Do assembly rules for bird communities operate in small, fragmented woodlands in an agricultural landscape?

The favoured state approach sensu Fox (1987) was used to investigate the existence of assembly rules for woodland bird communities in an agricultural landscape. When birds were classified according to gross breeding habitat requirements, year-round resident, .true. woodland species showed an excess of favoured states suggesting a possible assembly rule. There was weaker evidence for a similar assembly rule governed by foraging requirements. This pattern was shown for all woods together, and for most categories of woods, grouped according to size, shape or size and shape together. Summer migrants did not show such patterns, and their arrival appeared to mask any patterns established by year-round resident species. The statistical significance of the excess of favoured states was highest in 1990, when bird population densities were considerably higher than in 1991 and 1992. Interspecific competition appears to be a factor in structuring woodland bird communities within the area sampled. Some implications for the action of these assembly rules on the results of further habitat fragmentation are discussed

Experimental evidence that livestock grazing intensity affects the activity of a generalist predator

Open Access funded by Natural Environment Research CouncilPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Milling plant and soil material in plastic tubes over-estimates carbon and under-estimates nitrogen concentrations

Peer reviewedPostprin

Does nature conservation enhance ecosystem services delivery?

Whilst a number of studies have examined the effects of biodiversity conservation on the delivery of ecosystems, they have been often limited by the scope of the ecosystem services (ES) assessed and often suffer from confounding spatial issues. This paper examines the impacts of nature conservation (designation) on the delivery of a full suite of ES across nine case-studies in the UK, using expert opinion. The case-studies covered a range of habitats and explore the delivery of ES from a ‘protected site’ and a comparable ‘non-protected’ site. By conducting pair-wise comparisons between comparable sites our study is one of the first to attempt to mitigate confounding cause and effect factors in relation to spatial context in correlative studies. Protected sites delivered higher levels of ecosystem services than nonprotected sites, with the main differences being in the cultural and regulating ecosystem services. Against expectations, there was no consistent negative impact of protection on provisioning services across the case-studies. Whilst the analysis demonstrated general patterns and differences in ecosystem delivery between protected and non-protected sites, the individual responses in each case-study highlights the importance of the social, biophysical, economic and temporal context of individual protected areas and the associated management

What is the most ecologically-meaningful metric of nitrogen deposition?

Nitrogen (N) deposition poses a severe risk to global terrestrial ecosystems, and managing this threat is an important focus for air pollution science and policy. To understand and manage the impacts of N deposition, we need metrics which accurately reflect N deposition pressure on the environment, and are responsive to changes in both N deposition and its impacts over time. In the UK, the metric typically used is a measure of total N deposition over 1–3 years, despite evidence that N accumulates in many ecosystems and impacts from low-level exposure can take considerable time to develop. Improvements in N deposition modelling now allow the development of metrics which incorporate the long-term history of pollution, as well as current exposure. Here we test the potential of alternative N deposition metrics to explain vegetation compositional variability in British semi-natural habitats. We assembled 36 individual datasets representing 48,332 occurrence records in 5479 quadrats from 1683 sites, and used redundancy analyses to test the explanatory power of 33 alternative N metrics based on national pollutant deposition models. We find convincing evidence for N deposition impacts across datasets and habitats, even when accounting for other large-scale drivers of vegetation change. Metrics that incorporate long-term N deposition trajectories consistently explain greater compositional variance than 1–3 year N deposition. There is considerable variability in results across habitats and between similar metrics, but overall we propose that a thirty-year moving window of cumulative deposition is optimal to represent impacts on plant communities for application in science, policy and management

Scotland’s biodiversity progress to 2020 Aichi Targets:Conserving genetic diversity- development of a national approach for addressing Aichi Biodiversity Target 13 that includes wild species

