BES Facebook pagePrevious Activities:
2011
Thematic topic 'Applying ecological research to address food security and sustainable production'
The Agricultural Ecology Specialist Interest Group will host a Thematic Topic on Monday 12th September at the BES Annual Meeting. There is an excellent programme of speakers.
Further details
This year the AEG dinner will be held at ' ASHOKA' at 8 pm. If you would like to come please call or preferably text Barbara Smith on 07940 997136.
Agricultural Ecology Dinner at the Annual Meeting
After the success of the AEG dinner in previous years we have decided hold it again, this year we are planning to go to an Indian restaurant on the Monday evening (12th September). If you would like to attend please email, anyone is welcome. Details of the location and time will be posted at the end of August.
In Association with The James Hutton Institute and the Association of Applied Biologists
Agricultural Ecology Research: its role in delivering sustainable farm systems
West Park Centre, Dundee 15-16 June 2011
A major global challenge of the 21st century is to improve food security and other provisioning services in the face of fuel insecurity and pressures on farmland. Provisioning ecosystems must be repaired and external resources used sustainably. In 2011, several multi-disciplinary projects on provisioning services come to fruition, including a 5-year, government-funded, research programme on Sustainable Crop Systems. In total, this work forms a unique and ambitious programme of research on arable-grass provisioning, encompassing empirical and theoretical assessments of the physical, chemical and biotic components of the ecosystems. The research aims to design systems that optimise a range of outputs, functions or services such as food security, farm livelihood, ecological integrity, environmental impact and landscape. A major emphasis in the work is an explicit link between research, countryside management, policy and education.
The role and potential of organic farming in delivering functional biodiversity and ecosystem services
The Organic Research Centre, Elm Farm, Hamstead Marshall, Newbury, Berkshire Tuesday 17 May 2011
Agroecological systems, including organic agriculture and agroforestry, are designed and managed to integrate biodiversity into the production system. This is based on the assumption that increasing the level of planned biodiversity within the farming system is also likely to increase the associated ‘wild’ biodiversity, with positive impacts on the ecosystem services they deliver such as pollination, pest control and soil fertility. Diversity can be introduced at every level of the system; at the species level by moving away from pure-bred lines towards composite cross populations, to the field-scale where intercropping builds on synergies between two or more species (and weeds are regulated rather than controlled), to the farm- and landscape-scale where temporal and spatial heterogeneity can be increased through rotations, mixed farming and agroforestry. This meeting will consider the value of this functional biodiversity approach to protecting and enhancing farmland biodiversity and associated ecosystem services.
2010
Predicting the impact of change on agro-ecosystems, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, UK, 5 October 2010
View full programme details [Adobe PDF, 2785 Kb]
Contact: Jonathan Storkey
Recent changes in agricultural land use and crop husbandry have largely occurred with little prior analysis to determine the impact of these changes on the abundance and diversity of biota that are adapted to the farmed landscape. As a result, there has been no contingency for mitigation of the negative effects of the increasing intensification and homogenisation of the cropping landscape. The attempted restoration of the resulting degraded agro-ecosystem now accounts for a significant proportion of the public money invested in the rural economy. The invention of genetically modified crops has had the beneficial effect of focusing the mind of policy makers and the public on the issue of risk assessment in agricultural systems. However, the introduction of GMOs is just one of the potential future changes that may impact farmland biota and the ecosystem services they deliver. Other imminent threats include changes in cropping patterns (including the loss of set-aside, reduction in area of sugar beet grown or large scale planting of bio-energy crops), new pesticide legislation and climate change. Much intellectual energy has been spent already debating the potential impact of particular land use changes. In contrast, this meeting will focus on generic approaches to risk assessment that have the potential to assess the potential impact of a number of these factors in parallel and so equip policy makers with tools for trading-off alternative land use options.
Agricultural Ecology Specialist Interest Group Dinner at the British Ecological Society Annual Meeting
Tuesday 7 September at Piccolino restaurant, Leeds.
