S2N - Soil to Nutrition - Work package 3 (WP3) - Sustainable intensification - optimisation at multiple scales
Lead Research Organisation:
Rothamsted Research
Department Name: Unlisted
Abstract
Sustainable intensification (SI) has emerged as a conceptualisation of the fundamental challenges facing the agricultural industry. Some of the science community are responding with programmes on agro-ecology, 'ecological intensification' and the delivery of public goods (the focus of the ASSIST programme). However, this approach on its own down-weighs the equally important additional pillars that must underpin true SI (production, environmental and social). The critical challenge that the S2N strategic programme, including this project, addresses is the mismatch in spatial and temporal scales in relevant components of SI: 1) mechanisms that regulate soil-plant-microbe interactions; 2) trade-offs between productivity, resilience and nutrient use efficiency; and 3) the scales of measurement used to inform land management for food production by farmers on one hand and the development and implementation of environmental/agricultural policy on the other. Experimental measurements are usually made at core/ quadrat spatial scales (cm2 to m2) and over short timescales; land managers operate at the field to farm/ estate scale (ha to km2) over seasonal or annual timeframes; policy makers and deliverers are interested in catchment, regional or national scales over years to decades, often in relation to legally-binding national/ international policies and legislation e.g. the EU Water Framework Directive. Exploration of the interactions between land management decisions and policy drivers inherently involves the merger of improved mechanistic understanding of efficiency of nutrient utilization (ENU) at the soil-plant level (WP1 0I310) and adaptive management on the farm (WP2 I0320) with mathematical upscaling methodologies which are dealt with in this project (WP 3 I0330). The principal aim of this WP is therefore to understand what mechanistic understanding links farm management to the effective functioning of environmental and food systems to deliver SI.
Organisations
- Rothamsted Research, United Kingdom (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Tehran (Collaboration)
- University of Bristol, United Kingdom (Collaboration)
- Linking Environment and Farming, KENILWORTH (Collaboration)
- Federal University of Piaui (UFPI) (Collaboration)
- Farm and Wildlife Advisory Group South West (Collaboration)
- Natural England, United Kingdom (Collaboration)
- Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (Collaboration)
- Uk Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford (Collaboration)
- TEAGASC, Ireland (Collaboration)
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) (Collaboration)
- Agrii (Collaboration)
- North Devon Biosphere Foundation (Collaboration)
- University of Reggio Calabria (Collaboration)
- Wessex Water (Collaboration)
- Environment Agency, United Kingdom (Collaboration)
- RegenFarm Ltd (Collaboration)
- Countryside and Community Research Institute (Collaboration)
- The Soil Association (Collaboration)
Publications
Al-Fugara A
(2020)
A comparison of machine learning models for the mapping of groundwater spring potential
in Environmental Earth Sciences
Anjum R
(2018)
Sedimentary chronology reinterpreted from Changshou Lake of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area reveals natural and anthropogenic controls on sediment production.
in Environmental science and pollution research international
Arabameri A
(2020)
A novel ensemble computational intelligence approach for the spatial prediction of land subsidence susceptibility.
in The Science of the total environment
Arnold A
(2021)
Accumulation of trace metals in freshwater macroinvertebrates across metal contamination gradients.
in Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987)
Bai C
(2019)
The relationships between seedling root screens, root growth in the field and grain yield for wheat
in Plant and Soil
Balmford A
(2018)
The environmental costs and benefits of high-yield farming
in Nature Sustainability
Balmford A
(2018)
The environmental costs and benefits of high-yield farming.
in Nature sustainability
Barrat H
(2020)
The impact of drought and rewetting on N 2 O emissions from soil in temperate and Mediterranean climates
in European Journal of Soil Science
Biddulph M
(2017)
The scale problem in tackling diffuse water pollution from agriculture: Insights from the Avon Demonstration Test Catchment programme in England
in River Research and Applications
Blöschl G
(2019)
Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) - a community perspective
in Hydrological Sciences Journal
| Title | Press item: https://farming.co.uk/news/The-advent-of-green-cattle |
| Description | Press item: https://farming.co.uk/news/The-advent-of-green-cattle |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Impact | National readership |
| Title | Press item: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37941196 |
| Description | Press item: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37941196 |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Impact | National news item |
| Description | Our combination of empirical and modelled data across scales as part of the work for this project is suggesting potential switches in the important processes driving negative environmental impacts from farm to landscape scale. This clearly has important implications for the targeting of on-farm interventions for sustainable intensification of agriculture and for addressing the spatial mismatch (i.e., declining efficacy of on-farm interventions with increasing scale) and temporal mismatch (i.e., temporal lags in efficacy) between on-farm management and the delivery of environmental objectives (e.g., for water or air quality) at larger (i.e., landscape, catchment) scales. Farm advisors at present do not have at their disposal readily accessible information on fundamental processes relevant to the targeting of on-farm interventions for sustainable intensification and this is resulting in incorrectly targeted management decisions. An example of the Soil to Nutrition core work here concerns new mechanistic understanding on sediment and nutrient (phosphorus) losses from the North Wyke Farm Platform (see project BBS/E/C/000I0320). This evidence (Pulley and Collins, Journal of Environment Management 2019) has been used to help frame an intervention strategy for comparison with business-as-usual on-farm advice, looking at the associated co-benefits and trade-offs across scales. The modelling comparison (Zhang et al., Journal of Cleaner Production 2022) clearly suggests that the pathway framed on the basis of new mechanistic understanding from the Farm Platform performs better than the on-farm measures typically recommended by farm advisors using visual audits under business-as-usual. This assessment includes examination of co-benefits and trade-offs for losses to water (nutrients, sediment, faecal indicator organisms) and air (nitrous oxide, methane, ammonia), soil quality (connected porosity and water holding capacity - see project BBS/E/C/000I0310), soil carbon, energy use and terrestrial biodiversity, as well as life cycle assessment (LCA) mid-point impacts for eutrophication, acidification and sediment pressure potential. Ongoing work is comparing the efficacy (i.e., co-benefits and trade-offs for multiple outcomes) of additional mechanistically-defined scenarios (e.g., increasing carbon stocks to improve connected porosity in soils) with business-as-usual on-farm advice based on visual appraisals of unintended consequences. Most recently our work on monitoring the impacts of extreme wet weather on the unintended consequences of farming on water quality using our instrumented farm and landscape platforms in Devon, SW England, have highlighted the lack of resistance to such events under business-as-usual best management at both field and landscape scale. The findings from comparing mechanistically-defined intervention pathways for sustainable intensification, with business-as-usual pathways, are being discussed with several Defra policy teams who recognise the critical role that this project can play in filling evidence gaps as experimental evidence and scenario modelling results across scales continue to come on line. Equally, our findings on the lack of resistance to the impacts of extreme wet weather on regulating services further underscore the need for well targeted intervention strategies for protecting the goods and services delivered by agriculture. The experimental and modelling evidence being generated by this project are clearly pointing to the need for land cover and land use change alongside the increased uptake of best management practice in the livestock and arable sectors, in order to meet the multiple outcomes set by environmental objectives. |
| Exploitation Route | The findings will provide the basis for helping to revise and improve advice delivered into the agricultural sector about on-farm options for delivering sustainable intensification which takes explicit account of co-benefits and trade-offs. To date, as an example, the findings have been used by a water utility company (Wessex Water) to help revise their landscape scale management plans for dealing with farming externalities on water quality and specifically phosphorus-related issues (including algal blooms and biodiversity losses). The findings have also been used by the Environment Agency as an input to landscape management plans and has further underscored this risk of incorrect targeting of mitigation measures in the absence of robust data on the key mechanisms controlling the unintended environmental consequences of farming. It has also been used by the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) to tailor their advice to farmers. Our work on co-benefits and trade-offs (emissions to water and air, soil quality, soil carbon, energy use, biodiversity) for different pathways to sustainable intensification has been discussed with Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF) who are considering trialling a new landscape scale certification scheme. Our explicit assessments of multiple outcomes for emissions to water or air, soil quality, soil carbon, energy use and biodiversity will feed into Government policy responses to the 25 Year Environment Plan, including the new Environmental Land Management Scheme, the National Greenhouse gas strategy and the Net Zero carbon strategy. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Education,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | Agriculture and food industry - KE workshops and focus groups for farmers and industry stakeholders have been held annually to discuss project implications for on-farm interventions for delivering sustainable intensification. This has included: a link up with the Demonstration Test Catchments network; a collaborative project for the Environment Agency on the River Cale catchment with Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) SW; with member farmers of the Welsh NFU; a new farmer group in the upper River Taw observatory; with commercial farmers in The Landscape Pioneer involved in the North Devon Biosphere Environmental Land Management trial; a network of large arable farmers in eastern England and; most recently, with a network of large farming estates across SW England. In all cases, discussions have been used to share experiences of, and costs associated with, different on-farm interventions and to gain feedback from farmers, advisors and estate managers on their attitudes towards future uptake of interventions selected on the basis of mechanistic (e.g., hydrological, soil quality) understanding, for comparison with those typically recommended under business-as-usual driven by the current policy mix of regulation, incentivization and on-farm advice. Evidence from this project on the importance of mechanistic understanding in selecting on-farm interventions is now being used by a range of organisations associated with agri-industry, including water companies (e.g., Wessex Water, Southern Water), Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), Soil Association, Linking Environment and Farming, Environment Agency (including the Catchment Sensitive Farming initiative), Natural England, CaBA (Catchment-based approach) partnerships and Defra policy teams. The vision is for a fully strategic roll out of this new evidence as further progress is made on the Soil to Nutrition programme deliverables across scales. A programme advisory group has been established and meets regularly to deliver emerging results to a number of stakeholders including AHDB, Soil Association, Defra, Sainsburys and the Stabiliser Company. Meetings alternate between our Harpenden and North Wyke sites. Commercial companies - engagement with those involved in cereal and grass breeding, livestock genetics, soil and cereal sensors for precision nutrient management and agricultural services. One primary engagement has been with RegenFarm Ltd. to develop a new software tool for assessing the opportunity for regenerative farming practices at farm to landscape scales. Since early 2020, this partnership has continued and grown as part of the ERDF funded AgRIA (Agri-tech Research and Innovation Accelerator) initiative which involves working with the arable and livestock sectors in Hertfordshire. Additional engagement examples include those with Sainsburys which examined the farm benchmarking capability developed by this project and with the North Devon Biosphere consultancy arm who are working with Rothamsted Research to establish an agricultural landscape ''digital twin'' in Devon to inform more strategic roll out of the application of artificial intelligence in managing the unintended consequences of agriculture on the environment. Policy - at an international level, scientific outputs and policy implications are being presented at various meetings including the International Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the UNECE Task Force for Reactive Nitrogen, the European Panel for Nitrogen Budgets, and the International Nitrogen Initiative Conference, as well as international phosphorus meetings (e.g., International Association of Hydrological Sciences) and those on high resolution monitoring. At national level, the learning from this project has been fed directly into the commissioned national peer review of the Environmental Land Management outcomes framework. Most recently, evidence from the upper River Taw observatory on the impacts of extreme wet weather (winter 2019-2020) on the unintended consequences of intensive farming on water quality (nitrate and sediment pollution) were presented at the inaugural event of the new UK Agriculture Partnership network hosted at the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester. This event was attended by both the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the discussions following the invited presentation underscored that policy teams recognise the need to maximise the use of mechanistic understanding to support effective on-farm mitigation strategies for protecting the goods and services delivered by agriculture. Next generation of practitioners - students and training - Soil to Nutrition and uplift projects are enabling the training of PhD students and postdoctoral scientists in the areas of soil science, nutrient cycling, agronomy, livestock science, biogeochemistry, agroecosystems modelling and social sciences, particularly through the RCUK Doctoral Training Partnerships, the Teagasc Walsh Fellowship scheme and via co-funded PhD studentships (e.g. University of Exeter and Environment Agency funding). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Education,Environment |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Advisory group member for the Ireland EPA COSAINT programme - Cattle access to watercourses: environmental and socio-economic consequences |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Impact | Improving sustainability |
| URL | http://www.epa.ie/researchandeducation/research/researchpublications/researchreports/research260.htm... |
| Description | An evaluation of enhanced water quality monitoring methods for Northern Ireland |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in systematic reviews |
| Description | Citation in UKRI Infrastructure Roadmap Initial analysis of infrastructure questionnaire responses and description of the landscape 2019 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in systematic reviews |
| Description | Citation in the UKRI Infrastructure Roadmap Progress Report 2019 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in systematic reviews |
| Description | Contribution to new water quality targets for abandoned metal mines |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Description | Contribution to new water quality targets for agriculture |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Description | Contribution to new water quality targets for household consumption |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Description | Contribution to new water quality targets for wastewater |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Description | Defra Expert Working Group on Small Waterbodies |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a advisory committee |
| Description | Discussion on Regenerative Agriculture, which parameters to show impact of regenerative practices, over time, on soil health, biodiversity, GHG emissions and water quality. To prepare for the review of Unilever's Sustainable Agriculture Code. |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a advisory committee |
| URL | https://www.unilever.com/Images/sustainable-agriculture-code--sac---2017_tcm244-515371_en.pdf |
| Description | Environmental Land Management (ELM) trial: River Exe catchment |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | No Impacts Yet |
| Description | Expert peer reviewer for report on cattle exclusion from streams measures in Ireland |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | No Impacts Yet |
| Description | Member: Defra Nutrient Management Expert Group (NMEG) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Description | National expert reviewer for new Evironment Land Management (ELM) schemes |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a advisory committee |
| Description | POLITICO, Agriculture and Food Summit 2019, Paris |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | No Impacts Yet |
| URL | https://diievents.dii.eu/agriculture-and-food-summit/ |
| Description | Surplus Workshop on Policy Needs, Ghent |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | No Impacts Yet |
| Description | contribution to the new farming rules for water (Pillar I) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a national consultation |
| Description | revised on the ground advice to farmers - the river Cale catchment |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | A step change in compelling evidence on water quality impacts of agricultural practice |
| Amount | £568,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NE/V016768/1 |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2021 |
| Description | BBSRC-GFS |
| Amount | £165,506 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2019 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | Capital Call |
| Amount | £568,379 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2021 |
| End | 12/2021 |
| Description | Catchment Sensitive Farming |
| Amount | £6,886 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Environment Agency |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2022 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | Collaborative Research Agreement relating to Catchment Sensitive Farming Sediment Fingerprinting Project - Rapid Assessment Pilot |
| Amount | £999,950 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | Project 19936 (Extension) |
| Organisation | Environment Agency |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2020 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | Collaborative Research: SitS NSF-UKRI: Dynamic coupling of soil structure and gas fluxes measured with distributed sensor systems: implications for carbon modeling |
| Amount | £1,930,431 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2019 |
| End | 01/2022 |
| Description | Community Renewal Fund |
| Amount | £1,141,383 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2022 |
| End | 06/2022 |
| Description | CropNet |
| Amount | £250,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NE/S016821/ |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2019 |
| End | 01/2020 |
| Description | ERDF |
| Amount | £90,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | European Union |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 07/2019 |
| End | 07/2020 |
| Description | ERDF Cornwall: Monitoring Soil Carbon - Sampling for farm soil Carbon budgets. |
| Amount | £168,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Department | European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | |
| Description | ERDF Cornwall: VizAg - Visualization of agricultural field performance through low-cost modelling |
| Amount | £133,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Department | European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | |
| Description | ERDF Environmental Futures and Big Data Impact Lab |
| Amount | £36,736 (GHS) |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Department | European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | 09/2018 |
| End | 01/2025 |
| Description | ERDF Impact Lab: OT Analytics - Water harvesting project |
| Amount | £37,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Department | European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | |
| Description | ERDF Impact Lab: Pixalytics (SME) - Satellite Remote Sensing (SAR, sentinel-1 etc.) for soil moisture monitoring |
| Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Department | European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | 01/2019 |
| End | 09/2019 |
| Description | Enhancing Partnerships - UKRI |
