CEH Biodiversity Programme

This Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) programme:

• creates a knowledge flow from detecting environmental change and how it interacts with natural processes, to
• predicting its wider impact on the environment and the likely consequences for sustainability, and
• integrates these to develop policy-relevant solutions to benefit society.

See LWEC stories about CEH Biodiversity Programme research on problems caused by native and non-native invasive plant species.

Topics:

1. Observations, patterns and predictions for biodiversity

• Improve informatics capability for data collection and integration to interpret patterns of biodiversity.
• Develop new methods and systems to assess changes in the abundance and distribution of biodiversity, from genes to ecosystems.
• Undertake long-term monitoring to detect and attribute the causes of environmental change.
• Quantify and model interactions between biodiversity and environmental change.

2. Ecological processes in the environment

• Determine how interactions between above- and below-ground biodiversity structure ecosystems.
• Quantify the impact of invasive species, pathogens and vectors of disease.
• Identify indicators and traits of ecosystem status and estimates of resilience.
• Estimate the impacts of pressures on biodiversity and ecosystem function.

3. Managing biodiversity and ecosystem services in a changing environment

• Develop methods to quantify the link between biodiversity and ecosystem goods and services.
• Develop and test practical measures to ameliorate the effects of anthropogenic drivers on ecosystem processes and services.
• Develop integrated environmental assessments and modelling.
• Provide science-based advice on the sustainable use and management of biodiversity and ecosystems.

Expected impact

Agriculture and forestry: 

• Scientific validation and evidence based-refinement of UK’s agri-environment schemes, supporting higher level stewardship for Defra & Natural England.
• Land management strategies for natural insect pollination to protect food crop production.
• Modelling and mitigating the potential impact of invasive organisms from animal diseases to weeds.

Eco-tourism and recreation:

• Supporting eco-tourism by providing an evidence base for wildlife conservation measures, endangered species protection and reintroductions.
• Restoration of habitats, conflict resolution (e.g. cormorants verses anglers), nuisance insects, threats to biodiversity from invasive non-native species.

Support to Business:

• Partnerships with private sector companies have been established such as the Big Bee Project where Syngenta provided support and expertise in seed mixtures for evidence generation on pollinator and biodiversity enhancement in arable areas and outreach across Europe.
• Potential new drugs from bio-prospecting for anticoagulants has lead to the start up company IXO Therapeutics Ltd being established.
• Novel and safe antimicrobial technology is under development for use in metal working fluids for engineering companies and corrosion prevention distillation equipment.

Climate Change adaptation policy:

Evidence provision through long-term national monitoring programmes; Environmental Change Network, Countryside Survey, Land Cover Map  and Biological Records Centre data are used to inform policy measures through Defra and other government agencies.

Who will benefit?
Some examples include

• Defra - provision of ecosystem services in the environmental stewardship scheme.
• Natural England - testing the effectiveness of climate change adaptation principles for the conservation sector.
• EU FP7 - ecological function and biodiversity indicators in European soils.
• NERC - respiration in the Andes, pathogen transmission strategies and community dynamics.
• LWEC Insect Pollinators Initiative - investigating the impact of habitat structure on queen and worker bumblebees in the field and linking agriculture and land use change to pollinator populations.
• Forth & Tay Offshore Wind Developers Group - assessing the impact of near shore wind farms on marine ecosystems.

PROGRAMME FACTS AND FIGURES

Start and end dates: April 2007 - ongoing