Soil
Lead Research Organisation:
UK CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY & HYDROLOGY
Department Name: UNLISTED
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Bridget Emmett (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Adams JL
(2015)
Aged riverine particulate organic carbon in four UK catchments.
in The Science of the total environment
Aggenbach C
(2017)
Does atmospheric nitrogen deposition lead to greater nitrogen and carbon accumulation in coastal sand dunes?
in Biological Conservation
Andriuzzi W
(2015)
Organic matter composition and the protist and nematode communities around anecic earthworm burrows
in Biology and Fertility of Soils
Armstrong A
(2016)
Ground-level climate at a peatland wind farm in Scotland is affected by wind turbine operation
in Environmental Research Letters
Armstrong A
(2015)
Biotic and Abiotic Factors Interact to Regulate Northern Peatland Carbon Cycling
in Ecosystems
Armstrong A
(2016)
Solar park microclimate and vegetation management effects on grassland carbon cycling
in Environmental Research Letters
Bakhoum N
(2015)
Senegalia Senegal response to inoculation with rhizobial strains vary in relation to seed provenance and soil type
in Plant and Soil
Binley A
(2015)
The emergence of hydrogeophysics for improved understanding of subsurface processes over multiple scales.
in Water resources research
Broughton R
(2015)
Differential acquisition of amino acid and peptide enantiomers within the soil microbial community and its implications for carbon and nitrogen cycling in soil
in Soil Biology and Biochemistry
Brownlie W
(2015)
Developing a global perspective on improving agricultural nitrogen use
in Environmental Development
Case S
(2015)
Biochar suppresses N2O emissions while maintaining N availability in a sandy loam soil
in Soil Biology and Biochemistry
Chaplow J
(2015)
Post-Chernobyl surveys of radiocaesium in soil, vegetation, wildlife and fungi in Great Britain
in Earth System Science Data
Creamer R
(2016)
Ecological network analysis reveals the inter-connection between soil biodiversity and ecosystem function as affected by land use across Europe
in Applied Soil Ecology
Crowther TW
(2016)
Quantifying global soil carbon losses in response to warming.
in Nature
Davies J
(2016)
Long-term P weathering and recent N deposition control contemporary plant-soil C, N, and P
in Global Biogeochemical Cycles
Davies JAC
(2016)
150years of macronutrient change in unfertilized UK ecosystems: Observations vs simulations.
in The Science of the total environment
Delpla I
(2015)
Heavy Rainfall Impacts on Trihalomethane Formation in Contrasting Northwestern European Potable Waters.
in Journal of environmental quality
DeLuca T
(2015)
A novel biologically-based approach to evaluating soil phosphorus availability across complex landscapes
in Soil Biology and Biochemistry
Domínguez M
(2014)
Sustained impact of drought on wet shrublands mediated by soil physical changes
in Biogeochemistry
Domínguez M
(2017)
Contrasting response of summer soil respiration and enzyme activities to long-term warming and drought in a wet shrubland (NE Wales, UK)
in Applied Soil Ecology
Dondini M
(2015)
Evaluation of the ECOSSE model for simulating soil organic carbon under M iscanthus and short rotation coppice-willow crops in B ritain
in GCB Bioenergy
Dondini M
(2014)
Evaluation of the ECOSSE model for simulating soil carbon under short rotation forestry energy crops in Britain
in GCB Bioenergy
Duan YF
(2017)
Activity of Type I Methanotrophs Dominates under High Methane Concentration: Methanotrophic Activity in Slurry Surface Crusts as Influenced by Methane, Oxygen, and Inorganic Nitrogen.
in Journal of environmental quality
Dupont AÖ
(2016)
Differences in soil micro-eukaryotic communities over soil pH gradients are strongly driven by parasites and saprotrophs.
