Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/R007454/1
Linking blanket bog management, habitat status and climate to peat chemistry, carbon storage and water quality
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Dr A Heinemeyer, University of York, Stockholm Environment Institute
- Grant held at:
- University of York, Stockholm Environment Institute
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Freshwater
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Terrestrial
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Science Topics:
- Soil science
- Climate & Climate Change
- Ecosystem impacts
- Conservation Ecology
- Ecosystem Scale Processes
- Ecosystem services
- Water Quality
- Catchment management
- Abstract:
- UK blanket bogs provide crucial ecosystem services (ES), including >50% of drinking water and storing ~10 BT of carbon (C), generally assumed to be a net greenhouse gas (GHG) sink. Many bogs have suffered from nitrogen deposition causing widespread degradation, sometimes causing bare peat, with erosion causing considerable costs to water companies. Moreover, climate change and management by drainage and rotational burning on grouse moors and for sheep grazing has resulted in further degradation, with heather dominance linked to deterioration in water quality (WQ). About 80% of UK blanket bogs are now degraded and further threatened by climate change; restoration (costing 100s of millions) is now trying to revers this trend and increase resilience to climate change. Whilst success has been reported in respect to revegetation and rewetting, implications on WQ, C storage and methane fluxes affecting the GHG balance are less clear. A key uncertainty is the lack of process-level understanding affecting C storage and chemical products affecting water quality as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and C fluxes (methane). Specifically, climatic factors and vegetation composition have been linked to altered C cycling and DOC production. This in turn could affect water chemistry, colour and the associated water purification costs potentially required. Understanding climate and management impacts on the underpinning C cycle processes and the DOC quantity and quality is crucial in predicting climate and restoration impacts on ES. This project builds on an extended (until 2021) Defra-funded (2012-2017), fully replicated paired sub-catchment study (BD5104) assessing management effects on blanket bog vegetation and key ES. The role of litter decomposition (e.g.heather vs sedge), SOM stabilization via burning as charcoal and its effects on decomposition and WQ is still largely unknown, but a recent NERC (ACCE) summer project at York suggested possible management, vegetation and charcoal impacts on peat chemical composition with impacts on decomposition and WQ. In collaboration with the Yorkshire Peat Partnership and Yorkshire Water, this project will therefore provide the essential chemical insights into the mechanisms and effects of management regimes on WQ. This project will explore peat chemical properties of C input and decomposition processes in relation to habitat, vegetation, management and climate, developing an understanding of the impacts on C storage, C losses, DOC impacts on water quality (WQ) and methane emissions. This will provide a much needed process-level understanding to answer a key practitioner question: how favourable is a habitat, and which vegetation community is best in relation to C storage, DOC compounds affecting WQ, and methane? Objectives: to determine the impacts of management, restoration and climate on the delivery of blanket bog ES via soil chemical processes which affect C storage, GHG fluxes and WQ. Achieved through combining in situ monitoring with mesocosm manipulation of field samples, undertaking detailed chemical analyses to track degradation pathways. The project will translate these insights into end-user relevant evidence, habitat surveys and restoration projects. Project: Sensors, analysers and data from the Defra study will be combined with complementary sites in mesocosm studies (drought and temperature)) in addition to continuing and extending field trials (mown vs. burnt vs. unmanaged) and monitoring aspects (C fluxes and water quality) to other sites (vegetation and habitat spectrum). After optimisation of analytical methods, the student will test whether observed differences in habitat status, vegetation, C budgets and fluxes relate to so far unstudied changes in soil chemistry and identify and assess degradation of key compounds affecting WQ. The findings will answer the evidence needs around WQ and restoration by defining a measurable trajectory from degraded to favourable.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/R007454/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- DTG - directed
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Industrial CASE
This training grant award has a total value of £93,459
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - DSA | Total - Fees | Total - Student Stipend | Total - RTSG |
|---|---|---|---|
| £3,542 | £17,480 | £61,440 | £11,000 |
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