| Amount | £36,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | Environment Agency - Catchment Sensitive Farming evidence programme |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Environment Agency |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2020 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | Environment Agency - delivery of the Water Framework Directive |
| Amount | £40,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Environment Agency |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2017 |
| End | 03/2019 |
| Description | Environment Agency Ecological Services Framework |
| Amount | £24,805 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Environment Agency |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2017 |
| End | 08/2018 |
| Description | Food Seedbed Pre-Accelerator Programme |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Hungary |
| Start | 08/2019 |
| End | 11/2019 |
| Description | International Fellowship Scheme |
| Amount | £12,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Chinese Academy of Sciences |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | China |
| Start | 01/2018 |
| End | 12/2019 |
| Description | Ireland EPA DIFFUSE project |
| Amount | € 100,000 (EUR) |
| Organisation | Government of Ireland |
| Department | Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Ireland |
| Start | 07/2017 |
| Description | Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology CORe funding stream |
| Amount | € 585,000 (EUR) |
| Organisation | Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | Luxembourg |
| Start | 08/2018 |
| End | 08/2021 |
| Description | MIDST-CZ: Maximising Impact by Decision Support Tools for sustainable soil and water through UK-China Critical Zone science |
| Amount | £157,333 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NE/S009094/1 |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2019 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | National Productivity Investment Fund |
| Amount | £2,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2019 |
| End | 08/2021 |
| Description | Natural Capital Green Accelerator - Environment Agency |
| Amount | £24,039 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Environment Agency |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2022 |
| End | 06/2022 |
| Description | Policy Lab on Emerging Food Trends |
| Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 06/2020 |
| Description | Teagasc Walsh Fellowship |
| Amount | £60,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Teagasc |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Ireland |
| Start | 09/2017 |
| End | 06/2021 |
| Description | UK Agri-Tech Centres Data Integration Project - Proof of Concept Data Integration project for four Agri-tech centres (Heat stress maps for UK (1961 to 2018)) |
| Amount | £46,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Centre of Innovation Excellence in Livestock |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2018 |
| End | 01/2019 |
| Description | UM6P-OCP |
| Amount | £302,439 (GBP) |
| Organisation | OCP |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | Morocco |
| Start | 11/2019 |
| End | 10/2023 |
| Title | Farm benchmarking framework |
| Description | We have deverloped a national farm system benchmarking framework for England |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | we can use benchmarking ot engage farmers in any sector |
| Title | ACE app for expert elicitation |
| Description | App to facilitate expert elicitation |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.2563240 |
| URL | https://github.com/KirstyLHassall/ACE |
| Title | Crop Rotations |
| Description | Code to generate crop rotations |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Code to generate crop rotations |
| Title | Empirical models to derive Crop Productivity Indicators from SAR Cross-polarization ratio (SAR-CR) |
| Description | Based on Innovate-UK and a joint RRES Cranfield University PhD-studentship (N Vavlas) funded by the Soil AgRIA, we developed R and Python scripts to extract field and farm-specific time series of Earth Observation data (SAR-CR). These times series were validated against ground truth (crop phenology and growth) and parameters of the smoothed dynamic SAR-CR curves are being derived using graphical and algebraic methods, as well as two logistic or double logistic curves. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This capability will eventually allow experts to monitor variation across farm(s) and over time after management changes. |
| Title | Farm Platform Data Portal |
| Description | The Farm Platform Data Portal contains core data for the Farm Platform and facilitates access to the data to both Rothamsted Research staff and the wider research community. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This database allows open access to researchers to utilise the core data generated from the Farm Platform National Capability. The database was first released in 2016 and currently there are ~120 registered users of the data portal |
| URL | https://nwfp.rothamsted.ac.uk/ |
| Title | GWmodel R package |
| Description | GWmodel R package is a collection spatial statistical tools for exploring spatial heterogeneity. Continually developed since its release in 2013. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | "GWmodel" produced 66,200 Google hits. |
| URL | https://www.jstatsoft.org/article/view/v063i17 |
| Title | HLB behaviour model |
| Description | Model of behaviour |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This model will allow people to futher develop linked models of behaviour DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3575028 and Plos Comp Bio publication |
| Title | National farm to landscape modelling framework |
| Description | A national framework for extrapolating the experimental results from the buffer strip trial. The framework includes different farm types (e.g. lowland grazing livestock, intensive cereal) by soil type and rainfall category and critically, models current uptake (business-as-usual) of on-farm runoff and diffuse pollution control measures (e.g. standard 6 m grass buffer strips) so that the projected relative technically feasible impacts of any new scenarios for buffer uptake on farms are more robust. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The modelling framework permits us with a means of extrapolating experimental results to engage with a wider audience including farmers in different parts of the country to which the experimental results apply. |
| Title | SEPARATE (Sector Pollutant Apportionment for the Aquatic Environment) V. 2 |
| Description | SEPARATE provides landscape scale apportionment of the agricultural and non-agricultural contributions of sediment and nutrients (N and P) delivered to waterbodies at national scale in England and Wales. Work as part of Soil to nutrition has updated the data layers to produce version 2. The key updates include updating estimates of agricultural externalities and non-agricultural externalities from point source discharges and eroding river channel banks. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Capacity to estimate one critical component of the spatial mismatch problem for sustainable intensification of farming as you scale from farm scale to landscape scale. This provides a basis for more reliable predictions of the potential impacts of new intervention scenarios across the scales. |
| Title | Spatial life cycle impact assessment data for catchment scale acidification and eutrophication potentials |
| Description | The dataset presented here represents raw and analysed data for a catchment scale life cycle assessment of arable and livestock farming in the UK. The general hypothesis was that implementing on-farm interventions would reduce impacts to water quality in the study site. Input data were collected via a large-scale survey of commercial farmers in the East of England and subsequently collated into two separate farm typologies (arable and livestock). Once the input data were collated into a life cycle inventory, acidification and eutrophication potentials were calculated for each typology, catchment, and a range of scenarios which explore both individual and combined mitigation strategies at the farm-level. Each intervention (or combination of interventions) were compared with baseline farming activities (i.e., production without any consideration of mitigation) to determine how optimised management could reduce impacts to water quality. The arable interventions considered were: AA (All interventions); AB (Fertiliser); AC (Water management); AD (Machinery); AE (Zero tillage); AF (Cover crop). The livestock interventions considered were: LA (All interventions); LB (Fertiliser); LC (Water management); LD (Machinery); LE (Livestock management). Whilst Farm ID numbers need to be anonymised to protect farmers' identities, 1-22 represent arable farm typologies in the study site whilst IDs 23 and 24 represent median and mean arable typologies; IDs 25-37, on the other hand, represent livestock farm typologies in the study site whilst IDs 38 and 39 represent median and mean livestock typologies. The data underpinning the relevant study demonstrates that managing farm-based machinery optimally can make notable differences (~10% improvement) to water quality in the study site. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | No impacts identified yet. |
| URL | https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/wry3659sjw/2 |
| Title | The "Innovate PostGIS" database |
| Description | In this database we manage non-spatial and spatial data, to integrate time series of field and farm-specific land management data with Earth Observation (EO) and other spatial data (e.g. soil, topography, ). A Database Management System (DBMS) was built using the PostgreSQL extension PostGIS. In addition to the usual ability to manage non-geospatial data using PostgreSQL, the PostGIS extension allows geospatial data to be stored in an efficient database which can be queried using spatial queries. This allows to customize the data selected easily by defining the data in a query. For example, we can now almost instantly import the backscatter data into QGIS for Winter Wheat fields at Rothamsted in the 2016/17 season ready for post-analysis, by using SQL code. The database is also capable of connecting with a wide range of applications to return data to the application. A few examples of applications that are capable of connecting to the database: QGIS, ArcGIS, Python, R and web-based applications. This sets the foundation for output data to be used as the backend for any applications that are developed in future projects and is a fundamental basis for developing a commercial product. Originally, developed on a local PC to be used by the research team (Richter-Lab) the Innovate-PostGIS is now located on the Rothamsted LINUX server. The database is managed using pgAdmin. Here, one can edit, add or remove data from the database tables. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The PostGIS database has made a big impact on the evaluation of large data sets and the use within academic-industrial collaboration. An external (farm/client-specific) access has not been discussed yet, but will be possible with model development work. Deployment of evaluation results via AgriMetrics was discussed in a stand-alone LINK proposal. |
| Title | Translation and expansion of the Rothamsted Grass Models for Knowledge Exchange |
| Description | The Rothamsted Grass Model "BEGraS" (Bioenergy Grass Species) is based on LINGRA, a Dutch open source dynamic growth model which has been modified to simulate growth of grasses within a soil-plant-atmosphere modelling framework. The objective of BEGraS was to account for different phenotypes and their sensitivity to changing productivity in different environments. In conjunction with the development of the new SARIC-Grass Model Systems, codes and displays are implemented into Excel Spreadsheets to allow End Users to explore productivity in dependence of management and environment changes. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This interactive tool will reduce "model inhibition" and allow practitioners to explore management options for grass. Different versions of the tool will be made available to scientists, students, industry experts and farmers. |
| Title | Water quality data for Upper Taw observatory |
| Description | Water quality data for nested monitoring sites in the upper Taw observatory |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Engagement withj local farmers in nutrient and soil loss to water |
| Description | Co-working with the Landscape Pioneer, North Devon Biosphere |
| Organisation | Natural England |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Professor Adie Collins has been providing expert review of evolving plans for the new Environment Land Management (ELM) scheme to be piloted the Landscape Pioneer from April 2019. He has attended meetings in Exeter and on conference calls as part of this collaboration. He is currently providing advice on the scope for farm typologies to inform the monitoring of the new ELM. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Natural England have overall responsibility for co-designing the new ELM for trial in the Landscape Pioneer, working with multiple partners to ensure a focus on public good. |
| Impact | The key output to date is a draft description of the interventions likely to be tested in the new ELM. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Collaboration with CEH and Agrii |
| Organisation | Agrii |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Discussed R&D and applications for: a. 25YEP public goods & services, b. Opportunities for an ELMS, soil indicator, C. Common protocol, d. Publications |
| Collaborator Contribution | Discussed R&D and applications for: a. 25YEP public goods & services, b. Opportunities for an ELMS, soil indicator, C. Common protocol, d. Publications |
| Impact | on-going |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Collaboration with CEH and Agrii |
| Organisation | UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Discussed R&D and applications for: a. 25YEP public goods & services, b. Opportunities for an ELMS, soil indicator, C. Common protocol, d. Publications |
| Collaborator Contribution | Discussed R&D and applications for: a. 25YEP public goods & services, b. Opportunities for an ELMS, soil indicator, C. Common protocol, d. Publications |
| Impact | on-going |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Collaboration with RegenFarm to deliver AgRIA project |
| Organisation | RegenFarm Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We have discussed the mitigation measures related to regenerative farming practices, undertaken modelling based assessment of their efficacies and impacts on major farm types in Hertfordshire county using the Soil to Nutrient modelling framework |
| Collaborator Contribution | RegenFarm Ltd. has designed an interactive user-interface to disseminate the information for stakeholder engagement |
| Impact | The Soil to Nutrition modelling framework has been used to model management bundles for regenerative farming in Hertfordshire county. The outputs quantify the ecosystem services or dis-services, including emissions to water and air, farm economics, production, soil quality, biodiversity, water use. The data has been transferred to the collaborator |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Collaboration with social scientists to road test farm benchmarking capability |
| Organisation | Countryside and Community Research Institute |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | We are exploring using formal social science methods farmer engagement with the farm benchmarking tool developed in Soil to Nutrition |
| Collaborator Contribution | CCRI, University of Gloucester have designed the social science analysis of the farmer engagements |
| Impact | options for improving presentation of farm benchmarking results confirmed with farmers |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Collaboration with the Bristol University dairy farm at Langford |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We discussed comparison of grass leys versus biomass cropping in intensive arable systems and eventually opted to use the Soil to nutrition modelling framework to model the technically feasible impacts of increased uptake of grass leys in intensive arable systems in the east of England. The results are to be compared versus business-as-usual. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Soil Association contributed to the discussion of scenarios and helped us finalise the framing of those prior to model runs. |
| Impact | The Soil to Nutrition modelling framework has been used to model scenarios of increased uptake of leys and sheep in the intensive cereal systems of eastern England. The outputs compare business-as-usual and the new scenarios in terms of services or dis-services; emissions to water and air, farm economics, production, soil quality, biodiversity, water use. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Contribution to the Dorset Catchments Monitoring Group |
| Organisation | Wessex Water |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Professor Adie Collins now contributes to the Dorset Catchments Monitoring Group, which is part of the Dorset Catchment Partnerships Initiative under the Cathment-based Approach (CaBA). Here, he has presented S2N work (e.g. in the river Cale catchment) to show the significance of taking better account of mechanistic understanding and scaling in managing the externalities arising from modern farming. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Wessex Water organise and minute these meetings. |
| Impact | Transfer of Soil to Nutrition understanding into management discussions for catchments in Dorset. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Defra Landscapes, Peatland and Soils Directorate Collaboration |
| Organisation | Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Defra representatives joining the Advisory Group of the Soil to Nutrition Programme, 28/10/2020 |
| Collaborator Contribution | Defra representatives joining the Advisory Group of the Soil to Nutrition Programme, 28/10/2020 |
| Impact | on-going |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Environmental Land Management (ELM) trial: River Exe catchment |
| Organisation | The Soil Association |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Learned Society |
| PI Contribution | We are providing spatial datasets for the focus areas |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Soil Association is leading this ELM trial to feed into the government 25 YEP |
| Impact | Evidence on the public goods delivered by farmers in the River Exe catchment in SW England |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Landscape Pioneer collaboration |
| Organisation | North Devon Biosphere Foundation |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | AgLand has been interfacing with the North Devon Biosphere and the Landscape Pioneer ELM trial for Defra. AgLand outputs will be shared with the Landscape Pioneer to ensure local feedback. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The North Devon Biosphere team have shared documents with AgLand on the development of the Landscape Pioneer ELM trial and met with AgLand researchers at Rothamsted Research North Wyke to discuss co-working to ensure dissemination of AgLand research outputs. |
| Impact | Plans of exposure of AgLand outputs at planned Pioneer Landscape stakeholder events |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Landscape scale farmer engagement |
| Organisation | Linking Environment And Farming |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Outlined ways that S2N science outputs can be used to tailor on-farm management plans to dleiver sustainability at scale across landscapes |
| Collaborator Contribution | LEAF are using Rothamsted Research inputs to consider tailoring their accreditation scheme |
| Impact | LEAF have a firmer plan for how sustainability might be achieved at scale |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Mechanistic understanding for managing the externalities of modern farming on water quality |
| Organisation | Wessex Water |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We used the mechanistic understanding within the modelling framework for soil to Nutrition to apportion the key pathways for the transfer of pollutants from agricultural land to freshwater in a list of priority landscapes provided to us by Wessex Water. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Wessex Water provided Rothamsted Research with a list of priority waterbodies for which they wanted new mechanistic data on water pollutant transfer pathways at landscape scale. |
| Impact | Wessex Water have built our mechanistic data on key water pollutant transfer pathways for priority catchments into their new management plans. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | River Beane sediment study |
| Organisation | Environment Agency |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | We devised a study to assess the implications of the spatial mismatch between on-farm interventions for sustainable intensification and the likelihood of addressing environmental issues at landscape scale. In the case of the river Beane study catchment, soil loss and sediment problems in the river channel were identified as the primary environmental issue at landscape scale. We therefore applied a sediment source fingerprinting approach based on fallout and geogenic radionuclides to assess the contribution of agriculture to the landscape sediment problem. The source apportionment estimates from the sediment fingerprinting work were integrated with the farm to landscape modelling results for pathways to sustainable intensification. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provision of background data and information for the River Beane study catchment, Hertfordshire, UK. Collection of in-river sediment samples (monthly) for use in the spatial mismatch work based on application of the sediment fingerprinting approach. |
| Impact | The outputs of the work are now being used by the local Environment Agency teams to adapt their river basin management plans. The source apportionment work critically shows the down-scaling of on-farm management in the context of the non-agricultural sediment source contributions in this test landscape. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | River Cale sustainable intensification spin off |
| Organisation | Farm and Wildlife Advisory Group South West |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | We used the Soil to Nutrition modelling framework to compare business-as-usual Defra top-down policy scenarios for managing the externalities of farming on water and air with a more mechanistic-centric approach using the fundamental process-based understanding on pollutant transfers from farming provided by Soil to Nutrition to date. The scenarios used real farm data collected FWAG SW and used as input to the modelling framework. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Environment Agency funded the work. FWAG SW administered the project and collected the farm business data using a pro forma provided by us. |
| Impact | The results of the modelling work were presented to local farmers at a farmer workshop (Ruth Kimber's farm shop, Wincanton, Somerset) in order to discuss the model predictions (including for farm incomes) and to gain feedback on the farmer attitudes towards the details of the mechanistic-centric scenario work. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Teagasc Walsh Fellowship PhD |
| Organisation | Teagasc |
| Country | Ireland |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Professor Adie Collins is co-supervising this Teagasc Walsh Fellowship PhD project with Professor Phil Jordan at Ulster and Dr Per-Erik-Mellander at Teagasc. Part of the studentship work will be using the replicated buffer experiment to test the conservativeness of sterol biomarkers for tracing cattle slurry losses from agricultural land to water. The slurry will be added in conjunction with us sowing maize as a high risk crop in May 2019 to test the buffer treatments for associated impacts on runoff and water quality. Amber Manley, the PhD student, is spending her first two years at Rothamsted Research before moving to Ulster for her final two years. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The co=supervisors from Ulster University and Teagasc are involved in all stages of the planning of the experiment work for this PhD project. |
| Impact | Paper submitted to Water Research - first conservation test of the sterol biomarkers being used for tracing cattle slurry. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Techniques for processing datasets for assessing spatial mismatches across scales for managing soil erosion and sediment problems |
| Organisation | University of Reggio Calabria |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have trained the ERASMUs students in data processing and modelling of the soil and sediment tracer datasets. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Italian partner collected the soil and sediment samples from a study landscape processed the samples to obtain tracer data. In addition, 1 ERASMUS student was sent to Rothamsted Research in the spring of 2018 and 2 further ERASMUS students in the spring of 2019 to receive training on data processing and modelling. |
| Impact | The ERASMUs placement students have been trained in processing soil and sediment tracing data. An assessment of the spatial mismatch has been assembled for the Trionto study catchment in Italy. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Testing a fingerprinting procedure for assessing the spatial mismatch problem for sustinable intensification |
| Organisation | Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres |
| Department | Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Professor Adie Collins' research team linked up with the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) to process soil and sediment geochemistry and radionuclide data measured on samples collected from a catchment in Burkina Faso. This provided an opportunity to test the source fingerprinting procedure being applied in the main study areas for Soil to Nutrition in a different environmental setting more akin to those areas included in GCRF funding calls. The soil and sediment data were processed using a framework combining statistical tests and numerical mass balance modelling including Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partner was responsible for collecting and analysing the soil and sediment samples for geochemistry and radionuclides. |
| Impact | Publication summarising the work: Rode, M., op de Hipt, F., Collins, A.L., Zhang, Y., Theuring, P., Schkade, U-K., Diekkruger, B. (2018). Subsurface sources contribute substantially to fine-grained suspended sediment transported in a tropical West African watershed in Burkina Faso. Land Degradation and Development 29, 4092-4105. The results will now be used to inform, landscape management in the study area in Burkina Faso. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Testing a source fingerprinting procedure for assessing the spatial mismatch problem for sustainable intensification at landscape scale |
| Organisation | University of Tehran |
| Department | Faculty of Geography |
| Country | Iran, Islamic Republic of |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We applied the statistical and numerical modelling framework for sediment source tracing being refined and applied in soil to Nutrition to data provided for study areas in Iran. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Iranian partner collected the soil and sediment samples from the test landscapes in Iran and analysed those samples. The data were sent to Rothamsted Research for processing using our statistical and modelling framework for this specific procedure for examining spatial mismatch issues at landscape scale. |
| Impact | The results of the source fingerprinting studies in mountainous catchments near Tehran are being used to inform landscape management plans. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Testing the source tracing framework being applied in Soil to Nutrition in a Brazilian case study |
| Organisation | Federal University of Piaui (UFPI) |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Through a collaborative partnership we are training a PhD student (Fabio Amorim) in all aspects of our source tracing framework for assessing spatial mismatches between on-farm management and the scope for meeting landscape scale environmental objectives. This training is covering soil and sediment sampling on the North Wyke Farm Platform and in the new upper river Taw observatory installed as part of Soil to Nutrition, laboratory analyses for tracers (bulk stable isotopes, colour, MIR, n-alkanes), statistical processing of the data and numerical modelling with uncertainty analyses (Monte Carlo). |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Brazilian partner has been responsible for collecting samples for sending any associated data. |
| Impact | The analyses are still ongoing. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Walsh Fellowship PhD studentship |
| Organisation | Teagasc |
| Department | Teagasc Food Research Centre |
| Country | Ireland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Professor Adie Collins won a Walsh Fellowship PhD studentship funded by Teagasc. The PhD is co-supervised by Teagasc, Rothamsted Research and the University of Ulster (the awarding university). Professor Adie Collins is co-supervising the student (Amber Manley) and thereby contributing to all aspects of the studentship. To date, the student has focussed on completing her MRes at Ulster university (passing with Distinction) and on completing her first research paper for submission to am international journal reporting the results of a benchtop experiment testing the conservativeness of sterol biomarkers for confirming incidental losses of cattle slurry from agricultural land. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Teagasc and the University of Ulster are co-supervising the studentship and also providing facilities for the work in future years (years 3 and 4). |
| Impact | The first scientific paper has been completed and is nearing completion for submission to an international journal. The student has presented an outline of her thesis plan to Teagasc, Ireland. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | • Collaboration with Soil Association (Liz Bowles) to discuss scenarios for Soil to nutrition |
| Organisation | The Soil Association |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Learned Society |
| PI Contribution | We discussed comparison of grass leys versus biomass cropping in intensive arable systems and eventually opted to use the Soil to nutrition modelling framework to model the technically feasible impacts of increased uptake of grass leys in intensive arable systems in the east of England. The results are to be compared versus business-as-usual. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Soil Association contributed to the discussion of scenarios and helped us finalise the framing of those prior to model runs. |
| Impact | The Soil to Nutrition modelling framework has been used to model scenarios of increased uptake of leys and sheep in the intensive cereal systems of eastern England. The outputs compare business-as-usual and the new scenarios in terms of services or dis-services; emissions to water and air, farm economics, production, soil quality, biodiversity, water use. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Title | GWmodel R package |
| Description | A suite of spatial statistical modelling tools See https://www.jstatsoft.org/article/view/v063i17 |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | 66200 Google hits |
| URL | https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=GWmodel |
| Title | GWmodel R package - Further updates - including those for high performance computing |
| Description | Update of GWmodel - Open source R code for spatial statistics |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Further updates - including those for high performance computing |
| URL | http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/cran.r-project.org/ |
| Title | SIFT - Sediment Fingerprinting Tool |
| Description | The SIFT software using R shiny app provides a one stop shop software tool for processing tracer (e.g. mineral-magnetic, radiometric, geochemical, biomarker) datasets for understanding the key landscape sources of sediment and associated nutrients (e.g. P) and contaminants (e.g. heavy metals). This source apportionment software tool thereby provides a basis for exploring process scaling as a key means of supporting the targeting of on-farm interventions for delivering sustainable intensification of agriculture. The tool combines data visualisation, QA, statistical analysis and numerical modelling with uncertainty routines. Version 1.2 has now been released on the RRes website. This version is more streamlined than version 1.1. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | SIFT has been distributed to a number of end users to ensure uptake and to assemble feedback for future updates/versions. Currently, the tool is being tested/used by academics (e.g. University of Northampton, UK; University of Waterloo, Canada) and international organisations (e.g. US Geological Survey research teams). |
