Nitrogen deposition is one of the greatest threats to UK biodiversity. Using observed relationships between species richness and cumulative N deposition, national deposition models and various deposition scenarios, we model how N has driven changes in UK biodiversity in the past and how these impacts may evolve in the future.

The brush-tailed rock wallaby is one of Australia’s threatened species.  Cross-fostering techniques have been used to accelerate breeding in order to supply animals for reintroduction.  Initial reintroductions have occurred into the Grampians National Park, Victoria.  Mortality from a variety of causes has resulted in a significant loss of animals post release. The species remains on a knife edge.

Dystrophic water bodies >2 ha in the UK uplands are priority habitats under UK BAPs, yet the biodiversity of the numerous smaller pools is poorly understood. Recently, artificial drain-blocking has created thousands of new pools. This study showed community composition between both pool types was similar. Drain-blocking therefore seems to be beneficial for the expansion of upland aquatic macro-invertebrates.

Yellow-Rattle,Rhinanthus minor, is widely used in grassland diversification to keep productive grasses in check and to promote grassland forbs. Here, we present the results of an experimental study of various factors and their interactions that may affect establishment of sown Yellow-Rattle of three lowland ecotypes. These factors included level of pre-sowing bare ground creation, sowing density, and grassland type.

Protected areas are regarded as being central to biodiversity conservation, yet analyses of their effectiveness are often hampered by a lack of meaningful baseline data. We use botanical data from the 1950s and 2007-08 to compare vegetation change occurring within and out-with Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the Scottish Highlands.

New Zealand recently established a Biodiversity Monitoring and Reporting System to assess whether ecological integrity on public conservation lands is being maintained. Results will be presented for five measures of ecological integrity considering both native and exotic species, using information drawn from an unbiased sample of locations within native forests.

We report site characteristics for sample populations of three understudied UK montane shrubs: Betula nana, Salix myrsinites and Juniperus communis and present analysis of the relationship between site characteristics and population condition.  We assess the condition of Scottish populations in the context of threats from climate change and land management and make recommendations for conservation management.

A talk based on the Practitioners Perspective article in Journal of Applied Ecology (Feb 2012) with the same title.  I will build on the arguments set out in the paper and provide an overview of the current situation, including reference to biodiversity offsetting.  I will provide a consultant ecologist's perspective of the need for evidence underpinning planning decisions.

A selective review and field evaluation of existing biodiversity indicators was carried out on diverse European farms (EU BioBio project). Indicators of habitats, plants and animals were selected based on scientific credibility, cost effectiveness and stakeholder preference but do they reflect overall conservation status, reflecting rarity and species of restricted distribution?

The propagule bank can have an important function in restoring an ecosystem after damage, Here we compare the surface proagule banks in two contrasting moorlands, one degraded and one less so. In both the impacts of prescriebd burnign is assessed on surviving propagules.The implciaitons of these results will be discussed from a  conservation perspective.

Using field (Countryside Survey) and satellite based (Land Cover Map) survey data on land use in Great Britain, bird habitat associations were modelled using national breeding bird count data. The predictive power of models using the two sets of habitat predictors was compared in order to inform the design of future survey and analytical work.

African national parks form cornerstones on which biodiversity conservation policy is built but their boundaries do not coincide with catchment area boundaries. Increasing human populations and changing land use upstream of parks are reducing river inflows, potentially damaging park ecology.  Behavioural responses by hippopotami to changing water availability in Katavi National Park, Tanzania, are presented as a case study.  

Hazel gloves (Hypocreopsis rhododendri) is a rare epiphytic fungus found in ancient, oceanic hazel woodland on the west coasts of Britain and Ireland.  We report the findings of research into the distribution, habitat preference, temporal dynamics, trophic status and evolutionary history of this species, and discuss the implications for its conservation.

We present results from the NERC funded EMBER (Effects of Moorland Burning on the Ecohydrology of River basins) project. At ten study sites (five burned, five unburned) across northern England, the effects of rotational heather burning on soil hydrology, physical and chemical properties, stream water chemistry, hydrology and aquatic biodiversity have been examined in detail since 2010.

Fire severity is known to vary with burning conditions but currently little data exists for heather moorlands. We adapted the Composite Burn Index to assess the severity of wildfires that burnt in spring 2011 and 2012. Fire severity varied substantially within and between wildfires whilst fuel consumption, and thus carbon emissions, appear to be greater than for prescribed burns.

In the tropics, farming is usually regarded as main threat to biodiversity. We compared biodiversity of bees and wasps between heterogeneous small-scale farmland and protected forest in Belize. Alpha and spatiotemporal beta diversity were consistently equal or higher in farming areas compared to forest. We conclude that heterogeneous farmland may conserve or even favour biodiversity of some taxonomic groups.