Bulletin of the Natural History Museum.

v.24:no.1 (1994:June

Bulletin of the Natural History Museum.

v.25:no.2 (1995:Nov.

Bulletin of the Natural History Museum.

v.32:no.2 (2002:Nov.

Agricultural climate change mitigation : Carbon calculators as a guide for decision making

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability on 9 November 2017, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/14735903.2017.1398628. Under embargo. Embargo end date: 9 November 2018.The dairy industry is receiving considerable attention in relation to both its significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and it’s potential for reducing those emissions, contributing towards meeting national targets and driving the industry towards sustainable intensification. However, the extent to which improvements can be made is dependent on the decision making processes of individual producers, so there has been a proliferation of carbon accounting tools seeking to influence those processes. This paper evaluates the suitability of such tools for driving environmental change by influencing on-farm management decisions. Seven tools suitable for the European dairy industry were identified, their characteristics evaluated, and used to process data relating to six scenario farms, emulating process undertaken in real farm management situations. As a result of the range of approaches taken by the tools, there was limited agreement between them as to GHG emissions magnitude, and no consistent pattern as to which tools resulted in the highest/lowest results. Despite this it is argued, that as there was agreement as to the farm activities responsible for the greatest emissions, the more complex tools were still capable of performing a ‘decision support’ role, and guiding management decisions, whilst others could merely focus attention on key issues.Peer reviewe

Heterogeneity of preferences for the benefits of environmental stewardship: a latent-class approach

Since 2005, Environmental Stewardship (ES) has been the principal agri-environment scheme for England and is the key instrument for the delivery of increased environmental benefits from agricultural landscapes. The main objective of this study is to investigate whether or not individuals' preferences for the environmental benefits associated with ES vary depending on types of landscapes within which these benefits are delivered. A latent class model is applied to data obtained from a choice experiment survey of over 1000 respondents sampled across England. The results suggest that individuals have heterogenous preferences for the benefits of ES, though different segments of the population with more homogenous preferences can be identified. In particular, higher levels of benefit are often associated with the operation of ES in landscapes close to where respondents live. This leads to the suggestion that, in order to maximise the benefits of ES, its implementation could take this result into account by encouraging greater uptake from farmers whose land is closer to large populations

How much flower-rich habitat is enough for wild pollinators? Answering a key policy question with incomplete knowledge.

In 2013, an opportunity arose in England to develop an agri-environment package for wild pollinators, as part of the new Countryside Stewardship scheme launched in 2015. It can be understood as a 'policy window', a rare and time-limited opportunity to change policy, supported by a narrative about pollinator decline and widely supported mitigating actions. An agri-environment package is a bundle of management options that together supply sufficient resources to support a target group of species. This paper documents information that was available at the time to develop such a package for wild pollinators. Four questions needed answering: (1) Which pollinator species should be targeted? (2) Which resources limit these species in farmland? (3) Which management options provide these resources? (4) What area of each option is needed to support populations of the target species? Focussing on wild bees, we provide tentative answers that were used to inform development of the package. There is strong evidence that floral resources can limit wild bee populations, and several sources of evidence identify a set of agri-environment options that provide flowers and other resources for pollinators. The final question could only be answered for floral resources, with a wide range of uncertainty. We show that the areas of some floral resource options in the basic Wild Pollinator and Farmland Wildlife Package (2% flower-rich habitat and 1 km flowering hedgerow), are sufficient to supply a set of six common pollinator species with enough pollen to feed their larvae at lowest estimates, using minimum values for estimated parameters where a range was available. We identify key sources of uncertainty, and stress the importance of keeping the Package flexible, so it can be revised as new evidence emerges about how to achieve the policy aim of supporting pollinators on farmland.LVD was funded by NERC (NE/K015419/1), CC by Defra and Natural England (flower density data); MB and CC by BBSRC Defra, NERC, the Scottish Government and the Wellcome Trust under the Insect Pollinators Initiative (BB/I000925/1 and Agriland - BB/H014934/1).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/een.1222

High Abundances of Species in Protected Areas in Parts of their Geographic Distributions Colonized during a Recent Period of Climatic Change

