Recent policy initiatives have placed a strong focus on the use of agricultural soils for atmosph... more Recent policy initiatives have placed a strong focus on the use of agricultural soils for atmospheric CO2 removal by adopting practices for sequestering and storing SOC. In the UK, changes in agricultural land use, such as the integration of woody species in the form of hedgerows--lines of regularly trimmed shrubs commonly used to delimit agricultural fields--, have been recommended for climate change mitigation. The Climate Change Committee has proposed a 40% increase in hedgerow length across the country as a key contribution to net-zero targets. In England, this would equate to 193,000 km of newly planted hedgerows. However, the contribution of hedgerow planting to reaching net-zero goals remains unclear due to a lack of data on the rate at which CO2 is taken up and stored in the soil beneath them. In our study, seventy-eight hedgerows across six different pedo-climatic conditions in England were classified into four age categories. Soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks were quantified at 10 cm intervals for the top 50 cm of soil beneath hedgerows and in adjacent grassland fields. Moreover, we examined the distribution of SOC among particle-size fractions to investigate how hedgerow planting may influence SOC dynamics by affecting the quality and long-term stability of organic matter in soils, particularly to illustrate why hedgerow-associated SOC stocks are rapidly lost after hedgerow removal. SOC stocks beneath hedgerows were higher than adjacent fields for all age categories and hedgerows stored an average additional 40% SOC stock in the top 50 cm of soil compared to adjacent fields and 30% in the top 30 cm of soil. The additional SOC stock beneath hedgerows was 40.9 Mg C ha-1 at 0-50 cm depth, or 6.1 Mg C km-1. We used a 37-year-old SOC sequestration rate to show that if England were to reach its goal of 40% increase in hedgerow length, 6.3 Tg of CO2 will be sequestered and stored in the soil over 40 years (9.9 Tg with aboveground biomass). However, it will take ~200 years to reach this target with current rates of planting in national public agri-environment schemes. These results contribute measurable outcomes towards the estimate of targets for net-zero 2050 and the extent of ecosystem services provision by hedgerow planting in agricultural landscapes.
Biodiversity is declining at a global scale due to large and small scale processes associated wit... more Biodiversity is declining at a global scale due to large and small scale processes associated with agricultural practices. Agriculture involves transforming natural habitats into systems designed to promote certain species for our consumption. The scale of this transformation is huge; it is estimated that 25 percent of potential net primary production is currently appropriated for human use, a figure that could nearly double by 2050. Inevitably, this appropriation reduces the amount of energy available for all other taxa, with inevitable consequences for biodiversity. These consequences are not uniform or random, however, because agricultural systems involve the reconfiguration of habitats and landscape elements, creating niches that allow some non-cropped species to survive, and even thrive in agricultural systems, depending on the traits they possess. Agricultural landscapes can be very biodiverse, and of high social and cultural value, especially where there has been continuity of management over long periods of time and the managed landscape presents natural habitat patches. The matrix of natural, semi-natural, and managed landscape plays a major role in supporting biodiversity by creating a complex spatial pattern of ecosystems and habitats. In many parts of the world this management continuity is under threat from land abandonment on the one hand and intensification on the other; both may cause biodiversity loss. However, it is being increasingly recognized that some non-cropped taxa perform valuable benefits to agricultural production, giving rise to the idea that agricultural landscapes may be redesigned to enhance such ecosystem services. The outcomes of such redesign may therefore still be biodiverse, but different to what is found now.
