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The Peatland Carbon Code

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 22:04:56 GMT

Field trials on the Somerset Levels.

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Sea Meadow Wetland Creation

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 22:01:23 GMT

Bring on the rain!

Our Sea Meadow site on the coastal levels is "crying out to be a wetland" according to bird expert and Regional Wetland Advisor for the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group - South West - Antony “AJ” Bellamy. Wetlands are biochemical hotspots of biodiversity, chimneys that pump nature far beyond it's physical borders, the IUCN says that “freshwater ecosystems are the ultimate biodiversity hotspot.

They contain a greater concentration of life than anywhere else and are seriously imperilled”. Well located on the Parrett Estuary that feeds straight into the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel, and opposite WWT Steart Marshes, it's a great opportunity to create some much needed feeding and safe roosting habitat for overwintering and passage wildfowl such as dunlin, curlew and golden plover.

The process was made simple by the involvement of FWAG SW (on the advice of Natural England), first we conducted an ecological survey to check for the presence of the red list species Great Crested Newts, plus a general baseline of the site. Water samples were sent off to test using E-DNA - but despite neighbouring populations, no newts were discovered, however it was noted that a healthy population of watervoles are present on site and this meant we had to adjust our initial plans to protect their nesting sites in certain places.

Local contractor Jason Bell and his digger were brought in to block the three points on the field where the topside runnels ran into the perimeter ditches, and then dig a 1.5m deep trench around the circumference of the field to smash any historical land drains which were expected to be there - the trench was refilled and made good as he went along. AJ and the FWAG team secured permission from the drainage board to carry out the works - it's important to note we aren't affecting our neighbours or the drainage ditches themselves so all was straight-forward.

Now the works are complete we just need to wait for a nice wet winter, and watch it fill up - with water and hopefully birds!

Kindly sponsored by Arcadis, Arup and Mott Macdonald.

See more https://vimeo.com/877246293

Year One of PhD Complete!

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 21:48:48 GMT

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Hosted by Sheepdrove Organic Farm near Lambourn in Berkshire, our research project is well and truly underway and we're delighted to report that student Efe has just flown through his first year Viva at the University of the West of England. This project is sponsored by Natwest Climate Solutions and our aim is to create a user friendly toolkit for measuring the carbon sequestration benefits of nature led rewilding projects, so we can account for it in future carbon offsetting markets.

Message from Sam Bonnet - PhD supervisor
"Efe has been a data generating machine this summer! He's responded to every

challenge he's faced and I'm really pleased with the initial results."

Message from Efe Okekporo - PhD student

"The chamber construction was challenging as I had to channel my inner engineering skills - not that I had any! Many thanks to the technicians at UWE Frenchay campus - Tom, Marcus, and Jasper - for helping with the fabrication. It was interesting to see the chamber come to life. Sampling at Sheepdrove was difficult due to the tall vegetation. Moving the gas analyser and the chamber through the thick vegetation during sampling was a labour of love. The fun part was that I had great support from some amazing people - Ruby, Marcus, and Rhiannon - who made it remarkable. It would be anticlimactic not to mention the nettles! They left their mark - they were always so polite to make their presence felt!"

The next year will see Efe and the team working on the temporal part of the project - with monthly visits to Sheepdrove in the pipeline, Efe will find the British countryside has more than stinging nettles to make him uncomfortable!

The Sound of Soil

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 21:40:49 GMT

What can we learn about soil health?

We applied for and won an extra £1K of funding for us to purchase 2 x Zoom F3 recorders with contact microphones and pre-amps. Over the summer we have had two MSc students – Jemima Smith and Muskan Bhatia – collecting a significant number of soil acoustic recordings from 3 field sites at Stokes Park (Urban environment), Honeygar Farm (Somerset rewilded dairy farm) and Monks Wood (woodland regeneration chronosequence). The work at Stokes Park in Bristol is located next to the M32 motorway so a transect away from the M32 provides data on anthrophony. We had experiments investigating the acoustic indices recorded for microphones spaced at different distances in relation to the motorway anthrophony versus below ground bio and geophony. This research suggests that certain indices such as the bioacoustic index (BI) are less sensitive to anthrophony. We are also investigating the variation of acoustic indices across Honeygar and Monks Wood with the aim to relate this evidence to our previous work on soil biogeochemistry.

Starting in October, we have an MRes student – Robbie Sidhu – who will be working closely with Efe Okekporo at Sheepdrove farm in order to assess soil acoustics and greenhouse gas flux over a year. For this we have purchased a Zoom F8nPro multi- channel recorder for soil acoustics and an AudiMoth for aboveground soundscapes. Due to the significant ecological and biogeochemical monitoring taking place at this site, this will provide a significant dataset to interpret the acoustic complexity both above and below ground for a whole year.

Masters study at Monks Wood - update

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 21:33:54 GMT

Thoughts, conclusions and further plans.

Title: The impact of passive rewilding on soil biogeochemical functions in a long- term woodland restoration chronosequence:

Abstract
An investigation of carbon sequestration and enzymatic activity, as well as features associated with these biogeochemical functions, was conducted at Monks Wood. The study site represents a chronosequence of broadleaf woodland afforestation from grassland previously used for agricultural purposes spanning from 26 to 180 years, with an adjacent managed grassland site representing 0 Years. The amount of total organic carbon was measured, as well as the activity of β-glucosidase, chitinase, and phosphatase enzymes. The study concluded no significant variation of total organic carbon. Positive trends against time were observed in the activity of all enzymes, with a notable peak for many features measured at 60 Years. Organic matter content, pH, , gravimetric moisture content, ionic content and rate of CO2 produced by the soil were investigated.

Translated by Sam:
The purpose of the study was to determine if potential soil microbial carbon processing (such as carbon dioxide production) is reduced with age along a woodland regeneration chronosequence. We did this by incubating soil samples in the lab under controlled conditions and measuring the rate of carbon dioxide production as well as extracellular enzyme activities that degrade soil organic matter. We found no significant effect of chronosequence age on soil carbon, carbon dioxide production or enzyme activities. However, organic matter and moisture appeared to be significantly higher between grassland (0 years)
and old woodland (180 years). These results are in agreement with our current understanding of carbon gain in woodland systems but more research is needed to better understand the spatial and temporal controls soil carbon processes. Of most interest was a spike in nitrite concentrations at 60 years that is usually an insignificant pool in soil due to its transient conversion from ammonium to nitrate via nitrification.

Festival of Nature

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 21:28:03 GMT

Inspiring the next generation of soil scientists!

Festival of Nature, the UK’s largest free celebration of the natural world, was back from the 9 – 18 June 2023 in Bristol town centre.

Thousands of people turned out across the weekend, and we had a steady stream of visitors through the UWE tent where we had a stand with some really fun demos.

We had a fantastic time with two full days of science fun!

Efe was showing off the gas analyser, measuring the gas emissions from a mini peat bog established in a tank and displaying the different values of greenhouse gases on a big screen, and Sam was playing some acoustic recordings of garden soil to a consistent queue of enthralled children (and their parents!). Few people could guess what the sounds were, not even the grownups!

Outreach is a very important part of the Wild Carbon objective - and if we’re lucky we may have inspired some climate scientists of the future.

We’ll be planning even more into next year, with school trips to field sites on the cards, as well as a variety of local community group talks and demos.

Monks Wood Research

183:889247409 (Verity White) — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 08:16:17 GMT

Monks Wood Research

Last week the Wild Carbon team went to recce and plan for a UWE masters led by soil ecologist Dr Sam Bonnet and Jacob Maughan.

The Monks Wood Wilderness sites are a series of former fields of arable farmland and grassland, which are next to the ancient woodland of Monks Wood National Nature Reserve in Cambridgeshire, eastern England.

The site was originally home to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology that now manage the site in collaboration with Natural England. The fields were taken out of farming production or management and allowed to return to woodland by natural succession for up to 60 years, with no management or inputs.

The sites are a long-term study of passive rewilding and woodland colonisation and succession, and represent one of the most comprehensive examples in Britain.

There are plots that represent a chronosequence of abandonment covering 26, 35, 60, 180 and 400 years! This means that we can evaluate the long-term impact of natural woodland regeneration on soil carbon dynamics due to the close spatial distribution of the sites that all have a similar soil type, topography, climate and texture.

In this MSc project, we will be evaluating differences in soil greenhouse gas flux, microbial biomass, soil carbon stores and extracellular enzyme activities between the different sites. We hypothesise that soil carbon microbial dynamics will show a relationship with the age of the sites.

#rewilding #regeneration #soilhealth #soilscience #carbon #offsetting

Monitoring beetles and spiders at Sheepdrove

183:889247409 (Verity White) — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 10:21:37 GMT

Monitoring Beetles and Spiders at Sheepdrove Organic Farm.

Beetles and spiders are perfect indicators of environmental change - according to naturalist Stuart Corbett. He's taking baseline surveys of these predators on a rewilding site at Sheepdrove Organic Farm - it'll be interesting to compare the changes in these invertebrate populations with the changes in soil greenhouse gas emissions and general soil health and enzyme activity.

Above are some samples of Stuart Corbett's pit fall traps - which were supposed to be for beetles and spiders!

Trap 8 contained one hundred and thirty four slugs.

And now we know why it's called Slug Field!

#carbonsequestration #soilhealth #biodiversity #rewilding #farmingforthefutur e

Sea Meadow

183:889247409 (Verity White) — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 10:09:54 GMT

Sea Meadow - First Wild Carbon site purchased!

Wild Carbon has just purchased a strategically important site for rewilding in the Bridgewater Bay SSSI and Severn Estuary RAMSAR area which has just been designated part of the brand new North Somerset National Nature Reserve.

The potential to improve this site is mind-blowing, with significant benefits to soil health and biodiversity.

We chose this site for its unique soil type, important location on the coast and potential to connect with other nationally important wildlife areas such as Steart Marshes which is a stones throw across the water.

We are working alongside Natural England, local farmers, ecologists, plant specialists, soil scientists and wildlife organisations to ensure we create a sustainable strategy to ensure this precious area of grassland reaches its full potential.

Sea Meadow is at a great starting point, but it could be so much more!

With your help we will manage the meadow in a way that eases the excess fertility of the soil, improving the enzyme activity and the greenhouse gas emissions. This will in turn diversify the plant life above, leading to a greater variety of flowers and the insect specialists that go with them.

We will clean out the waterways, improving the unique brackish habitats for some very special species of aquatic invertebrate. We will monitor these "insect chimneys" and we will monitor the carbon balance of the ponds.

And very importantly we will ensure it remains undisturbed throughout the winter when it will become a critical feeding ground for many endangered wetland birds.

Our next step is to take some baseline measurements - focussing on aquatic invertebrates and birds to start with, then we'll begin devising a management strategy to get this field bustling with nature!