It is uncertain whether Protected Areas (PAs) will conserve high abundances of species as their distributions and abundances shift in response to climate change. We analyzed large datasets for 57 butterfly and 42 odonate species (including four that have recently colonized Britain). We found that 73 of 94 species with sufficient data for analysis were more abundant inside than outside PAs in the historical parts of their British distributions, showing that PAs have retained high conservation value. A significant majority (61 of 99 species) was also more abundant inside PAs in regions they have colonized during the last 30–40 years of climate warming. Species with relatively high abundances inside PAs in long-established parts of their distributions were also disproportionately associated with PAs in recently colonized regions, revealing a set of relatively PA-reliant species. Pas, therefore, play a vital role in the conservation of biodiversity as species’ ranges become more dynamic

The health impact of nature exposure and green exercise across the life course: a pilot study

Background: Both nature exposure and green exercise (GE) provide numerous health benefits. However, there are no studies examining the impact of childhood GE on adult health. Methods: 45 healthy adults (aged 69.8 ± 8.4 years) took part in the study, wearing a Firstbeat heart rate variability (HRV) monitor for 24 hours. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing childhood and adulthood nature exposure and GE, as well as current connectedness to nature (CN), perceived stress and well-being. Pearson’s correlations and linear regression were used to examine relationships between variables. Results: Childhood nature exposure and GE significantly predicted adult nature exposure and GE (β .317, p < 0.05) as well as CN (β = .831, p < 0.01). After controlling for childhood nature exposure and GE, CN was negatively associated with the percentage of stress over the 24-hour period (r = −.363; p < 0.05) and positively associated with HRV during sleep (r = .415; p < 0.05). Conclusions: CN is important for adult health; however childhood nature exposure and GE are essential to developing this connection

The availability of land for perennial energy crops in Great Britain

This paper defines the potentially available land for perennial energy crops across Great Britain as the first component of a broader appraisal undertaken by the ‘Spatial Modelling of Bioenergy in Great Britain to 2050’ project. Combining data on seven primary constraints in a GIS reduced the available area to just over 9 M ha (40% of GB). Adding other restrictions based on land cover naturalness scores to represent landscape considerations resulted in a final area of 8.5 M ha (37% of GB). This distribution was compared with the locations of Miscanthus and SRC willow established under the English Energy Crop Scheme during 2001–2011 and it was found that 83% of the planting fell within the defined available land. Such a correspondence provides confidence that the factors considered in the analysis were broadly consistent with previous planting decisions

Temporal changes in soil temperature at Wolverhampton, UK and Hohe Warte, Vienna, Austria 1976–2010

Soil temperature is determined by the available heat energy that the soil absorbs, with solar radiation being the primary source (Brady and Weil, 1999). Chow et al. (2011) found that, in an urban environment, soil temperature is strongly correlated (R = 0.869) with the dry-bulb air temperature, whereas its dependence on relative humidity, precipitation, global solar radiation or wind speed was weak (R < 0.250 in all cases). Snow cover, irregular episodes of cloud cover and droughts may also influence soil temperatures. Snow cover can provide an effective insulation barrier that creates an observable lag in the thermal response of a soil relative to changing air temperature (Fullen and Smith, 1983; Mackiewicz, 2012). Soil temperature fluctuates when there is a change in the ratio of heat energy absorbed by soil to energy lost from soil. This dynamic ratio changes over time and space. Soil temperature variation in different layers is a result of complex processes. The correlation with air temperature generally decreases with depth (Liu et al., 2013). Study of temperature variation in different layers of soil is useful in understanding surface energy processes and regional environmental and climatic conditions (Hu and Feng, 2003). Soil temperature has great significance for the growth and hence productivity of agricultural crops (Kaspar and Bland, 1992; Wraith and Ferguson, 1994; Bollero et al., 1996; Hu and Buyanovsky, 2003) and forest plantations (Balisky and Burton, 1995). Moreover, soil temperature affects plant diseases, soil hydrology and the over-wintering of pathogens (Marshall and Holmes, 1979; Phillips et al., 1999; Pivonia et al., 2002). Generally, the growth and development of most annual crop plants cease at temperatures <6–10°C (Subedi and Fullen, 2009). Thus, soil temperatures below this range inhibit root growth. Soil temperatures at different soil depths between 5 and 60cm at a UK research site over 35 years (1976–2010) and at a site in Austria at 10cm over the same period are reported and discussed