Aichi Target 13 (T13) focuses on the conservation of genetic diversity. •Major challenges in implementing T13 are that the type of genetic diversity to conserve is not clearly defined, and that key issues in genetic conservation vary across different sectors (e.g., forestry vs agriculture vs other species of socio-economic importance). •In Scotland and the UK more widely, baseline mechanisms are well established for assessing and reporting on genetic diversity in species of agricultural importance (e.g., rare livestock breeds, crop wild relatives), and a methodology has been established for ornamental plants. •A new UK Strategy for Forest Genetics Resources was launched in 2019, creating a framework for linking forest trees into T13 reporting. •However, there is no clear strategy to deal with ‘other species of socio-economic importance’ in Scotland, the UK or indeed elsewhere, and addressing this gap is the major focus of this report. •There is a lack of guidance for identifying focal species of socio-economic importance, and no clear mechanism for addressing T13 for these species once they have been identified. •To address this, we have identified a set of criteria for defining terrestrial and freshwater species of socio-economic importance in Scotland, and selected an initial list of 26 species. •The criteria applied were: -National conservation priority wild species. -Species of national cultural importance. -Species providing key ecosystem services. -Species of importance for wild harvesting (food and medicine). -Economically important game species. •We then developed a simple, readily applicable scorecard method for assessing risks to the conservation of genetic diversity in these species. •The scorecard approach is not dependent on prior genetic knowledge, and instead uses structured expert opinion assessments of whether: -Demographic declines are likely to lead to loss of genetic diversity (genetic erosion). -Hybridisation is likely to lead to undesirable replacement of genetic diversity. -Restrictions to regeneration/turnover are likely to impede evolutionary change. •For plant species where seed-banking is a viable mechanism for holding genetic resources ex situ,we also report on the representativeness of these ex situ collections. •Overall, this scorecard provides a mechanism for incorporating ‘other species of socio-economic importance’ into T13 actions and reporting. •Furthermore, its application is not restricted to Aichi T13 as the approach is designed as a generic scorecard for genetic diversity. It is thus relevant to post-2020 CBD targets focusing on genetic diversity. •Future priorities include: -Extension to other species of socio-economic, commercial and cultural importance (with the inclusion of marine species being a particularly high priority). -Harmonising genetic conservation strategies between sectors (drawing on commonalities), whilst minimising disruption of existing well-established methodologies within sectors. -Greater incorporation of genomic data into monitoring genetic diversity (particularly in the agricultural and forestry sectors where data availability is potentially high)

Cross-scale analysis of social-ecological systems:Policy options appraisal for delivering NetZero and other environmental objectives in Scotland

Public policy confronts complex, contested, wicked problems such as climate and biodiversity crises with challenges of how issues are framed, analysed, codified, and interpreted. Social-ecological systems provide an analytical framework that couples the biosphere and technosphere, recognising biophysical limits and emphasising the importance of critical reflection within policy decision-making. Conducting policy-options appraisals is increasingly seen as a transdisciplinary research-policy endeavour with researchers engaging policy actors in an extended peer community (post-normal science). This paper presents a case study of analysis undertaken with researchers, policy analysts, policy makers and other stakeholders to support decisions on how to implement future agriculture support in Scotland, so that the policy programme better delivers across social, economic and environmental objectives. The key change being considered in the future agricultural support programme is Enhanced Conditionality (EC) where the level of financial support provided to farm-businesses will depend on their undertaking agri-environmental measures that deliver against the key priorities of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reversing biodiversity losses. The paper outlines the policy context within which the EC options appraisal takes place – highlighting how EC is a crucial component in making the wider suite of policy measures work. The transdisciplinary approach, Quantitative Story Telling (QST) is presented, emerging from decision support, participatory research, and post-normal science for policy domains. The stages of QST highlight the importance of analysis that underpins any quantification (decision on how issues are framed and what it included in the analysis) and the expectation that research outputs with be deliberated on with, and interpreted from, stakeholder perspectives. The project specific analyses are outlined, combining top-down options appraisal of how macro-policy decisions could constrain EC and bottom-up analysis of potential uptake and effectiveness of EC measures, undertaken in inter-disciplinary workshops with domain experts from biodiversity, soils and waters. The paper highlights challenges for implementation and evaluation at meso-scale with interactions between farm-businesses and catchment, landscape and regional objectives. The conclusions of the analysis, in policy terms, are that EC presents an opportunity to significantly realign how agricultural land management is conducted in Scotland, so that it is more effective in delivering climate change and biodiversity objectives, but there are formidable challenges in resolving the policy “sudoku”. Meso-scale issues are likely to mean the need to integrate alternative modelling paradigms such as spatial, empirical agent-based modelling (ABM) into policy option appraisals. By taking multi-scale, social-ecological systems perspectives on EC it has been possible to identify key policy decisions at a range of scales on which the success of EC will depend, to have a realistic understanding of how effective the EC measures might be in heterogenous Scottish environments and what are the likely barriers to uptake. The analysis also highlighted where outcomes of the policy change are likely to be challenging to monitor-evaluate; and where there are dependencies between farm-businesses that mean EC measures need to be supplemented with mechanisms that (1) promote cooperation between land managers and (2) identify and respond to agreed local priorities. The value of the participatory QST process was in making sure the analyses being undertaken were salient and the outputs seen as credible – but the challenges of interpreting necessarily complex outputs remain. The greatest value of QST may be that it provides a structured way to navigate complexity with policy makers rather than seeking to control or eliminate it.</p

