Transcript NERC`s future research in Sustainable Agriculture

NERC’s future research in
Sustainable Agriculture
SSAP meeting 15/16 January 2007
Faith Culshaw
Sustainable agriculture research
• Current/ ongoing research examples
• NERC’s developing strategy
• Living with Environmental Change initiative
Science for a Sustainable Future, 2002-07
Sustainable economies: energy, land use and hazard mitigation
Examples:
•impacts of alternative land management scenarios on biodiversity
•development of integrated models of environmental, economic and
land use change
•sustainability of new farming systems, eg GM and non-food crops
•land management strategies to mitigate the effects of climate
change
Sustainable Agriculture:
Current and ongoing research examples
• Responsive mode grants – 35 (~£4.6m); e.g. impacts of pesticides; diffuse
pollution from agriculture
• RELU (cross-Council programme) themes:
-integration of land and water use
-environmental basis of rural development
-sustainable food chains
-economic and social interactions with the rural environment
• Towards a Sustainable Energy Economy – UK Energy Research Centre
-biomass supply chains; environmental factors eg water dependency
• QUEST – new funding announcement:
-sustainable forestry & bio-energy
Sustainable agriculture research:
CEH examples
• Countryside Survey
• BUZZ/BIG BEE project
What is Countryside Survey?
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World standard audit of the UK’s rural environment, repeated every 810 years.
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Robust estimates of ‘stock’ and change of:
– Land Cover, landscape features
– Habitats
– Vegetation
– Freshwater quality
– Soils
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Enables understanding of causes of change
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Policy and science driven:
– Defra, SEERAD, EN(NE), CCW, SNH, FC, JNCC, NAW, DoE(NI),
EC
– NERC
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Core of CEH Theme on “Monitoring sustainability and management of
land resources”
Countryside Survey
Why are we doing it?
To find out how the countryside has changed, and
why, since the surveys began in 1978 and especially
since the last survey in 2000.
How will it help the countryside?
Countryside Survey tells us about the
‘stock’ and condition of habitats in the
countryside today - how much there is and
where it is found. The information is used
to help plan the management of the
countryside for the future and protect the
biodiversity or variety of plants and animals
within our landscape.
What does the survey consist of?
a detailed Field Survey of habitats and features
a Land Cover Map of the UK, on a field-by-field scale using satellite information.
Distribution of GB survey
sites for Countryside Survey.
Countryside Survey data are used for:
Prescriptions for sustainable rural land management under CAP reform
Monitoring for Priority Habitat Action Plans for arable field margins, hedgerows and some upland
habitats
Data management of agro-environment work and associated temporal and spatial modelling
Update of the Government’s indicators on landscape features and plant diversity
Determining the impacts of nitrogen and acid deposition
Determining the quality of freshwater and soil resources
Development of hedgerow legislation, to encourage management, planting and protection
Capacity for renewable energy production
BUZZ: Five Year Research and Technology Transfer
Project – Current Project BIGBEE (on bumblebees)
1. Examine impacts of environmental
enhancement on a wide range of taxa
2. Test the reproducibility of effects at several
locations (government and industry support on
arable farms)
3. Formulate and test new Agri-environment
Scheme options (now part of official schemes)
4. Transfer scientific knowledge to the usercommunity (training via Farmed Environment
Company)
5. BIGBEE looking at how landscape type affects
pollinator population dynamics – principles
useful for designing more sustainable
agriculture across UK at field to landscape
scales
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NERC’s next Strategy
Science themes
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Forecasting and mitigation of natural hazards
Environment, pollution and human health
Biodiversity
Climate systems
Sustainable use of natural resources
and two cross-cutting themes:
• Earth System Science
• Technologies
NERC’s next Strategy
Biodiversity
• Whole ecosystem approach identified
as unifying concept for this theme.
• Key high level challenge covering:
– Biodiversity functions and resilience
The role of biodiversity in key ecosystem
functions.
– Influence of environmental change
The effects of environmental change on
genes, populations, species and
communities.
• Integrated tools for valuing the
environment
NERC’s next Strategy
Sustainable Use of Natural Resources
• Energy
– Focus on clean energy.
– Environmental impacts of new technology.
• Soil and water research
NERC’s next Strategy
Environment Pollution and Human Health
• Measurement and distribution of pollutants and
pathogens at all time and space scales.
– Development of sensors > Capacity to monitor in real time to
understand the exposure of humans to contaminants.
– Examples would be developing
methods for monitoring:
- air quality at high resolution
- soil, sediment and water quality remotely in real time
NERC’s next Strategy
Next steps
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Development of the public facing document
Consultation on this draft strategy Feb ’07
Approval by Council Jun ’07
Launch the strategy Sep ’07.
Living With Environmental Change
New Science Securing Resilient Ecosystem
Services for the Future
Natural
Resources
Water
Soil
Oceans
Air
Rocks
Biodiversity
Ecosystem Services
Food and Fibre
Water supply
Energy and Minerals
Disease & climate regulation
Amenity
Human
well-being
Shelter
Transport
Security
Chemicals
Health
Education
Living With Environmental Change
Major national/international policy drivers:
HMT Public Policy Challenge 5
Increasing pressures on our natural resources and global climate from
rapid economic and population growth in the developing world and
sustained demand for fossil fuels in advanced economies
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
Unsustainable consumption of resources
Stern Review of Economics of Climate
Change
Need evidence to plan now for inevitable changes
Living With Environmental Change
will meet TC5 by
providing the required predictive science, solutions and business opportunities to
increase resilience to, and reduce the economic costs of, environmental changes
such as more severe weather and reduced biodiversity.
HOW:It will do so through whole-system (natural, engineering, social &
economic) predictions and analyses of environmental changes and their impacts:
on local and seasonal–decadal scales;
on natural resources, life-quality & infrastructures
to inform choices of mitigation and adaptation responses
PARTNERSHIP: The whole system approach demands a 10-year strategic
research partnership between Research Councils, Govt and other users.
Agreed partners: NERC,ESRC, EPSRC, BBSRC, MRC, Defra, DfID, Met
Office, SEERAD (others in discussion: EA, DCLG, DfT, Microsoft)