| Title | SIFT: SedIment Fingerprinting Tool |
| Description | A comprehensive software tool with a user-friendly GUI to walk any researcher or catchment manager through every step of a sediment source fingerprinting data analysis procedure. The tool is programmed using R and uses Shiny by RStudio for the user interface. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Description | 2019 SARIC dissemination event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Pized poster with Cranfield (Burgess) on Grassland Model Translation Project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | 27th International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) Genereal Assembly |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Translation of work on the NWFP exploring the implications of field scale spatial variations in soil tracers being used for the spatial mismatch corrections in S2N WP3 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | 27th International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) Genereal Assembly |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Translation of work on the North Wyke Farm Platform exploring the sediment polluton gap and the implications of new mechanistic understanding for closing the gap |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | 27th International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) Genereal Assembly |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Translations of basic trianing on key components of the SIFT (SedIment Fingeprinting Tool) open source software tool used for the tracing procedures applied to spatial mismatch corrections in WP3 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | 27th International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) Genereal Assembly |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Translation of mechanistic understanding gained from analysis of time series data |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | AHDB Webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Using yield monitor data and satellite imagery to identify zones for differential management |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Achieving Net Zero: Agritech water quality online hackathon |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Engagement with stakeholders and general public with WP3 data |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.impactlab.org.uk/events/view/achieving-net-zero-agritech-water-quality-online-hackathon |
| Description | AgriTech East dissemination event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Utility of farm benchmarking for understanding co-benefits and trade-offs of management interventions presented |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting - New Orleans, December 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Prof Adrian Collins presented an oral at the AGU Fall Meeting entitled 'Connectivity in agricultural landscapes - do we need more than a DEM?'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting - New Orleans, December 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Prof Adrian Collins co-convened a session and workshop at AGU Fall Meeting - 'Emerging Technologies and Advances in Identifying Catchment Sediment Sources'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Association of Applied Biologists conference on Sustainable Intensification, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, November 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Prof Adrian Collins ALC presented an oral at the AAB conference on SI (Nov 2017) entitled 'The scale problem in tackling the sustainability of agriculture with respect to water quality: insight from the Avon Demonstration Test Catchment'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Attending workshop on 'Environmental modelling and regulation in catchment' in Bristol |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented the S2N workpackage 3 activities and modelling outputs to audiences from EA modelling team and water industries representatives |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | BSRC/NERC SARIC 3rd dissemination event (Oxford, November 2017) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Prof Adrian Collins presented talk entitled 'Impacts of different vegetation in riparian buffer strips on hydrology and water quality'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Catchment Sensitive Farming Project results dissemination event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A talk sharing the results of the CSF fingerprinting project with senior Environment Agency staff, other EA staff and catchment sensitive farming officers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Catchment Sensitive Farming officers meetings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Meetings with individual or small groups of catchment sensitive farming officers to share sediment source data developed from the CSF fingerprinting project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | CropTec Show - Peterborough, November 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Goetz Richter & other Rothamsted colleagues attended the 'CropTec Show' in Peterborough (November 2017). Provided opportunities for networking on Remote Sensing and GIS. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | DTC national conference, Exeter University (September 2017) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Prof Adrian Collins convened the conference and also presented on 'Simulating the efficacy of different on-farm mitigation scenarios' (Avon DTC). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Defra Dissemination Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Implications of process understanding for sustainable agriculture better understood by policy teams |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Defra Water Expert Advisory Group - review of agriculture targets |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | review of new targets for the 25YEP |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Defra Water Expert Advisory Group - economic impact assessment |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | review of new targets for the 25YEP |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Defra Water Expert Advisory Group - new targets for acid metal mines |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | review of new targets for the 25YEP |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Defra Water Expert Advisory Group - new targets for agriculture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | review of new targets for the 25YEP |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Defra Water Expert Advisory Group - new targets for household water consumption |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | review of new targets for the 25YEP |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Defra Water Expert Advisory Group - new targets for wastwater management |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | review of new targets for the 25YEP |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Defra Water Expert Advisory Group - review of abandoned metal mines targets |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | review of new targets for the 25YEP |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Delivery of mechanistic understanding to Wessex Water |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Delivery of information on fundamental mechanistic process apportionment for the delivery pathways of agricultural externalities (e.g. excess nutrient loss) on aquatic receptors in priority catchments identified by the water utility. The new science is being used to inform the new management plans being submitted by Wessex Water. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| Description | Devon and Cornwall Soils Alliance |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A group of soil practioners / researchers in Devon and Cornwall working to collate outputs and maximise influence |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Discussion on delivering sustainable intensification at landscape scale |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Rothamsted researchers working on Soil to Nutrition WP3 engaged with Nestle and discussed how our new science and findings can be incorporated into the LENS (Landscape Enterprise Networks) approach being used by Nestle in conjunction with its agricultural supply chains (e.g. dairy) to enable landscape management plans in England. The discussions covered existing LENS case studies using dairy supply chain plus plans for doing something similar but working with cereal supply chain in eastern England. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Discussion with BBC Radio 4 Farming Today team |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Nitrate trading scheme implications better understood |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Dorset Catchments Monitoring Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The mechanistic understanding and scaling being generated by Soil to Nutrition WP3 was presented and discussed at a meeting of the Dorset Catchment Monitoring Group, which is part of the Dorset Catchment Partnerships Group under the Catchment-based Approach (CaBA). The discussions focussed on how new mechanistic understanding can better inform landscape scale management of the externalities arising from modern farming. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Dynamics of fluvial hydro-sedimentological, nutrients and floc size responses during the UK extreme wet winter of 2019-2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 4th International Workshop on High Temporal Resolution Water Quality Monitoring and Analysis - Floc size distribution during storm discharge events was well received. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Engagement with WWF and Tesco agriculture teams |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of scientific framework and example results |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Engagement with stakeholder within Upper Taw Observatory |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Continued working in catchment with stakeholder |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Farmer focus group meeting, Okehampton |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This farmer focus group meeting ran a preliminary test of some policy and practice notes summarising some of our work on shortlisting on-farm measures for sustainability and monitoring water quality for informing the selection of on-farm measures. Farmers and advisors were given the chance to feed back on all aspects of the outputs including length, semantics, pictures included and main messages. All attendees are keen to keep the meetings going for further engagement and some participants are now giving us their farm business data to be involved in a new farm benchmarking exercise we are undertaking for the Soil to Nutrition programme. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group - workshop to rank management of arable habitats against their impact on 13 Ecosystem Services |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group: Geerah, Jenny Phelps, and Patrick Dreyer with Ian Shield, Stephan Haefele, Andy Whitmore, Helen Metcalfe, Steve McGrath, Andy Neal and Jon Storkey workshop to rank management of arable habitats against their impact on 13 Ecosystem Services. Contribution to ELMs trial to build a methodology for mapping habitats on farm and assigning them a quality score in terms of ecosystem services they deliver |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | GW models, CAS, Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Beijing, China (two-day workshop with A Comber) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | GW models, CAS, Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Beijing, China (two-day workshop with A Comber) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Geographically Weighted PCA: Introductions and Uses. Spatial Accuracy Conference, Beijing, China (one-day workshop with A Comber) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Geographically Weighted PCA: Introductions and Uses. Spatial Accuracy Conference, Beijing, China (one-day workshop with A Comber) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Global Roundtable of Sustainable Beef |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited to give the keynote at the Global roundtable of sustainable beef in Kilkenny Ireland on 'Future Perspectives of Sustainable Agriculture' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Global bureau meeting of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Discussion of global hydrological commission policies |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Interim Environmental Governance Secretariat (IEGS) meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | participation in meeting Attendees better informed on information needs for Clean and Plentiful Water outcome monitoring for the 25 YEP |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Invited keynote on the scope for reducing excess sediment loss from lowland ruminant farming |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented S2N moideling work on the North Wyke Farm Platform and upper Taw observatory |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk (Yunnan University, Kunming, China) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Professor Adie Collins gave an invited talk on the North Wyke Farm Platform and associated work in Soil to Nutrition to the Institute of International Rivers and Eco-security (IRES) and the Asian International Rivers Centre (AIRC), Yunnan University, Kunming, China. This was part of ongoing collaboration building for work on soil erosion and associated externalities arising from modern farming. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at EAAP - European Federation of Animal Science Annual Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited to give the key note address for the Livestock and Farming Commission of EAAP on 'Agricultural sustainability metrics based on land required for production of essential human nutrients' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited talk at State Laboratory for Environmental Geochemistry, Guiyang, China |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Professor Adie Collins gave an invited talk on the North Wyke Farm Platform and associated Soil to Nutrition work at the State Laboratory for Environmental Geochemistry in Guiyang, China. This was part of collaboration building in conjunction with ongoing Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) work in the karst region of Puding county, China. The Chinese researchers require training in the data processing and numerical modelling techniques being developed and applied globally by Professor Adie Collins' research team. The meeting identified mistakes in the current data processing by the Chinese team - hence the need for training at Rothamsted Research. Options for Visiting Researchers from this Chinese group to visit Rothamsted are now being explored. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited visit by Regional Government of Chongching PR China |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Invited by the Regional Government of Chongching PR China to discuss aspects of sustainable livestock production at a gathering of party members and Scientists at Rhongchang. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited webinar: "Farming in the palm of your hand" ERDF Cornwall, 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Series of presentations on outputs of ERDF Cornwall projects |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Invited webinar: The North Wyke Farm Platform" Dookie College, University of Melbourne Australia, 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on the set-up and continued running of the North Wyke Farm Platform |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Invited workshop attendee: BBSRC AI in Biology, Norwich, UK 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Feedback report on gaps and opportunities |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Judicial review of on-farm measures in conjunction with CaBA - July 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Prof Adrian Collins participated as a national science expert in a Judicial review of on-farm measures in conjunction with CaBA - July 2017. He answered questions on the monitored efficacy of on-farm measures for delivering improved sustainability and income. The questions covered plot/measure, field, farm and catchment scale. The impact of business-as-usual uptake of interventions as supported by cross compliance, agri-environment and PES was questioned. He also answered questions on the required timescales for monitoring to provide robust evidence on the performance of on-farm measures and on modelling tools used to explore alternative farming futures (land cover change, increased uptake of interventions relative to business-as-usual) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | LEAF Education Day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The tree of tradeoffs used by the soil modelling group at the Rothamsted Festival of Ideas was used at the LEAF Education Day. The Countess of Wessex attended and we were tweeted by 'The Royal Family' and Prince Edward is now following a member of our staff. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Living Planet Symposium - European Space Agency |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar to quantify crop productivity |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | MEGAPOLIS 2020 - school for young scientists - On line scientific lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On line scientific lecture |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | MSc teaching on soil erosion and available intervention methods |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Talk presented for a MSc course on soil erosion and available on-farm interventions which were discussed in terms of efficacy and costs to farmers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | MSc. Lecture on careers in applied statistics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presented work from S2N and other projects |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Meeting with Defra Chief Scientific Advisors office |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of scientific framework and example results |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Meeting with Soil association staff |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Trade-offs for ELM scenarios better understood |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Meeting with Trewithen estate to discuss new science project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Discussion of new ecosystem services tool development |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Meeting with University of Waterloo, Canada |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Discussion of new collaborative science in the Upper River Taw observatory |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Meeting with consultant for HoSW LEP |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Discussion of how strategic science can inform community development |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Mid Career Scientists training group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | 30 young scientists were given training and took part in exercises to simulate grant and report writing. The focus was on the Defra 25 Year plan and the sustainable intensification research network. The event provided an opportunity for the scientists to network with one another |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://sirn.org.uk/event/sustainable-intensification-valuing-nature-in-dialogue-enabling-researcher... |
| Description | NFU Cymru - Future of the Uplands |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | NFU Cymru hosted a discussion panel debate at the Royal Welsh show where I presented our research on Sustainable Livestock systems which covered many aspects of projects and research we are undertaking to determine the role and impact of livestock in a sustainable food chain and future environmental policy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Newton UK-China Collaborations in Agricultural Technologies Partnership Building Visit to China, 2nd-8th July 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Lianhai Wu attended this Innovate UK funded workshop and gave a pitch presentation. The direct outcome of the attendance is a joint proposal (mechanisms and technologies to improve resource use efficiency and enhance crop productivity in dry-farmland in northwest China) was developed and submitted for the Newton UK-China AgriTech call. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Participation in Dissolved Organic Matter conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Participation in Dissolved Organic Matter conference |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2020/01/dom-freshwaters/ |