Showcasing Resources for Farmers, Agronomists and Ecologists to Increase Biodiversity on Farm
NIAB, Cambridge, 15 July 2010
This was a special one day Symposium looking at the type of resources that can be used on a farm and considering how those resources can be integrated into different types of farming. The day finished with a trip to the new 'Innovation Farm' Facility that is being piloted this year in order to look at ways to inform farmers and other stakeholders about crops, innovations and resources through a showcasing and web-based facility. This facility showed examples of resources that can be used in demonstration format and will look at ways in which the resources are relevant in different circumstances.
The registration cost will contribute to catering; otherwise much of the cost is covered by the generosity of the BES.
Agri-environment schemes - what have they achieved and where do we go from here?
A three day meeting in collaboration with the Association of Applied Biologists .
Held at the University of Leicester, Oadby, UK, 27-29 April 2010
View The Association of Applied Biologists website
Agri-environment schemes have now been in operation for over two decades, and a range of different approaches are adopted across Europe. Many changes have taken place in the types of schemes supported and the approaches adopted to monitoring and evaluation. Past evaluations have highlighted both successes and perceived failures, and there has on occasion been controversy about the value of the agri-environment approach to environmental conservation on farmland. Nevertheless, such schemes continue to be the major vehicle for achieving environmental objectives in the agricultural context, and budgets are now higher than ever before. Major changes have occurred following the most recent CAP reforms, and monitoring and evaluation data are now becoming available giving early indications of performance. At the same time, new prescriptions continue to be developed and incorporated as schemes are reviewed and revised.
Themes to be explored at this conference will include the development of agri-environment policy, the rationale behind the current schemes, the science underpinning the options, implementation at field, farm and landscape scales, the assessment and evaluation of the outcomes, and the implications for future developments. A particular emphasis will be placed on the collection and assessment of evidence for success (or otherwise) of agri-environment schemes in achieving their objectives, and how this could be improved. Of specific interest will be the nature and early results from evaluation of new agri-environment schemes established following the 2005 CAP reform, but the scope will also include earlier AES and comparisons between them. Both monitoring of direct benefits and socio-economic evaluations may be included. In addition, papers describing underpinning research will also be welcomed. Keynote speakers will be invited to set the policy context.
Meeting Report by Georgina Key:
From the Thesis to the Field 2nd March 2010
Austin Court, Birmingham.
As a PhD student researching conservation biological pest control, one of the worries I have is the fact I have no idea how to get my research put into practice. When you first enter the area of agricultural ecology, it can seem like an overwhelming minefield of policy, what farmers want and need, and what you need to do in order to produce a decent thesis or body of research that can actually be of some use to someone! The idea behind this meeting was to introduce postgraduate students to people with experience in applying their research in the field and who are making a tangible difference.
Speakers from a variety of disciplines were invited so that some of the more important aspects of applying research were touched on. These different backgrounds ranged from charities, academic and research institutions, to a representative from the National Farmers’ Union. The speakers gave a bit of background about themselves so that the students could see how they got to where they are today, and they were well received by the students. The smaller group made it much easier to approach and talk to the speakers.
Topics covered included:
· informing policy by research, illustrated by Tony Morris (RSPB, bird conservation) and Lisa Norton (CEH, organic farming, countryside survey)
· relationships between research institutes and farmers. Lydia Smith (NIAB) outlined NIAB research into novel and non-food crops;
· the academic perspective and the motivations behind research (Simon Butler (University of Reading); how PhD research can directly contribute to research (Chris Stoate, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust)
A lively afternoon discussion was led by Richard Ratcliffe, where problems encountered by farmers when implementing research were discussed. Speakers also revealed their own routes into research and conservation.
The overall feeling the meeting conveyed was very positive about the impact our research can have, and that there are a variety of ways in which the research can be implemented.
2009
Field meeting at North Wyke Research to visit two DEFRA funded experiments, 8 July 2009
Principle organiser: Robert Orr, Agroecologist, North Wyke Research, Okehampton, Devon.
The work at North Wyke focuses on the interactions between soil, microbes, plants, animals, water and the atmosphere within grassland-dominated landscapes; you can find out more here. The aim of the meeting was to visit the following two experiments:
1. ‘Microsites project’ Techniques to enhance the establishment and persistence of poor-performing species in grassland restoration - BD1459
The aim of this project is twofold: (i) to identify the constraints on the survival of poor-performing, specialist species for a wide range of UK grassland types, and (ii) to develop and test practical management prescriptions to enhance the establishment of these species under the agri-environment schemes.
2. Wide-scale enhancement of biodiversity: effects on other resources (WEB) - BD1466
Grassland is the predominant habitat in the agri-environment schemes associated with Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) and Higher Level Stewardship (HLS). ELS options for low input and very low input grassland (e.g. EK2, EK3) are popular with agreement-holders but because of their simplicity their biodiversity benefits are often very low. Additional measures are needed to inform the development of existing or new ELS or HLS options so that they can consistently achieve modest gains to biodiversity over large areas of land with little or no potential for Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Habitat grassland. In addition, new primary objectives within Environmental Stewardship (ES) address natural resource protection such as the integrity and health of soil resource. There is therefore a need to identify opportunities for simultaneous delivery of multiple benefits from ES agreements. There is evidence that increases in plant diversity can deliver a range of benefits including grassland faunal diversity and abundance enhancement, soil structural amelioration and nutrient retention and agronomic value in terms of forage quality. This project will provide evidence that a moderate increase in plant diversity has the potential to deliver these multiple objectives.
Food, Farming and Conservation, 20 October 2009
A joint meeting between the BES Agricultural Ecology Specialist Interest Group and Flora Locale
Location: The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Fordingbridge, Hampshire, SP6 1EF.
Keynote speakers: Poul Christensen (Acting Chair of Natural England). Simon Fairlie (rural sustainability commentator and author of 'Can Britain feed itself?')
This meeting explored how the pressure to increase food production can be balanced with the need to maintain and restore farmland biodiversity. Issues addressed included: Can Britain feed itself – and at what cost? Can increased food production be squared with the commitment to meet biodiversity targets? Should food production and nature conservation be geographically integrated or segregated? Can the rural land management schemes deliver? A panel of expert witnesses outlined innovative projects that are addressing these challenges before discussion took place in focused workshops. The output will be a paper for policy makers and NGOs.
2008
The Agricultural Ecology Group at the BES Annual Meeting 2008, Imperial College London
There was a meeting of the Agricultural Ecology Group on Thursday 4 September, which was a successful discussion meeting to establish priorities and objectives for the group.
This was accompanied by dinner on Wednesday evening, which proved to be a great opportunity to meet each other in a sociable setting - along with limited free wine!
Conference speakers and delegates at the AEG meeting organised by Lydia Smith (centre).
'Change in land use: does this relate to CAP reform and what are the agro-ecology repercussions', NIAB, Cambridge, 18 July
Some of the major drivers in European agriculture have been subject to some profound changes in the past five years. The projected impact of CAP reform has been discussed in many fora and has already become manifest in some areas; including the removal of some land from agricultural production and the reallocation of grazing land to arable use. Some agriculturalists argue that a more important factor guiding farmers cropping choice is the recent profound rise in wheat prices. This is likely to affect, not just the proportion of UK land that is farmed, but also farmers' enthusiasm for cultivation of the less mainstream crops that have recently been enjoying some interest. Other factors that cannot be ignored include (in no particular order) cultivation of crops for biofuel; future cultivation of GM crops and changes in set-aside legislation.
Aspects of these considerations were recently discussed in a public web-basedblog format under the banner of the 'Great Land Use Debate'; it was part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science and National Science and Engineering Week. The debate, which ran from 7 - 17 March, centred around three questions posted on the internet. The questions:
1) Have we got the balance right between protecting the environment and producing food?
2) Is rural land management the problem or the solution in our towns and cities?
3) What is rural land for?
The RSPB's Mark Tinsley opened discussion by suggesting that we need to take a holistic approach to land management incorporating social, economic and environmental considerations.
This 1-day conference did not hope to address all these questions and considerations, but sought to initiate discussions and views on some aspects of the debate and bring together academics and practitioners with an interest and stake in this area. The meeting was very well recieved and there was as a lively discussion following presentations. You can download the Programme here: Agricultural SIG Programme 2008.doc