Realising the carbon (C) sequestration capacity of agricultural soils is needed to reach Paris Cl... more Realising the carbon (C) sequestration capacity of agricultural soils is needed to reach Paris Climate Agreement goals; thus, quantifying hedgerow planting potential to offset anthropogenic CO2 emissions is crucial for accurate climate mitigation modelling. Although being a widespread habitat in England and throughout Europe, the potential of hedgerows to contribute to net-zero targets is unclear. This is the first study to quantify the soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration rate associated with planting hedgerows. We derived SOC stocks beneath hedgerows based on two estimation methods to assess differences from adjacent intensively managed grassland fields and how these may be affected by sampling depth and hedgerow age, as well as the SOC estimation method used. Twenty-six hedgerows on five dairy farms in Cumbria, England, were classified based on the time since their planting. We measured SOC stocks in 10 cm depth intervals in the top 50 cm of soil beneath hedgerows and in adjacent grassland fields. SOC beneath hedgerows was on average 31.3% higher than in the fields, 3.3% for 2–4 year old hedgerows, 14.4% for 10 year old, 45.2% for 37 year old, and 57.2% for older ones. We show that SOC sequestration rate beneath 37 year old hedgerows was 1.48 Mg C ha−1 yr−1 in the top 50 cm of soil. If England reaches its goal of a 40% increase in hedgerow length, 6.3 Tg CO2 will be stored in the soil over 40 years, annually offsetting 4.7%–6.4% of present-day agricultural CO2 emissions. However, the current rate of planting funded by agri-environment schemes, which today reaches only 0.02% of emissions, is too slow. Private-sector payments for ecosystem services initiatives (e.g., ‘Milk Plan’) show much higher rates of planting and are needed alongside agri-environment schemes to ensure hedgerow planting contributes to net-zero targets.
I wish to thank Professor Les Firbank, my primary supervisor in this doctoral research and alread... more I wish to thank Professor Les Firbank, my primary supervisor in this doctoral research and already my Master thesis advisor. My gratitude goes to someone who has always been available and present, and who has made it possible to conduct this research, believing in myself and my abilities. Without his guidance, feedback, and light-heartedness this PhD would not have been achievable. I would also like to thank my co-supervisors Professor Guy Ziv and Professor Bill Kunin, whose breadth of scientific knowledge and ability to bridge research topics has been an inspiration to me. I would like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the University of Leeds (University Research Scholarship) and the generous donation from Nigel Bertram (Bertram Scholarship), which have allowed me to pursue my studies. A heartfelt thank you goes to Dr Rob Field, who has always been available to discuss my work, help in the field, and provide useful guidance. Thank you also to Georgina Bray and Derek Gruar at Hope Farm for sharing their expertise while I was at the farm and providing me with the Skylark survey maps. A number of people helped along the way. I am very grateful to the teaching laboratories staff, Sarah and Dote in particular, who provided me with so much technical support. A big thank you also to my tireless field assistants, Megan Tresise and Talor Whitham. Thank you to the farmers in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire who gave me access to their land. Thank you also to Dr Steve Compton and Dr Rodger Key, who helped me improve greatly my identification skills. I will always remember demonstrating during ground beetles' week fondly. A warm thank you to all the friends I made in Leeds, particularly to Tom, Myrna, and Dan for our sanity coffee breaks. Dan, your friendship in the past years has been a rock. Un grazie di cuore va ai miei genitori, che mi sono sempre stati vicini-anche a distanzae che mi hanno sempre incoraggiata ad impegnarmi nel mio lavoro e a trovare felicità e leggerezza in quello che faccio. Vi voglio bene. Finally, I would like thank my patient and encouraging partner Philipp, this years-long roller coaster ride would have been tremendously less fun without you by my side. Thank you for everything. References 132 A Effects of sustainable soil management on belowground invertebrates 173 B Effects of sustainable soil management on aboveground invertebrates 179 vii CONTENTS C Effects of sustainable soil management on chick food availability 186 D Effects of sustainable soil management on Skylark territory distribution 193 viii
Acta Oecologica-international Journal of Ecology, Aug 1, 2021
This is a repository copy of Drivers of songbird territory density in the boundaries of a lowland... more This is a repository copy of Drivers of songbird territory density in the boundaries of a lowland arable farm.
This deliverable presents a Summaries of data, obstacles and challenges from interview campaigns ... more This deliverable presents a Summaries of data, obstacles and challenges from interview campaigns of the H2020 BESTMAP project. It aims at documenting the BESTMAP interview campaigns carried out to obtain data on farmers’ decision-making with regard to agri-environmental schemes (AES). It covers a detailed description of methodology, reporting on the concrete steps taken to collect and analyze interview data. It also discusses obstacles and challenges to BESTMAP interview campaigns. Finally, the deliverable presents the main qualitative and quantitative findings of the interview analysis, with a focus on qualitative content analysis of open interview questions.
