham, and emphasizes on the tit studies by David Lambert Lack and H. N. Kluijver. It specifically analyses their research on the great and blue tit, and explores their physiology, populations and methods of survival, and their breeding season and patterns.

This chapter outlines the conservation management of Wytham Woods, both past and present. It first considers the conservation management of the area before 1900 when the nation's population became increasingly urban and the countryside was transformed into patches of fields and hedges. It describes the Enclosure Act of 1814 which introduced new structures of land ownership and use. It then investigates twentieth-century conservation methods that added the notion of protective management of species and habitats. Next, the chapter looks into the management position held by Oxford University and their execution of the requests of the ffennell estate. It tackles some issues regarding the conflicts between research and conservation and the promotion of public access.

This introductory chapter outlines the history of the Wytham Woods in Oxfordshire. It provides a historical account of major events that helped shape the Woods into its current state. It explains the history and development of the woodlands across Britain beginning with the last glaciation period to its transition into semi-natural woodland. It briefly describes the history of ownership of the Woods and highlights the University of Oxford's acquisition of the land from Raymond ffennell. It examines the Woods' management today by enumerating the University's objectives in maintaining conservation and to help in understanding human activity interaction with natural processes.

This chapter explores the status of the trees located in Wytham. It examines the tree's physiology, including the composition and structure of shrub layers in Wytham. It describes the extent of the damage dealt to the area as a result of timber dependence during the First World War, and enumerates some of the steps taken in active forestry management such as the establishment of plantations of broadleaved and conifer trees. It emphasizes the objectives of the Forestry Department of Oxford University in managing and preserving Wytham Woods and looks into the efforts done by Fitzwalter Osmaston, Eustace Jones, and Henry Dawkins.

This chapter considers the area's developments throughout the centuries. It first describes the area's landscape throughout the medieval period up to the late eighteenth century. It emphasizes on three resources that shaped the landscape in terms of ecology and economy: coppice and pollards, field and furrow, and stone. It then highlights the changes made during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which saw a massive programme of restructuring and new planting methods under Montagu Bertie, the 5th Earl of Abingdon. It also explores changes made during the transition of ownership to the ffennell's where it was made into a research estate.

This chapter describes the physical environment surrounding Wytham Woods by providing illustrations of the area. It analyses information gathered from the Environmental Change Network (ECN), and examines the location's topography, climate, geology and soils, and hydrology. It also briefly tackles the issue of pollution in the Woods due to acidification and the fertilizing effects of nitrogen deposition.

This chapter discusses the impacts of environmental changes to Wytham Woods. It tackles the environmental issue of climate change and relates this to the studies done by the Environmental Change Network at Wytham. It presents data from ECN that includes measurements ranging from measurements of climate and stream flow, recording of plant species in plots, and populations of species. It enumerates data on land management, and separates the effects of local changes from larger scale changes in climate and air pollution, such as the Upper Seeds climate change experiment, and the woodland trees and their interactions with the atmosphere. It also looks into the notion of Wytham acting as a guide for management and conservation in the global scale.