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This case study highlights the research at Plymouth University evidencing the problems of deep sea fishing in European waters. Working with policy makers, NEAFC, GOs, NGOs, and industry the researchers have contributed to solutions to deep-sea management problems across Europe. They have developed new techniques for habitat mapping which, coupled with human use data, has helped establish large offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that have minimized the effects of displacement on the industry while providing key refuges for ecosystem recovery and conservation.
The Plymouth University marine carbon team was the first to investigate ecological consequences of ocean acidification, and carbon capture and storage leakage. The findings have impacted on US legislation and are key to the UK ocean acidification research programme. The research is highlighted in the European Science Foundations' Science Policy Briefing on Impacts of Ocean Acidification (2009), the United Nations' Emerging Issues Bulletin on `Environmental consequence of ocean acidification: a threat to food security' (2010), the US `National Strategy to Meet the Challenges of a Changing Ocean' (2010) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change `Ocean Acidification Report' (2011).
In 2008-2009 the UK was subject to legal infraction proceedings at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for allegedly failing to implement the European Union's Urban Waste-water Treatment Directive (UWWTD). Research by the Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Studies, Hull (IECS) for the Environment Agency (EA)/Defra provided evidence to the UK Government for its defence against these allegations. The research consisted of:
- literature/data reviews and collection and analysis of critical evidence from the Humber.
- co-ordinating workshops and convening an expert panel of sufficient authoritative academic opinion to counteract the European Court of Justice allegations.
In December 2009 the European Court of Justice ruled in favour of the UK. Our research therefore helped to save very significant, unnecessary capital investment in nutrient removal technology for sewage treatment nationally and in the Yorkshire and Humber region especially. The UK government thus avoided the possibility of major European Commission fines of up to €703,000 per day, or €256m per annum, for infraction of the Urban Water-water Treatment Directive [1].
The decline of bees, hoverflies, and other pollinators has been widely described as a "pollination crisis" (e.g. Progress Report of FAO on the Implementation of the International Pollinators Initiative - September 2012) which could have profound effects on both food security, and wild plant populations and the ecosystem services they support. Research by Professor Jeff Ollerton and colleagues into the ecology and diversity of plant-pollinator interactions has: (a) provided a scientific evidence base that has influenced national and international policies relating to the conservation of pollinator populations; (b) raised national and international public awareness of the subject of pollinator conservation; and (c) led to positive changes in UK gardening practices.
Bangor Research since 1998 has pioneered, through experimental, comparative and modelling studies and industry collaborations, quantification of the wider ecosystem effects of fishing, specifically on seabed habitats. Novel findings gave policy and economic benefits to the fishing industry and led to the sustainable, continued profitable development of the UK's largest blue mussel fishery and Isle of Man scallop fishery, with a combined value of £22M. It directly led to Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification of these fisheries and underpinned certification of dozens of other demersal fisheries. Additionally, the research has influenced UK retailer policies on sustainable fish sourcing, providing direct environmental and commercial benefits and improving public knowledge and sustainable consumption.
Mathematically-based image processing techniques developed at the University of Cambridge have helped bring about a revolution in the ability to extract quantitative measurements from laboratory experiments in fluids. Techniques and software tools developed from this research and incorporated into commercial software are now used in engineering, physics and mathematics research laboratories around the world on projects ranging from fundamental research to ones with strong industrial connections.
Research carried out at Oxford University has helped demonstrate the extraordinary significance of a fossil site in Yunnan Province (China) for understanding evolution at the time of the Cambrian explosion. This research contributed to the site being proposed and, in 2012, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. An Oxford University researcher (Siveter) played an important part in this process, drawing on his research when writing the World-Heritage bid. Government policy for the Chengjiang area has now shifted away from phosphate mining to conservation, education and tourism, with the establishment of a Geopark and, in 2010, a Museum. Annual visitor numbers to the area are rising, already in the thousands, benefiting the regional economy. The Chengjiang site has been preserved for future generations to investigate and enjoy.
Based on biogenic reef research at Heriot-Watt University (HWU), nine Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been designated and established in the Northeast Atlantic, Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, and a further six are under consideration. These MPAs represent 10% of the Caribbean Sea area, 6% of the UK's inshore Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and 18% of the MPAs under consideration in Scotland. In addition, our ecological assessments of the biodiversity value and structure of biogenic habitats, and their sensitivities to widespread stressors, stakeholder conflict assessment and economic assessments have underpinned the objectives, management measures and assessment of MPAs, and other marine spatial planning initiatives, undertaken in the context of both the current marine environmental conditions and future climate change trajectories.
Professor Irving Kirsch has conducted a meta-analysis of both published and unpublished clinical trials of antidepressants (Kirsch et al., 2008). This analysis demonstrates that the effects of antidepressants are mostly placebo effects except with extremely severe depression. The analysis opened an international debate on antidepressant efficacy, influenced NICE guidelines for the treatment of depression (NICE, 2010), and led the scientific committee of the European Medicines Agency to reconsider its own approval of antidepressants (Broich, 2009). It also informed public opinion through widespread media coverage, and produced intentions to change prescribing habits among 44% of surveyed UK doctors. Public awareness of Kirsch's work is such that a class action has been taken against Pfizer, a large pharmaceutical company, and the Vatican has convened an international study meeting (14-15 June, 2013) to produce new recommendations for the treatment of depression.
Research to quantify the ecological structure and spatial dynamics of terrestrial habitats in Northern Ireland (NI), and to assess the effects of recent land use change, has enabled the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) to develop and implement a science-based strategy for landscape-scale biodiversity management and conservation. It has directly facilitated the integration of NIEA and the Department of Agriculture for NI (DARD) biodiversity management strategies and their monitoring of the implementation of European Community biodiversity legislation (and cross-compliance).
The science information-base and time-series change models developed from the research have allowed NIEA to lead inter-governmental department discussion on biodiversity and land use issues. It has also guided the development of an NI habitat biodiversity management strategy. Specifically, the statistically structured field and analytical methods developed by the research for assessing terrestrial habitats at the regional landscape-scale have been adopted by NIEA as key to reporting on the biodiversity outcomes of implementing the European Community conservation Habitats Directive.
The research has provided a common ecological framework within which NIEA, DARD (including Forest Service) and non-government organisations (Ulster Wildlife Trust and Northern Ireland Environment Link) have been able to discuss and agree on biodiversity and agri-environment management practices in designated statutory conservation sites and the farmed countryside. It has also been key in guiding a NI assessment of the socio-economic value of habitats (ecosystem services).