| Description | Poster on mechanistic understanding of sediment loss from the North Wyke Farm Platform |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Delivery of new mechanistic field scale understanding of erosion processes in settings covered by the North Wyke Farm Platform |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Poster on sediment sources at landscape scale using biomakers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Delivery of new evidence on the vlaue of incremental composite signautres for distinuishing and apportioning landscape scale sediment sources for the spatial mismatch element of S2N work |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentaion of Research on Cover Crops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Research findings |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation at international conference in Europe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented findings on an analysis of farmer engfagement by the Catchment Sensitive Farming programme in England |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation at international conference in Europe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented findings on use of steroid tracers for cattle slurry losses to water |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation at international conference in Europe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented findings on co-benefits of on-farm measures for sustainability at landscape scale |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation on Crop Modelling to Jules community |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Research findings |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation on S2N work on spatial mismatch issues in landscapes |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented national scale work the importance of point source discharges of nutrients in understandfing the landscape scale impacts of on-farm measures for sustainability |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation on attitudes of farmers to current delivery of advice for diffuse water pollution |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Delivery of new evidence on farmer attitudes to advice delivery using a multi-stranded evidence collection framework |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation on farmer engagement with evidence from sediment source tracing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Delivery of new work on farmer engagement with scientific evidence |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation on sediment loss from the 15 catchments comprising the North Wyke Farm Platform |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Delivery of new evidence on soil loss rates for lowland ruminant farming |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation on the scope for meeting background sediment loss targets: evidence from the North Wyke Farm Platform |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Delivery of new evidence on the scope for sediment gap closure using the North Wyke Farm Platform |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation on the spatial variability of sediment tracers on the north Wyke Farm Platform |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Delivery of new evidence on the sptial variability of widely used sediment tracers |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation to Canadian NSERC for WATER national research network |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of scientific framework and example results |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Presentation to Canadian NSERC for WATER national research network |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of scientific framework and example results |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Presentation to farmer focus group in Devon |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Delivery of new farm benchmarking data |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation to farmer focus group in Dorset |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Delivery of new farm benchmarking data |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation to farmer focus group; in Dorset |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Testing of new policy and practice notes on sustainable agriculture |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Press release on results on international study comparing intensive and less intensive farming |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The contribution of rothamsted Research to an international study published in the journal Nature Sustainability (Balmford et al 2018) were reported in a BBC news release by Cambridge University. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Rothamsted Festival of Ideas - soil modelling group stand |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The soil modelling put together and presented over the two days of the Festival of Ideas an activity display on the future of British farming. This was a communication experiment that asked the public their thoughts on the future of agriculture and in very simple terms tried to relay some of the tradeoffs between what we may wish to see. Scientists engaged with the public on these issues and directed interested parties to other events where our research aimed for a more 'win-win' situation. The activity was very popular during the Festival of Ideas open days. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Royal Society talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Adie Collins gave an invited talk at the royal Society - 'The agriculture-water quality interface - mitigating the multiple unintended consequences'. The debate in the room centred on this global grand challenge ad the significance of new understanding coming from Soil to Nutrition. All attendees recognised the significance of needing mechanistic understanding to make well informed management decisions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | S2N Advisory Group Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Discussion of impacts of extreme wet weather on externalities from farming |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | SPACSYS training course - China Agricultural University (11th-15th November 2017) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Lianhai Wu delivered SPACSYS training course at China Agricultural University |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | SRUC Research Day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited to give a key address to all staff at SRUC as part of their research day on the research we have undertaken at Rothamsted on Sustainable Livestock Systems and soil health. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Salle Farm - Wensum DTC Visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Goetz Richter and other Rothamsted colleagues visited Salle Farm - Wensum DTC including a presentation on Innovate-UK project. Discussions with UEA (University of East Anglia) re. further collaboration regarding Satellite in Agriculture - SAR dynamics |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Sediment provenance data presentation for Wath Beck and Holbeck to Catchment Sensitive Farming Officers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of scientific results |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Staffing the Rothamsted Festival of Ideas |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Teagasc Walsh Fellowship funded PhD student working in association with Soil to Nutrition WP3 helped to staff the Festival of Ideas open days and undertook visitor surveys and promoted the event at the Farmers Market in Harpenden. The visitor surveys were used to report feedback and opinion/experiences concerning the Festival of Ideas. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Stapledon Seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented an invited talk on sustainable livestock at the Stapledon Seminar Series |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Sustainable Soils Alliance discussions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Discussions with Sustainable Soils Alliance about work on a "logical sieve" to connect soil quality indicators and public goods. Discussed second phase examining the cost/practicality aspect, i.e. examining which SQIs farmers are likely to measure and how. With a view to establish this via an ELM Test/trial. Discussed final stage of the work will be a synthesis of the previous steps combined with an analysis of where there are efficiencies/cost effectiveness benefits from combining laboratory analyses and new methods. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://sustainablesoils.org/ |
| Description | Talk on use of Organic Amendments in Agriculture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Research findings |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Transforming Food Production programme meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Attendees better informed on farm benchmarking capability developed by Soil to Nutrition |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Tree of Tradeoffs - engagement with members of the public |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As part of the Rothamsted Festival of ideas celebrating 175 years of Rothamsted, we held an event over the last weekend in June 2018 to ask members of the public about what they would like to see from Agriculture. We had a manufactured tree on which visitors were invited to hang different coloured leaves representing their 4 choices from 6 possibilities: cheap food, rural livelihoods, environment, nutritious food, farm profit or food security. Crucially visitors were limited to the 4 choices. This enabled us to engage with them and talk about what issues were more important than others. Visitors were also encouraged to write comments on the leaves that they hung on the tree. We reached over 600 people in this way, many of them children |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Upscaling Workshop - Reading, 14th June |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Alice Milne attended a workshop & series of talks including soil pore modelling, process modelling from soil profile to global scale and modelling moisture by remote sensing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Visit of local farmers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Invited local stakeholders to view the work being undertaken and to ask for farm data |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Wageningen Soil Conference - Ped to Planet |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Soil moisture and roughness assessment using SAR and EMI sensing |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Waitrose Farm Assessment workshop (8 May 2017) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Prof Andy Whitmore presented on Farm practices and the farm assessment: a role for new science. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | meeting with national Environment Agency Catchment Sensitive Farming team |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented the findings of a national programme researching the impacts of on-farm measures delivered by CSF |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | stakeholder meeting, Cumbria |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Information presented nd discussed on the efficacy of on-farm measures for sustainability |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |