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This case study describes how innovative new survey protocols for amphibians and reptiles in the UK are already changing conservation and planning practice in the UK. The new protocols, developed by a team led by Professor Richard Griffiths at the University of Kent, make surveys more effective and provide guidance for obtaining better data on trends for these species. Thanks to a series of engagement workshops held in 2011-12, the team's research has already informed best practice amongst ecologists, consultants and fieldworkers involved in professional practice and national recording schemes. Moreover, the revised and science-based survey protocols, published in March 2013, are in the process of being adopted within policy, best practice and statutory guidance in England, Wales and Scotland.
Prior to this research, survey protocols for amphibians and reptiles had changed little for some 20 years, and were not science-based. Consequently, the amount of survey effort required to reliably determine population status was controversial. With developers forced to spend up to £125 million per year to mitigate impacts on some species, this issue was particularly pressing within the commercial sector. Using statistical models, Griffiths' team derived recommendations that resolved how much effort was required to reliably detect whether a species was present or absent from a site. If it were not for this research, these important protocols would not have changed, and surveys would not have been as cost-effective or as reliable. Indeed, despite several decades of intensive recording activity, there were insufficient data to provide a meaningful statement on long- term trends of UK species for the recent National Ecosystem Assessment.
Researchers at the University of St Andrews have changed the way environmental monitoring and impact assessment data are collected and analysed, particularly in the marine environment. We have developed new statistical models of wildlife population dynamics that, for example, form the basis for population assessment of most of the world's grey seals, allowing the UK and Canadian governments to implement effective management of the populations. Other research carried out by us has led to reformulation of the recommended standard statistical practice for impact assessment in the UK marine renewables industry, enabling marine regulators such as Marine Scotland to make better-informed licensing decisions concerning large-scale offshore renewable energy developments.
Research on the population biology of the stag beetle at Royal Holloway has created impact on the environment (species conservation through an increase in available habitat and in known breeding sites), impact on public policy (production of a species action plan and an EU Directive and the management of woodland habitats), and impact on society (change in public understanding). Using a `Citizen Science' approach, over 250 volunteers have engaged with this research in population surveys and over 1,000 have helped to create breeding sites. The research has helped to implement conservation policy decisions in the UK and EU and has produced many public information guides. It also has resulted in a radically revised Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) national Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) for the species. Furthermore, the research has created impact on practitioners (through enhancement of teaching practices) and brought practical conservation biology into schools, improving the teaching of the National Curriculum at KS2 and 3.
The Large Blue butterfly, formerly extinct in the UK, was successfully reintroduced over two decades to sites in south-west England. New research at the University of Oxford has greatly improved its conservation status and identified key factors that determine the ability of this extreme specialist to survive, especially in the context of climate change. Since 2008 this has led directly to new, larger and more stable populations, to significant expansion of the butterfly's range into cooler regions, and to new `races' with greater environmental tolerance. The research has thus contributed directly to the positive upgrading of this species' global conservation status.
Research from the Department of Zoology has been instrumental in identifying residues of the veterinary painkiller diclofenac in cattle carcasses as responsible for catastrophic declines in vulture populations across the Indian subcontinent. As a result, the drug has been banned for veterinary use in the relevant countries, and an international conservation effort (SAVE) to Save Asia's Vultures from Extinction has been set up. Declines have since slowed, captive breeding programmes have been introduced, and local people have been trained in monitoring work and advocacy. There has also been inter-government collaboration to support conservation efforts, the first example of such collaboration on the subcontinent.
In 2012, cod stocks in the North Sea were assessed as having recovered almost to a level at which their viability is considered to be safe. This recovery followed 3 decades of progressive depletion to only 50% of the safety threshold of abundance. Achieving this recovery required the EU to abandon an earlier `closed area' policy banning fishing in selected areas of the North Sea, and instead enforce drastic cuts in overall activity on national fishing fleets. The policy change was prompted in part by predictions from mathematical modelling of cod populations by researchers at Strathclyde, showing that the `closed area' policy was unlikely to be an effective strategy for recovery. The recovery has so far restored £17 million in annual value to the fishery.
The loss of biodiversity is an issue of global concern. This has prompted intergovernmental aims and global campaigns, administered by organisations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, to halt the rate of species extinction. A major hurdle in these initiatives was the lack of any form of definitive list of the World's species. Species data was scattered across hundreds of local databases, created and interpreted differently by many scientists. No uniform, agreed catalogue existed. However, research produced at the School of Computer Science, at Cardiff University, resolved this. The use of data modelling, constraint checking techniques, protocols and processes to amend conflicts have enabled Species2000/ITIS to produce the Catalogue of Life: www.catalogueoflife.org. This federated database is the most complete set of species data anywhere in the world, comprised of 1.4 million entries. It is accessed by approximately 30,000 users worldwide, each month, and utilised by governments across the globe for nature conservation, import control and predicting the effects of climate change. Other users include charities, specialists, scientists, publishers, students and members of the public worldwide. Therefore the categories of impact claimed are threefold - environmental, economic and impact on society, culture and creativity.
Research undertaken at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) studied habitat enrichment in captive coyotes (with the National Wildlife Research Center in Utah), and herd composition of donkeys, horses and mules (with the Donkey Sanctuary). These studies observed social and environmental interactions, addressing important welfare indicators in gregarious species. The work identified welfare issues in both sites and provided the necessary evidence to allow improvements to be made.
Specifically, this research has:
1) led to changes in the husbandry practice and policy in both partner institutions that have improved animal welfare;
2) improved how the Donkey Sanctuary trains international partners and undertakes welfare education.
At Edinburgh Napier University Professor Kennedy's research on modelling processes and results of biological classification has had, and continues to have, a major impact on the infrastructure for storing and exchanging biodiversity data worldwide. It led to the Taxonomic Concept Schema (TCS), a biodiversity data standard ratified by the International Biodiversity Standards Group (TDWG), now the basis of systems worldwide for referencing biodiversity data, including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the International Plant Names Index. The TCS fed into the design of the Darwin Core standard subsequently ratified by TDWG, and now the exchange format for data in the major biodiversity infrastructures globally.
Since 2008, statistical research at the University of Bristol has significantly influenced policies, practices and tools aimed at evaluating and promoting the quality of institutional and student learning in the education sector in the UK and internationally. These developments have also spread beyond the education sector and influence the inferential methods employed across government and other sectors. The underpinning research develops methodologies and a much-used suite of associated software packages that allows effective inference from complicated data structures, which are not well-modelled using traditional statistical techniques that assume homogeneity across observational units. The ability to analyse complicated data (such as pupil performance measures when measured alongside school, classroom, context and community factors) has resulted in a significant transformation of government and institutional policies and their practices in the UK, and recommendations in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) policy documents. These techniques for transforming complex data into useful evidence are well-used across the UK civil service, with consequent policy shifts in areas such as higher education admissions and the REF2014 equality and diversity criteria.