Cross-scale analysis of social-ecological systems:Policy options appraisal for delivering NetZero and other environmental objectives in Scotland

Public policy confronts complex, contested, wicked problems such as climate and biodiversity crises with challenges of how issues are framed, analysed, codified, and interpreted. Social-ecological systems provide an analytical framework that couples the biosphere and technosphere, recognising biophysical limits and emphasising the importance of critical reflection within policy decision-making. Conducting policy-options appraisals is increasingly seen as a transdisciplinary research-policy endeavour with researchers engaging policy actors in an extended peer community (post-normal science). This paper presents a case study of analysis undertaken with researchers, policy analysts, policy makers and other stakeholders to support decisions on how to implement future agriculture support in Scotland, so that the policy programme better delivers across social, economic and environmental objectives. The key change being considered in the future agricultural support programme is Enhanced Conditionality (EC) where the level of financial support provided to farm-businesses will depend on their undertaking agri-environmental measures that deliver against the key priorities of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reversing biodiversity losses. The paper outlines the policy context within which the EC options appraisal takes place – highlighting how EC is a crucial component in making the wider suite of policy measures work. The transdisciplinary approach, Quantitative Story Telling (QST) is presented, emerging from decision support, participatory research, and post-normal science for policy domains. The stages of QST highlight the importance of analysis that underpins any quantification (decision on how issues are framed and what it included in the analysis) and the expectation that research outputs with be deliberated on with, and interpreted from, stakeholder perspectives. The project specific analyses are outlined, combining top-down options appraisal of how macro-policy decisions could constrain EC and bottom-up analysis of potential uptake and effectiveness of EC measures, undertaken in inter-disciplinary workshops with domain experts from biodiversity, soils and waters. The paper highlights challenges for implementation and evaluation at meso-scale with interactions between farm-businesses and catchment, landscape and regional objectives. The conclusions of the analysis, in policy terms, are that EC presents an opportunity to significantly realign how agricultural land management is conducted in Scotland, so that it is more effective in delivering climate change and biodiversity objectives, but there are formidable challenges in resolving the policy “sudoku”. Meso-scale issues are likely to mean the need to integrate alternative modelling paradigms such as spatial, empirical agent-based modelling (ABM) into policy option appraisals. By taking multi-scale, social-ecological systems perspectives on EC it has been possible to identify key policy decisions at a range of scales on which the success of EC will depend, to have a realistic understanding of how effective the EC measures might be in heterogenous Scottish environments and what are the likely barriers to uptake. The analysis also highlighted where outcomes of the policy change are likely to be challenging to monitor-evaluate; and where there are dependencies between farm-businesses that mean EC measures need to be supplemented with mechanisms that (1) promote cooperation between land managers and (2) identify and respond to agreed local priorities. The value of the participatory QST process was in making sure the analyses being undertaken were salient and the outputs seen as credible – but the challenges of interpreting necessarily complex outputs remain. The greatest value of QST may be that it provides a structured way to navigate complexity with policy makers rather than seeking to control or eliminate it.</p