<p>Recent policy initiatives have placed a strong focus on the use of agricultural ... more <p>Recent policy initiatives have placed a strong focus on the use of agricultural soils for atmospheric CO<span data-contrast="none">2</span><span data-contrast="none"> removal by adopting practices for sequestering and storing SOC. In the UK, changes in agricultural land use, such as the integration of woody species in the form of hedgerows--lines of regularly trimmed shrubs commonly used to delimit agricultural fields--, have been recommended for climate change mitigation. The Climate Change Committee has proposed a 40% increase in hedgerow length across the country as a key contribution to net-zero targets. In England, this would equate to 193,000 km of newly planted hedgerows. However, the contribution of hedgerow planting to reaching net-zero goals remains unclear due to a lack of data on the rate at which CO</span><span data-contrast="none">2</span><span data-contrast="none"> is taken up and stored in the soil beneath them. In our study, seventy-eight hedgerows</span> <span data-contrast="none">across six different pedo-climatic conditions in England were classified into four age categories. Soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks were quantified at 10 cm intervals for the top 50 cm of soil beneath hedgerows and in adjacent grassland fields. </span><span data-contrast="none">Moreover, we examined the distribution of SOC among particle-size fractions to investigate how hedgerow planting may influence SOC dynamics by affecting the quality and long-term stability of organic matter in soils, particularly to illustrate why hedgerow-associated SOC stocks are rapidly lost after hedgerow removal. </span><span data-contrast="none">S</span><span data-contrast="none">OC stocks beneath hedgerows were higher than adjacent fields for all age categories and hedgerows stored an average additional 40% SOC stock in the top 50 cm of soil compared to adjacent fields and 30% in the top 30 cm of soil. The additional SOC stock beneath hedgerows was 40.9 Mg C ha-1 at 0-50 cm depth, or 6.1 Mg C km-1. We used a 37-year-old SOC sequestration rate to show that if England were to reach its goal of 40% increase in hedgerow length, 6.3 Tg of CO</span><span data-contrast="none">2</span><span data-contrast="none"> will be sequestered and stored in the soil over 40 years (9.9 Tg with</span> <span data-contrast="none">aboveground biomass). </span><span data-contrast="none">However, it will take ~200 years to reach this target with current rates of planting in national public agri-environment schemes. These results contribute measurable outcomes towards the estimate of targets for net-zero 2050 and the extent of ecosystem services provision by hedgerow planting in agricultural landscapes.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":0,"335551620":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
In late summer 2013, we conducted a set of controlled simulations in five steel flumes directly f... more In late summer 2013, we conducted a set of controlled simulations in five steel flumes directly fed by an Alpine stream (Fersina stream, left tributary to the Adige River, Trentino, Italy), where benthic invertebrates can freely colonize the flumes by downstream drift and egg deposition. We simulated a repetition of 5 daily hydropeaking events, lasting approximately 6 hours, of different intensities. We collected benthic samples before and after the set of simulations to determine changes in the benthic communities due to the depletive effect of repeated hydropeaking inducing the massive drift of invertebrates. During each simulation, we collected drifting organisms at short time intervals. We observed: 1) a strong increase in drift during the initial discharge increase; 2) drift responses proportional to the absolute discharge increase; 3) a decrease in the drift responses over successive days; 4) a decrease in benthic abundances at the end of the simulation
I wish to thank Professor Les Firbank, my primary supervisor in this doctoral research and alread... more I wish to thank Professor Les Firbank, my primary supervisor in this doctoral research and already my Master thesis advisor. My gratitude goes to someone who has always been available and present, and who has made it possible to conduct this research, believing in myself and my abilities. Without his guidance, feedback, and light-heartedness this PhD would not have been achievable. I would also like to thank my co-supervisors Professor Guy Ziv and Professor Bill Kunin, whose breadth of scientific knowledge and ability to bridge research topics has been an inspiration to me. I would like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the University of Leeds (University Research Scholarship) and the generous donation from Nigel Bertram (Bertram Scholarship), which have allowed me to pursue my studies. A heartfelt thank you goes to Dr Rob Field, who has always been available to discuss my work, help in the field, and provide useful guidance. Thank you also to Georgina Bray and Derek Gruar at Hope Farm for sharing their expertise while I was at the farm and providing me with the Skylark survey maps. A number of people helped along the way. I am very grateful to the teaching laboratories staff, Sarah and Dote in particular, who provided me with so much technical support. A big thank you also to my tireless field assistants, Megan Tresise and Talor Whitham. Thank you to the farmers in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire who gave me access to their land. Thank you also to Dr Steve Compton and Dr Rodger Key, who helped me improve greatly my identification skills. I will always remember demonstrating during ground beetles' week fondly. A warm thank you to all the friends I made in Leeds, particularly to Tom, Myrna, and Dan for our sanity coffee breaks. Dan, your friendship in the past years has been a rock. Un grazie di cuore va ai miei genitori, che mi sono sempre stati vicini-anche a distanzae che mi hanno sempre incoraggiata ad impegnarmi nel mio lavoro e a trovare felicità e leggerezza in quello che faccio. Vi voglio bene. Finally, I would like thank my patient and encouraging partner Philipp, this years-long roller coaster ride would have been tremendously less fun without you by my side. Thank you for everything. References 132 A Effects of sustainable soil management on belowground invertebrates 173 B Effects of sustainable soil management on aboveground invertebrates 179 vii CONTENTS C Effects of sustainable soil management on chick food availability 186 D Effects of sustainable soil management on Skylark territory distribution 193 viii
This deliverable presents a Summaries of data, obstacles and challenges from interview campaigns ... more This deliverable presents a Summaries of data, obstacles and challenges from interview campaigns of the H2020 BESTMAP project. It covers a detailed description of methodology, reporting on the concrete steps taken to collect and analyze interview data. It also discusses obstacles and challenges to BESTMAP interview campaigns. Finally, the deliverable presents the main qualitative and quantitative findings of the interview analysis, with a focus on qualitative content analysis of open interview questions.
The global recognition of modern agricultural practices’ impact on the environment has fuelled po... more The global recognition of modern agricultural practices’ impact on the environment has fuelled policy responses to ameliorate environmental degradation in agricultural landscapes. In the US and the EU, agri-environmental subsidies (AES) promote widespread adoption of sustainable practices by compensating farmers who voluntarily implement them on working farmland. Previous studies, however, have suggested limitations of their spatial targeting, with funds not allocated towards areas of the greatest environmental need. We analysed AES in the US and EU—specifically through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and selected measures of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)—to identify if AES are going where they are most needed to achieve environmental goals, using a set of environmental need indicators, socio-economic variables moderating allocation patterns, and contextual variables describing agricultural systems. Using linear mixed models and lin...
Recent policy initiatives have placed a strong focus on the use of agricultural soils for atmosph... more Recent policy initiatives have placed a strong focus on the use of agricultural soils for atmospheric CO2 removal by adopting practices for sequestering and storing SOC. In the UK, changes in agricultural land use, such as the integration of woody species in the form of hedgerows--lines of regularly trimmed shrubs commonly used to delimit agricultural fields--, have been recommended for climate change mitigation. The Climate Change Committee has proposed a 40% increase in hedgerow length across the country as a key contribution to net-zero targets. In England, this would equate to 193,000 km of newly planted hedgerows. However, the contribution of hedgerow planting to reaching net-zero goals remains unclear due to a lack of data on the rate at which CO2 is taken up and stored in the soil beneath them. In our study, seventy-eight hedgerows across six different pedo-climatic conditions in England were classified into four age categories. Soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks were quantified at 10 cm intervals for the top 50 cm of soil beneath hedgerows and in adjacent grassland fields. Moreover, we examined the distribution of SOC among particle-size fractions to investigate how hedgerow planting may influence SOC dynamics by affecting the quality and long-term stability of organic matter in soils, particularly to illustrate why hedgerow-associated SOC stocks are rapidly lost after hedgerow removal. SOC stocks beneath hedgerows were higher than adjacent fields for all age categories and hedgerows stored an average additional 40% SOC stock in the top 50 cm of soil compared to adjacent fields and 30% in the top 30 cm of soil. The additional SOC stock beneath hedgerows was 40.9 Mg C ha-1 at 0-50 cm depth, or 6.1 Mg C km-1. We used a 37-year-old SOC sequestration rate to show that if England were to reach its goal of 40% increase in hedgerow length, 6.3 Tg of CO2 will be sequestered and stored in the soil over 40 years (9.9 Tg with aboveground biomass). However, it will take ~200 years to reach this target with current rates of planting in national public agri-environment schemes. These results contribute measurable outcomes towards the estimate of targets for net-zero 2050 and the extent of ecosystem services provision by hedgerow planting in agricultural landscapes.
Biodiversity is declining at a global scale due to large and small scale processes associated wit... more Biodiversity is declining at a global scale due to large and small scale processes associated with agricultural practices. Agriculture involves transforming natural habitats into systems designed to promote certain species for our consumption. The scale of this transformation is huge; it is estimated that 25 percent of potential net primary production is currently appropriated for human use, a figure that could nearly double by 2050. Inevitably, this appropriation reduces the amount of energy available for all other taxa, with inevitable consequences for biodiversity. These consequences are not uniform or random, however, because agricultural systems involve the reconfiguration of habitats and landscape elements, creating niches that allow some non-cropped species to survive, and even thrive in agricultural systems, depending on the traits they possess. Agricultural landscapes can be very biodiverse, and of high social and cultural value, especially where there has been continuity of management over long periods of time and the managed landscape presents natural habitat patches. The matrix of natural, semi-natural, and managed landscape plays a major role in supporting biodiversity by creating a complex spatial pattern of ecosystems and habitats. In many parts of the world this management continuity is under threat from land abandonment on the one hand and intensification on the other; both may cause biodiversity loss. However, it is being increasingly recognized that some non-cropped taxa perform valuable benefits to agricultural production, giving rise to the idea that agricultural landscapes may be redesigned to enhance such ecosystem services. The outcomes of such redesign may therefore still be biodiverse, but different to what is found now.
Realising the carbon (C) sequestration capacity of agricultural soils is needed to reach Paris Cl... more Realising the carbon (C) sequestration capacity of agricultural soils is needed to reach Paris Climate Agreement goals; thus, quantifying hedgerow planting potential to offset anthropogenic CO2 emissions is crucial for accurate climate mitigation modelling. Although being a widespread habitat in England and throughout Europe, the potential of hedgerows to contribute to net-zero targets is unclear. This is the first study to quantify the soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration rate associated with planting hedgerows. We derived SOC stocks beneath hedgerows based on two estimation methods to assess differences from adjacent intensively managed grassland fields and how these may be affected by sampling depth and hedgerow age, as well as the SOC estimation method used. Twenty-six hedgerows on five dairy farms in Cumbria, England, were classified based on the time since their planting. We measured SOC stocks in 10 cm depth intervals in the top 50 cm of soil beneath hedgerows and in adjacent grassland fields. SOC beneath hedgerows was on average 31.3% higher than in the fields, 3.3% for 2–4 year old hedgerows, 14.4% for 10 year old, 45.2% for 37 year old, and 57.2% for older ones. We show that SOC sequestration rate beneath 37 year old hedgerows was 1.48 Mg C ha−1 yr−1 in the top 50 cm of soil. If England reaches its goal of a 40% increase in hedgerow length, 6.3 Tg CO2 will be stored in the soil over 40 years, annually offsetting 4.7%–6.4% of present-day agricultural CO2 emissions. However, the current rate of planting funded by agri-environment schemes, which today reaches only 0.02% of emissions, is too slow. Private-sector payments for ecosystem services initiatives (e.g., ‘Milk Plan’) show much higher rates of planting and are needed alongside agri-environment schemes to ensure hedgerow planting contributes to net-zero targets.
I wish to thank Professor Les Firbank, my primary supervisor in this doctoral research and alread... more I wish to thank Professor Les Firbank, my primary supervisor in this doctoral research and already my Master thesis advisor. My gratitude goes to someone who has always been available and present, and who has made it possible to conduct this research, believing in myself and my abilities. Without his guidance, feedback, and light-heartedness this PhD would not have been achievable. I would also like to thank my co-supervisors Professor Guy Ziv and Professor Bill Kunin, whose breadth of scientific knowledge and ability to bridge research topics has been an inspiration to me. I would like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the University of Leeds (University Research Scholarship) and the generous donation from Nigel Bertram (Bertram Scholarship), which have allowed me to pursue my studies. A heartfelt thank you goes to Dr Rob Field, who has always been available to discuss my work, help in the field, and provide useful guidance. Thank you also to Georgina Bray and Derek Gruar at Hope Farm for sharing their expertise while I was at the farm and providing me with the Skylark survey maps. A number of people helped along the way. I am very grateful to the teaching laboratories staff, Sarah and Dote in particular, who provided me with so much technical support. A big thank you also to my tireless field assistants, Megan Tresise and Talor Whitham. Thank you to the farmers in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire who gave me access to their land. Thank you also to Dr Steve Compton and Dr Rodger Key, who helped me improve greatly my identification skills. I will always remember demonstrating during ground beetles' week fondly. A warm thank you to all the friends I made in Leeds, particularly to Tom, Myrna, and Dan for our sanity coffee breaks. Dan, your friendship in the past years has been a rock. Un grazie di cuore va ai miei genitori, che mi sono sempre stati vicini-anche a distanzae che mi hanno sempre incoraggiata ad impegnarmi nel mio lavoro e a trovare felicità e leggerezza in quello che faccio. Vi voglio bene. Finally, I would like thank my patient and encouraging partner Philipp, this years-long roller coaster ride would have been tremendously less fun without you by my side. Thank you for everything. References 132 A Effects of sustainable soil management on belowground invertebrates 173 B Effects of sustainable soil management on aboveground invertebrates 179 vii CONTENTS C Effects of sustainable soil management on chick food availability 186 D Effects of sustainable soil management on Skylark territory distribution 193 viii
Acta Oecologica-international Journal of Ecology, Aug 1, 2021
This is a repository copy of Drivers of songbird territory density in the boundaries of a lowland... more This is a repository copy of Drivers of songbird territory density in the boundaries of a lowland arable farm.
This deliverable presents a Summaries of data, obstacles and challenges from interview campaigns ... more This deliverable presents a Summaries of data, obstacles and challenges from interview campaigns of the H2020 BESTMAP project. It aims at documenting the BESTMAP interview campaigns carried out to obtain data on farmers’ decision-making with regard to agri-environmental schemes (AES). It covers a detailed description of methodology, reporting on the concrete steps taken to collect and analyze interview data. It also discusses obstacles and challenges to BESTMAP interview campaigns. Finally, the deliverable presents the main qualitative and quantitative findings of the interview analysis, with a focus on qualitative content analysis of open interview questions.
<p>Recent policy initiatives have placed a strong focus on the use of agricultural ... more <p>Recent policy initiatives have placed a strong focus on the use of agricultural soils for atmospheric CO<span data-contrast="none">2</span><span data-contrast="none"> removal by adopting practices for sequestering and storing SOC. In the UK, changes in agricultural land use, such as the integration of woody species in the form of hedgerows--lines of regularly trimmed shrubs commonly used to delimit agricultural fields--, have been recommended for climate change mitigation. The Climate Change Committee has proposed a 40% increase in hedgerow length across the country as a key contribution to net-zero targets. In England, this would equate to 193,000 km of newly planted hedgerows. However, the contribution of hedgerow planting to reaching net-zero goals remains unclear due to a lack of data on the rate at which CO</span><span data-contrast="none">2</span><span data-contrast="none"> is taken up and stored in the soil beneath them. In our study, seventy-eight hedgerows</span> <span data-contrast="none">across six different pedo-climatic conditions in England were classified into four age categories. Soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks were quantified at 10 cm intervals for the top 50 cm of soil beneath hedgerows and in adjacent grassland fields. </span><span data-contrast="none">Moreover, we examined the distribution of SOC among particle-size fractions to investigate how hedgerow planting may influence SOC dynamics by affecting the quality and long-term stability of organic matter in soils, particularly to illustrate why hedgerow-associated SOC stocks are rapidly lost after hedgerow removal. </span><span data-contrast="none">S</span><span data-contrast="none">OC stocks beneath hedgerows were higher than adjacent fields for all age categories and hedgerows stored an average additional 40% SOC stock in the top 50 cm of soil compared to adjacent fields and 30% in the top 30 cm of soil. The additional SOC stock beneath hedgerows was 40.9 Mg C ha-1 at 0-50 cm depth, or 6.1 Mg C km-1. We used a 37-year-old SOC sequestration rate to show that if England were to reach its goal of 40% increase in hedgerow length, 6.3 Tg of CO</span><span data-contrast="none">2</span><span data-contrast="none"> will be sequestered and stored in the soil over 40 years (9.9 Tg with</span> <span data-contrast="none">aboveground biomass). </span><span data-contrast="none">However, it will take ~200 years to reach this target with current rates of planting in national public agri-environment schemes. These results contribute measurable outcomes towards the estimate of targets for net-zero 2050 and the extent of ecosystem services provision by hedgerow planting in agricultural landscapes.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":0,"335551620":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
In late summer 2013, we conducted a set of controlled simulations in five steel flumes directly f... more In late summer 2013, we conducted a set of controlled simulations in five steel flumes directly fed by an Alpine stream (Fersina stream, left tributary to the Adige River, Trentino, Italy), where benthic invertebrates can freely colonize the flumes by downstream drift and egg deposition. We simulated a repetition of 5 daily hydropeaking events, lasting approximately 6 hours, of different intensities. We collected benthic samples before and after the set of simulations to determine changes in the benthic communities due to the depletive effect of repeated hydropeaking inducing the massive drift of invertebrates. During each simulation, we collected drifting organisms at short time intervals. We observed: 1) a strong increase in drift during the initial discharge increase; 2) drift responses proportional to the absolute discharge increase; 3) a decrease in the drift responses over successive days; 4) a decrease in benthic abundances at the end of the simulation
I wish to thank Professor Les Firbank, my primary supervisor in this doctoral research and alread... more I wish to thank Professor Les Firbank, my primary supervisor in this doctoral research and already my Master thesis advisor. My gratitude goes to someone who has always been available and present, and who has made it possible to conduct this research, believing in myself and my abilities. Without his guidance, feedback, and light-heartedness this PhD would not have been achievable. I would also like to thank my co-supervisors Professor Guy Ziv and Professor Bill Kunin, whose breadth of scientific knowledge and ability to bridge research topics has been an inspiration to me. I would like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the University of Leeds (University Research Scholarship) and the generous donation from Nigel Bertram (Bertram Scholarship), which have allowed me to pursue my studies. A heartfelt thank you goes to Dr Rob Field, who has always been available to discuss my work, help in the field, and provide useful guidance. Thank you also to Georgina Bray and Derek Gruar at Hope Farm for sharing their expertise while I was at the farm and providing me with the Skylark survey maps. A number of people helped along the way. I am very grateful to the teaching laboratories staff, Sarah and Dote in particular, who provided me with so much technical support. A big thank you also to my tireless field assistants, Megan Tresise and Talor Whitham. Thank you to the farmers in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire who gave me access to their land. Thank you also to Dr Steve Compton and Dr Rodger Key, who helped me improve greatly my identification skills. I will always remember demonstrating during ground beetles' week fondly. A warm thank you to all the friends I made in Leeds, particularly to Tom, Myrna, and Dan for our sanity coffee breaks. Dan, your friendship in the past years has been a rock. Un grazie di cuore va ai miei genitori, che mi sono sempre stati vicini-anche a distanzae che mi hanno sempre incoraggiata ad impegnarmi nel mio lavoro e a trovare felicità e leggerezza in quello che faccio. Vi voglio bene. Finally, I would like thank my patient and encouraging partner Philipp, this years-long roller coaster ride would have been tremendously less fun without you by my side. Thank you for everything. References 132 A Effects of sustainable soil management on belowground invertebrates 173 B Effects of sustainable soil management on aboveground invertebrates 179 vii CONTENTS C Effects of sustainable soil management on chick food availability 186 D Effects of sustainable soil management on Skylark territory distribution 193 viii
This deliverable presents a Summaries of data, obstacles and challenges from interview campaigns ... more This deliverable presents a Summaries of data, obstacles and challenges from interview campaigns of the H2020 BESTMAP project. It covers a detailed description of methodology, reporting on the concrete steps taken to collect and analyze interview data. It also discusses obstacles and challenges to BESTMAP interview campaigns. Finally, the deliverable presents the main qualitative and quantitative findings of the interview analysis, with a focus on qualitative content analysis of open interview questions.
The global recognition of modern agricultural practices’ impact on the environment has fuelled po... more The global recognition of modern agricultural practices’ impact on the environment has fuelled policy responses to ameliorate environmental degradation in agricultural landscapes. In the US and the EU, agri-environmental subsidies (AES) promote widespread adoption of sustainable practices by compensating farmers who voluntarily implement them on working farmland. Previous studies, however, have suggested limitations of their spatial targeting, with funds not allocated towards areas of the greatest environmental need. We analysed AES in the US and EU—specifically through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and selected measures of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)—to identify if AES are going where they are most needed to achieve environmental goals, using a set of environmental need indicators, socio-economic variables moderating allocation patterns, and contextual variables describing agricultural systems. Using linear mixed models and lin...
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