Environment and Rural Affairs Monitoring & Modelling Programme - ERAMMP Year 1 Report 16: NRW & ERAMMP monitoring activities review

The aim of the Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and other monitoring activities review is to recommend where the key opportunities exist to address evidence gaps, better align activities and reduce duplication. This should not duplicate the intensive work involving more than 40 organisations and over 100 individuals which resulted in the ‘Options for a New Integrated Natural Resource Monitoring Framework for Wales’ 1 review which identified more than 180 monitoring schemes and provided 6 independent reviews of new opportunities for the monitoring community

Glastir Monitoring & Evaluation Programme. Second year annual report

What is the purpose of Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Programme? Glastir is the main scheme by which the Welsh Government pays for environmental goods and services whilst the Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (GMEP) evaluates the scheme’s success. Commissioning of the monitoring programme in parallel with the launch of the Glastir scheme provides fast feedback and means payments can be modified to increase effectiveness. The Glastir scheme is jointly funded by the Welsh Government (through the Rural Development Plan) and the EU. GMEP will also support a wide range of other national and international reporting requirements. What is the GMEP approach? GMEP collects evidence for the 6 intended outcomes from the Glastir scheme which are focussed on climate change, water and soil quality, biodiversity, landscape, access and historic environment, woodland creation and management. Activities include; a national rolling monitoring programme of 1km squares; new analysis of long term data from other schemes combining with GMEP data where possible; modelling to estimate future outcomes so that adjustments can be made to maximise impact of payments; surveys to assess wider socio-economic benefits; and development of novel technologies to increase detection and efficiency of future assessments. How has GMEP progressed in this 2nd year? 90 GMEP squares were surveyed in Year 2 to add to the 60 completed in Year 1 resulting in 50% of the 300 GMEP survey squares now being completed. Squares will be revisited on a 4 year cycle providing evidence of change in response to Glastir and other pressures such as changing economics of the farm business, climate change and air pollution. This first survey cycle collects the baseline against which future changes will be assessed. This is important as GMEP work this year has demonstrated land coming into the scheme is different in some respects to land outside the scheme. Therefore, future analysis to detect impact of Glastir will be made both against the national backdrop from land outside the scheme and this baseline data from land in scheme. A wide range of analyses of longterm data has been completed for all Glastir Outcomes with the exception of landscape quality and historic features condition for which limited data is available. This has involved combining data with 2013/14 GMEP data when methods allow. Overall analysis of long term data indicates one of stability but with little evidence of improvement with the exception of headwater quality, greenhouse gas emissions and woodland area for which there has been improvement over the last 20 years. Some headline statistics include: 51% of historic features in excellent or sound condition; two thirds of public rights of way fully open and accessible; improvement in hedgerow management with 85% surveyed cut in the last 3 years but < 1% recently planted; 91% of streams had some level of modification but 60% retained good ecological quality; no change topsoil carbon content over last 25 years. What is innovative? GMEP has developed various new metrics to allow for more streamlined reporting in the future. For example a new Priority Bird species Index for Wales which combines data from 35 species indicates at least half have stable or increasing populations. The new GMEP Visual Quality Landscape Index has been tested involving over 2600 respondents. Results have demonstrated its value as an objective and repeatable method for quantifying change in visual landscape quality. A new unified peat map for Wales has been developed which has been passed to Glastir Contract Managers to improve targeting of payments when negotiating Glastir contracts. An estimate of peat soil contribution to current greenhouse gas emissions due to human modification has been calculated. Models have allowed quantification of land area helping to mitigate rainfall runoff. We are using new molecular tools to explore the effects of Glastir on soil organisms and satellite technologies to quantify e.g. small woody features and landcover change. Finally we are using a community approach to develop a consensus on how to define and report change in High Nature Value Farmland which will be reported in the Year 3 GMEP report

Heavy element production in a compact object merger observed by JWST

The mergers of binary compact objects such as neutron stars and black holes are of central interest to several areas of astrophysics, including as the progenitors of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)1, sources of high-frequency gravitational waves (GW)2 and likely production sites for heavy element nucleosynthesis via rapid neutron capture (the r-process)3. Here we present observations of the exceptionally bright gamma-ray burst GRB 230307A. We show that GRB 230307A belongs to the class of long-duration gamma-ray bursts associated with compact object mergers4–6, and contains a kilonova similar to AT2017gfo, associated with the gravitational-wave merger GW1708177–12. We obtained James Webb Space Telescope mid-infrared (mid-IR) imaging and spectroscopy 29 and 61 days after the burst. The spectroscopy shows an emission line at 2.15 microns which we interpret as tellurium (atomic mass A=130), and a very red source, emitting most of its light in the mid-IR due to the production of lanthanides. These observations demonstrate that nucleosynthesis in GRBs can create r-process elements across a broad atomic mass range and play a central role in heavy element nucleosynthesis across the Universe

Glastir Monitoring & Evaluation Programme. Final report

Final Report to Welsh Government, prepared by CEH on behalf of the Glastir Monitoring & Evaluation Programme Team. The Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (GMEP) provides a comprehensive programme to establish a baseline against which future assessments of Glastir can be made. GMEP also contributes national trend data which supports a range of national and international biodiversity and environmental targets. GMEP fulfils a commitment by the Welsh Government to establish a monitoring programme concurrently with the launch of the Glastir scheme. The use of models and farmer surveys provides early indicators of the likely direction, magnitude and timing of future outcomes. The programme ensures compliance with the rigorous requirements of the European Commission’s Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) through the Rural Development Plan (RDP) for Wales. This report represents the final results of the GMEP programme which ran from 2012 to 2016

The production of heavy hyperfragments by K--meson captures at rest in emulsion nuclei

In this study of hyperfragment production by K--meson absorptions at rest in emulsion nuclei, an attempt has been made to estimate the contribution of heavy spallation hyperfragments to the total observed number. In a sample of 24 640 K--meson captures, 1612 secondary events have been attributed to the production and subsequent decay of hyperfragments. From a study of the characteristics of both the production and decay disintegrations, it is concluded that about one half of the observed hyperfragments consists of λ0-hyperons trapped in the heavy spallation products of silver and bromine and these are almost entirely confined to the (0/3) μm range interval. The consequences of their presence aie discussed. © 1964 Società Italiana di Fisica.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The production of heavy hyperfragments by K--meson captures at rest in emulsion nuclei

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Production of hyperfragments from the interactions of 500 MeV/cK- mesons with emulsion nuclei

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe