Legacy effects of extreme flood events on soil quality and ecosystem functioning

The UK and many areas of Europe have witnessed unprecedented flooding this winter. Severe long-term flooding of agricultural land can have disastrous impacts on ecosystem functioning as well as having severe consequences on the economic and social wellbeing of rural communities. The persistence and magnitude of floodwaters in parts of the UK (e.g. Somerset Levels) provide a unique opportunity to investigate the impacts of long-term floodwater inundation on soil health and ecosystem service delivery. The aim of this 'Urgency' project is to: (1) provide vital information on the negative effects of recent flood events on soil functioning, (2) identify potential tipping points in terms of inundation time, (3) quantify rates of ecosystem function recovery and any potentially irreversible effects, (4) identify potential future intervention measures to promote ecosystem recovery, (5) provide stakeholders (e.g. landowners, Defra, NFU, EA) with critical scientific information to be able to make informed decisions (i.e. to minimize immediate impacts such as production losses) and respond and adapt to potential future flood events.

The research area and associated aims of this NERC Urgency project are of international relevance, highly topical and central to the delivery of the new NERC science strategy. The work is also integrally aligned with needs of Defra who are co-funding the more applied aspects of this proposal.
Impact in the user community will be realised through the development of KE partnerships with those involved in policy and operational management of the environment. To this end, we have already held a suite of meetings and discussion sessions with a wide range of stakeholders prior to finalising our proposal, in order to ensure that their interests and concerns are properly represented in our NERC Urgency project, and that the science we propose is transferable and useful beyond the immediate academic beneficiaries.

Defra are co-funding this proposal (£60K) thereby demonstrating their clear commitment to the project in terms of supporting the science and dissemination elements which will greatly contribute to the project's impact. Six other stakeholder organisations have provisionally agreed to help co-ordinate the field sampling, provide access to data and facilitate dissemination events. All will be invited to attend the final dissemination workshop. These include Government organisations (Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales), landowner organizations (National Farmers Union, Farmers Union of Wales) and agricultural industry representatives (Hybu Cig Cymru, EBLEX).
We will deliver KE through a 5 step process:

1. All the Academic Project Partners and Defra in particular have participated in the final formulation of this bid, providing valuable suggestions to hone the programme to ensure that anticipated outcomes meet their interests and operational needs;

2. We will develop links with the wider stakeholder community through the project website and existing KT networks in which we are already involved, and will ensure wider public engagement through University Science Days and local and national media;

3. We will produce three factsheets on specific policy implications of our research findings for our stakeholder organisations, making these publicly available through our project website and the publicity activities of our stakeholder organisations;

4. We will engage with the wider academic community through: (i) providing access for external researchers to our data; (ii) publication of 3 papers in international peer reviewed journals; (iii) feedback on our findings to the national and international policy arena through Defra and our participation as expert members of the IPCC, WG LUCCG etc, (iv) presentation of our findings at conferences, and (iv) a contribution to Planet Earth;

5. We will host an end-of-programme interactive workshop on 'Soil Responses to Long-Term Flood Inundation' targeted specifically at the wider stakeholder community. This will report on the current state-of-knowledge, implications for future land use management, implications for future land use policy, potential mitigation measures to reduce the impact of flooding, and identify priority areas for future research and potential avenues for funding.