in Environmental microbiology
| Description | The following are just a few highlights from the CEH Soils Science Research: a) Ongoing high use of the UK Soil Observation platform with > 200 site visits per day and 45,000 users & 4000 data records for the MySoil app. This is a partnership initiative with 8 key soil data providers across the UK. b) Using our new integrated carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus system we have quantified the impact of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on soil carbon sequestration c) CEH led on an article exploring how we might attempt to economically value the contribution of soils to the provision of ecosystem services. We go on to examine economic valuation methods and review economic valuation of soils. By surveying prices of soils on the web we are able to make a first, limited global assessment of direct market value of topsoil prices. We then consider other research efforts to value soil. Finally, we consider how the valuation of soil can meaningfully be used in the introduction of improved resource management mechanisms such as decision support tools on which valuation can be based, within the UN's System of Environmental and Economic Accounts (SEEA) and policy mechanisms like Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES). On the value of soil resources in the context of natural capital and ecosystem service delivery. d) We have improved the representation of soils in the ecosystem service model called LUCI to help Welsh Government help improve the impact of payment to farmers as part of the Welsh agri-environment scheme Glastir. e) CEH manages one of the longest climate change experiments globally and is active in a series of global meta-analyses and reviews of the results from experimental studies. This has resulted in a series of high impact papers including 3 published or in press in the Nature family. Findings have identified the greater sensitivity of disturbed systems to drought (Nature Communications); evidence of the permanent soil structural change and soil moisture retention capacity in response to modest but repeated summer droughts and the decoupling of soil and plant processes (Scientific Reports); and the greater sensitivity of carbon rich soils (Nature). f) We continue to develop fundamental new understanding in soil process and soil organic matter turnover by exploiting new methodologies, our long term monitoring data and long term research observatories. Recently activities have been particularly focussed on the role of nitrogen, phosphorus, and pH in influencing the spatial and temporal patterns in soil carbon within the Macronutrient Programme projects. For example, exploitation of our Conwy research platform in the Macronutrient Programme Turf-2-Surf project identified soil pH as an effective integrative soil property which spatially describes a range of other ecosystem services (soil carbon sequestration, water quality regulation, primary production, biodiversity) across a land use gradient from arable to peats (Science of the Total Environment, In press) with many more papers pending. This is important as soil pH is a relatively easy soil property to both crowdsource, map and model compared to many other soil properties and thus could potentially provide a useful practical management tool. |
| Exploitation Route | The integration of monitoring data in the web platform UKSO is enabling a wide range of academics and policy/industry partners to have greater access to soils data. The modelling work is directly contributing to better targeting of agri-environment payments in Wales The soil economics work is directly helping inform the wider community of the unseen and non-market benefits of soil. The modelling work on atmospheric work illustrates the highly connected nature of all the issues which contribute to climate change highlighting the need to integrate policy initiatives. Our support as Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Inquiry into Soil Health will inform new regulatory frameworks and incentive schemes for soil protection by all UK governments. Many other activities in our soils area are submitted under Sustainable Land Use, Biosphere and Atmosphere Interactions and Environmental Pollution |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Environment |
| URL | http://www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/science-areas/soil |
| Description | House of Commons Inquiry into Soil Health The Soil SA Lead Prof Bridget Emmett was invited to apply and was appointed as the Specialist Adviser to this Inquiry which sought to highlight the need for a greater emphasis by government on soil health. More than 350 pages of evidence was submitted by 78 organisations and individuals. Oral evidence heard from 13 specialists and with a final session with the minister from Defra. CEH attended all sessions and provided additional private briefings and advice throughout the inquiry. Key issues highlighted by the Inquiry included declines soil carbon and their implications for climate change; evidence of damaging agricultural land practices such as maize on erodible land and their double subsidy; lack of assessment of urban and contaminated land and potential implications for human health and inequalities; and concerns over the lack of any current UK soil monitoring scheme. CEH were asked to supply additional evidence on the magnitude on soil's contribution to UK CO2 emissions, peatland loss and the link between self-reported human health and brown field sites to clarify conflicting evidence provided to the Inquiry. A follow-up meeting was requested by Defra, NE and EA with CEH to help clarify and ensure effective follow-up. CEH will continue to provide a support to government, agencies and the community to ensure effective follow-up to this Inquiry. Data platforms and tools The UK Soil Observatory continues to be a highly effective and well-used data platform which CEH manages with BGS on behalf of the whole soil community. New activities this year included adding a crowdsourcing component to help ground-truth CEH Landcover mapping which will also help improve soils data as vegetation cover is such an important driver of soil change. David Robinson was awarded a NERC KE Fellowship for 3 years which is focussed on ensuring we better understand industry, government and policy needs for soils data which will then inform continued development of the UKSO platform (200 site users/day) and the CEH/BGS mySoil app which has 50,000 users. New research could save significant water use in crop irrigation: Research led by CEH could help improve the estimates of the amount of water needed for crop irrigation, helping to alleviate both water stress and food security issues in many regions by allowing more efficient irrigation across more land. The results have worldwide implication, as irrigation uses 70% of freshwater resources globally. Research values soil's natural capital: Study sets out way of valuing soil's contribution to food and wider ecosystem services across Europe. Soil scientists at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) have set out a Europe-wide framework for developing a natural capital accounting structure for soil which considers the impact of land use change, climate change and pollution. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Environment,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism |
| Impact Types | Economic Policy & public services |
| Description | Specialist Adviser to House of Commons Soil Health Inquiry |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| URL | https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/environmental-audit-comm... |