Research Subject Area: Soil Sciences

REF impact found 28 Case Studies

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Carbon and Methane exchanges in wetlands

Summary of the impact

Vincent Gauci and The Open University (OU) Ecosystems Research Group have demonstrated human influences over exchanges of carbon within vulnerable, temperate and tropical wetland ecosystems, which are the largest source of the powerful greenhouse gas methane to the atmosphere. The group's work showing that acid rain pollution suppresses methane emissions from wetlands has influenced policy in the UK, particularly peatland restoration, where the group has had direct interaction with users. The group's work on carbon balance resulting from deforestation, drainage and fires in the carbon-rich Bornean peat swamp has also informed IPCC methodologies for carbon balance calculations in its 2013 Wetlands Supplement.

Submitting Institution

Open University

Unit of Assessment

Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Earth Sciences: Geochemistry
Environmental Sciences: Soil Sciences
Biological Sciences: Other Biological Sciences

Changing Water Policy in the Republic of Ireland

Summary of the impact

Research undertaken by Professor Phil Jordan on nutrient pollution from land to waters has led to significant changes in government policy and in expectations for Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Waste Directive (WD) compliance in Ireland. The WFD is European wide legislation requiring that all water-bodies should be of at least good ecological status by 2015. His research has provided unequivocal scientific evidence that bio-physical lag times preclude the achievement of WFD water quality targets from diffuse source pollution by 2015. This has led to targets for good water quality in all River Basin Management Plans being extended without threat of European fines. Further, inclusion of Jordan's research on the specific environmental risk of rural point source pollution in assessments of septic tank system risk has resulted in the overturning of a European Court ruling under the Waste Directive, and the consequent lifting of daily fines of €19,000.

Submitting Institution

University of Ulster

Unit of Assessment

Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Earth Sciences: Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
Environmental Sciences: Environmental Science and Management, Soil Sciences

Contributing to agricultural climate change mitigation

Summary of the impact

Since 2005 the Agriculture and Environment Research Unit has undertaken an extensive programme of research related to mitigating the climate change impacts arising from agricultural land management policies and practices. The research findings that identified the impact on climate change of various policies, schemes and farming initiatives have been instrumental since 2008 in providing UK policy makers, farmers and their advisors with data and tools that helped to formulate improved climate change mitigation policies. They also contributed to the development of key guidance materials that supported the implementation of these policies on the farm.

Submitting Institution

University of Hertfordshire

Unit of Assessment

Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Environmental Sciences: Soil Sciences
Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences: Agriculture, Land and Farm Management

Eradication of child and adult mortality from lead poisoning following community resettlement: Mitrovica, Kosovo

Summary of the impact

The results of commissioned research by Aberystwyth University (AU) have shaped decision-making that led to the relocation of refugee Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian (RAE) communities in Mitrovica, northern Kosovo. In 2009/2010 AU research unequivocally identified the source of elevated lead (Pb) levels in soils that had been blamed for high infant and adult mortality rates in RAE refugee camps, and established that Roma Mahalla had sufficiently low soil Pb levels to permit the construction of a purpose-built housing development for the RAE communities. Following the relocation of the RAE families to Roma Mahalla in 2010/2011 there has been a significant reduction in blood Pb levels in children with no reported deaths attributable to Pb poisoning. This AU research project has had a demonstrable positive impact on life quality and human health of the resettled RAE communities living in Mitrovica.

Submitting Institution

Aberystwyth University

Unit of Assessment

Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Earth Sciences: Geochemistry
Environmental Sciences: Environmental Science and Management, Soil Sciences

Impacts on land management to mitigate climate change through biomass based renewable energies and carbon sequestration

Summary of the impact

The research led by Dr Convery and Dr Weatherall with other staff members within the unit represents a diverse body of work around the practicalities, implications and uptake of land management to mitigate climate change, particularly through application of biomass based renewable energies and also through carbon sequestration. The group have influenced practitioners (particularly within the forestry and farming sectors), community groups developing renewable energy projects, small to medium enterprises (SMEs) involved in renewable energies, and other non-governmental stakeholder organisations, such as the Lake District National Park.

