Tracking Bees Using Drones – Tom Oliver
Reducing Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions ‘RAGGE’
Nitrogen inputs into agricultural systems are an essential requirement for healthy, high yielding crop production, but they can also result in the release of excess N either by leaching or by emission of the highly reactive greenhouse gas (GHG) N2O. In the UK, direct N2O emissions from soil accounted for about 50.5% of all N2O […]
Landscape diversity underpins sustainable agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa
The previous secretary of the United Nations, Kofi Anan, called for a uniquely African green revolution in response to the need to increase productivity while reducing the negative impacts of industrialised agriculture on the environment and societies. Part of the solution will be to optimise the diversity of crops grown in space and time. Small […]
Complementary strategies for the sustainable management of an invasive pest in Africa
In January 2016, the first reports of a new invasive pest was received in Africa. In less than two years, the new pest – the Fall armworm, Spodoptera frugiperda – had spread to most countries (>30) within-subSaharan Africa (https://youtu.be/4iN7-DmOjwc). There are now global efforts to control this new threat to the region’s food security; initially […]
Complementary strategies for the sustainable management of an invasive pest in Africa
In January 2016, the first reports of a new invasive pest was received in Africa. In less than two years, the new pest – the Fall armworm, Spodoptera frugiperda – had spread to most countries (>30) within-sub-Saharan Africa (https://youtu.be/4iN7-DmOjwc). There are now global efforts to control this new threat to the region’s food security; initially these have focused on […]
Metabolic constraints arising from the loss of organic carbon and structure from soils.
The “4‰ Soils for Food Security and Climate” agreement has focussed regulators’ and scientists’ minds alike on the role that carbon plays in fertility and global climate change. Organic carbon is often implicitly linked with soil structure and its rapid loss from conventionally managed agricultural soils is a cause of serious concern. Soil without biology however, is just dirt: […]
Dispersal strategies and space use in pollinating bees
Quantifying dispersal ability and how organisms navigate through the environment is an essential step required to predict how individual species will cope with land use changes. There is a growing desire to ensure that intensive land use practices are designed in a way that maintains stable populations of pollinators. While the field of movement ecology has been revolutionised by […]
What lies beneath: Resolving fundamental controls on the stable oxygen isotope composition of phosphate in soils
Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for food production but rock phosphate reserves are non-renewable and set to become increasingly scarce, making phosphorus critical for global food security. Therefore, it is vital that we better understand how P is cycled in soils in order to support future food production. This project will develop a highly novel stable isotope technique […]
How long does it take for recovery of soil processes from excess nitrogen deposition?
The past 60 years have seen dramatic changes in the amount of atmospheric pollutants being deposited on semi-natural habitats. Between 1960 and 1990, industrialisation and the intensification of agricultural pollution led to large increases in the deposition of nitrogen (as well as sulphur) leading to acidification and eutrophication. This had a negative impact on plant […]
Characterising and predicting the impact of infection with deformed wing virus (DWV) on honey bees and bumble bees.
In social insects, such as pollinators, infectious diseases challenge the survival and effective function of both the individual and the entire colony. While pests and pathogens have been implicated in honey bee colony losses, concerns are increasing for the impact of emerging infectious diseases (EID) on wild pollinators and associated pollination service provision. Deformed wing […]