Submitting Institution

University of Cumbria

Unit of Assessment

Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Environmental Sciences: Environmental Science and Management, Soil Sciences
Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences: Forestry Sciences

Improved post-wildfire hazard assessment and risk reduction policy and practice

Summary of the impact

Wildfires can reduce the wettability of soil (i.e. increase their water repellency), accelerating runoff and erosion that in turn can cause flooding, landslides and aquifer contamination. Our research has revealed a link between fire severity and soil wettability that has led to substantial changes in the policy for mandatory post-fire assessments by the United States Forest Service (USFS). Implemented in 2011, these changes have resulted in improved land-rehabilitation practice in the USA. Moreover, this practice is being increasingly applied elsewhere, including Canada, Australia and parts of Europe, all of which now include specific consideration of soil wettability following severe fires and are underpinned by the methodology we developed. Based on these assessments, landscape-rehabilitation is applied at high-risk areas following wildfires, to limit the threats to life, property, infrastructure and ecosystem quality arising from excessive runoff and erosion. In the USA, for example, ~1.3 million hectares of burned land have been assessed in 2012 using the new post-fire assessment guidelines.

Submitting Institution

Swansea University

Unit of Assessment

Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Earth Sciences: Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
Environmental Sciences: Environmental Science and Management, Soil Sciences

International conservation and restoration of peatland and improved drinking water quality through peatland carbon sequestration research

Summary of the impact

Our research has impacted on UK and international policy on peatland/wetland conservation and restoration for climate change mitigation and water purification, by showing how peatlands function as a major global carbon sink and regulator of climate and water quality. Additionally, our discovery that peatland carbon release, from local to global scales, is controlled by a single enzyme system has provided a tool to prevent carbon loss from degraded peat. Our new methods have been implemented in peatland restoration projects by UK agencies and NGOs, benefiting carbon storage, biodiversity and landscapes; raising public awareness and improving UK water industry management leading to better water quality.

Submitting Institutions

Bangor University,Aberystwyth University

Unit of Assessment

Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Earth Sciences: Geochemistry
Environmental Sciences: Soil Sciences

Maize variety GM-6 brings £55 million of benefits to more than 300,000 resource-poor farmers in western India

Summary of the impact

GM-6, a new maize variety developed through innovative Bangor crop breeding research (pioneering the use of participatory plant breeding) was released in three states in Western India between 2002 and 2005. Since its release, GM-6 cultivation has rapidly grown to a cumulative area exceeding 2M hectares, of which 54% (more than 1M ha) was during 2008-2013, with a major positive impact on the welfare and prosperity of at least 330,000 households per year. Because of its advantage under drought and on poor soils, GM-6 has average grain yields 28% higher than the best available alternative varieties, providing 360,000 t of additional food grain during 2008-2013 with a total net present value to these farm households of an average of at least £9M per year.

Submitting Institutions

Aberystwyth University,Bangor University

Unit of Assessment

Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Environmental Sciences: Soil Sciences
Biological Sciences: Genetics
Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences: Crop and Pasture Production

Cross disciplinary software for optimising the design and changing structure of porous materials for industry

Summary of the impact

This case study outlines how research at Plymouth University in soil science has been extended to a new way of measuring and characterising porous solids and their pore fluids by generating realistic simulated three-dimensional void networks and is now being used across a wide range of industry sectors. The research has been pioneered, patented and marketed and is available to industry via the products Pore-CorTM and PoreXpertTM. The approach has impacted nationally and internationally across a range of sectors including energy companies such as EDF and paper production such as Hewlett Packard. It has improved efficiency and operations in industry such as in nuclear reactors and led to a University spin out company.

Submitting Institution

Plymouth University

Unit of Assessment

Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Chemical Sciences: Inorganic Chemistry, Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry
Environmental Sciences: Soil Sciences

Research on ‘green-grabbing’ prompts international policy action and new sustainable agricultural practices

Summary of the impact

Fairhead and his colleagues questioned new market approaches to environmental sustainability, warning of their iniquitous distributional effects, dubbed `green-grabbing'. Reported globally, this helped to prompt the UN Expert `Committee on World Food Security' and leading global conservation organisations to recognise and organise to avoid this problem. Fairhead's research exemplar focused on the distributional effects of policies sequestering carbon through `biochar' additives to African soils. He (and his colleagues) revealed a hitherto unknown African soil-management practice that provides a pro-poor `climate-smart' alternative to biochar, and this is already being mimicked by agriculturalists in Ethiopia and is planned in Sierra Leone.

Submitting Institution

University of Sussex

Unit of Assessment

Anthropology and Development Studies

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Environmental Sciences: Environmental Science and Management, Soil Sciences
Biological Sciences: Other Biological Sciences

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