Prioritizing conservation sites for multi-pond systems to maintain protection of water quality in a fragmented agricultural catchment.

Precise targeting of conservation practices to the most effective sites in multi-pond systems (MPSs) is critical for resource optimization and water quality improvement. Previous studies generally prioritized ponds for conservation practices considering nutrient removal efficiency. However, they have frequently overlooked the role of ponds in sediment interception and the impact of human activities and environmental factors around the pond.

Far-future hydrology will differentially change the phosphorus transfer continuum.

Climate change is likely to exacerbate land to water phosphorus (P) transfers, causing a degradation of water quality in freshwater bodies in Northwestern Europe. Planning for mitigation measures requires an understanding of P loss processes under such conditions. This study assesses how climate induced changes to hydrology will likely influence the P transfer continuum in six contrasting river catchments using Irish national observatories as exemplars.

A dataset of CMIP6-based climate scenarios for climate change impact assessment in Great Britain.

Climate change is a critical issue in the 21st century. Assessment of the impacts of climate change is beneficial for assisting advanced recommendations for adaptations. Climate change impact assessments require high quality local-scale climate scenarios.

Simulation dataset of annual crop growth, GHG emission and SOC stock dynamics under current and projected climate conditions for major crops with current and reduced fertiliser inputs in Southwest, England.

For mitigating the unintended environmental impacts associated with intensive farming across the world, it is crucial to understand the complex impacts of potential reductions in fertiliser use on multiple ecosystem services, including crop production, GHG emissions and changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Using site specific spatial data and information, a novel integrated modelling approach using established agroecosystem models (SPACSYS and RothC) was implemented to evaluate the impacts of various fertiliser reductions (10 %, 30 % and 50 %) under current / baseline and projected (RCP2.6, RCP4.

Willingness to adopt green house gas mitigation measures: Agricultural land managers in the United Kingdom.

Rapid uptake of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation measures is central to reducing agricultural and land use emissions and meeting the UK Net Zero policy. The socioeconomic challenges and barriers to uptake are poorly understood, with yet unclear structural pathways to the uptake of GHG mitigation measures. Using an online survey of 201 agricultural land managers across the UK, and applying multiple linear regression and stepwise regression analysis, this research established farm and farmers' factors influencing perceptions and willingness to adopt GHG mitigation measures.

UAV-based modelling of vegetation recovery under extreme habitat stresses in the water level fluctuation zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir, China.

Impoundment of the Three Gorges Reservoir on the upper Yangtze River has remarkably altered hydrological regime within the dammed reaches, triggering structural and functional changes of the riparian ecosystem. Up to date, how vegetation recovers in response to compound habitat stresses in the water level fluctuation zone remains inexplicitly understood. In this study, plant above-ground biomass (AGB) in a selected water level fluctuation zone was quantified to depict its spatial and temporal pattern using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-derived multispectral images and screened empirical models.

What do macroinvertebrate indices measure? Stressor-specific stream macroinvertebrate indices can be confounded by other stressors.

Monitoring programmes worldwide use biota to assess the "health" of water bodies. Indices based on biota are used to describe the change in status of sites over time, to identify progress against management targets and to diagnose the causes of biological degradation. A variety of numerical stressor-specific biotic indices have been developed based on the response of biota to differences in stressors among sites.

C dicarboxylic acid signatures indicate temporal shifts in catchment sediment sources in response to extreme winter rainfall.

Unlabelled: Rainfall and land-use interactions drive temporal shifts in suspended sediment sources, yet the magnitude of such changes remains poorly understood due to the lack of land-use specific source tracers. We investigated α,ω-dicarboxylic fatty acid root-specific biomarkers, as diagnostic tracers for apportioning sources of time-integrated suspended sediment samples collected from a grassland dominated agricultural catchment in the southwest of England during the wet winter period. Applying fatty acids-specific stable carbon isotope analysis and a Bayesian isotope mixing model, we show that stream banks contributed most of the sediment in the early winter, i.

Comparison of sediment biomarker signatures generated using time-integrated and discrete suspended sediment samples.

Sediment source fingerprinting using biomarker properties has led to new insights in our understanding of land use contributions to time-integrated suspended sediment samples at catchment scale. A time-integrated mass-flux sampler (TIMS; also known as the 'Phillips' sampler), a cost-effective approach for suspended sediment collection in situ. Such samplers are widely being used to collect sediment samples for source fingerprinting purposes, including studies using biomarkers as opposed to more conventional tracer properties.

Freshwater invertebrate responses to fine sediment stress: A multi-continent perspective.

Excessive fine sediment (particles <2 mm) deposition in freshwater systems is a pervasive stressor worldwide. However, understanding of ecological response to excess fine sediment in river systems at the global scale is limited. Here, we aim to address whether there is a consistent response to increasing levels of deposited fine sediment by freshwater invertebrates across multiple geographic regions (Australia, Brazil, New Zealand and the UK).

Feasibility of mitigation measures for agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. A systematic review.

Unlabelled: The UK Government has set an ambitious target of achieving a national "net-zero" greenhouse gas economy by 2050. Agriculture is arguably placed at the heart of achieving net zero, as it plays a unique role as both a producer of GHG emissions and a sector that has the capacity via land use to capture carbon (C) when managed appropriately, thus reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO) in the atmosphere. Agriculture's importance, particularly in a UK-specific perspective, which is also applicable to many other temperate climate nations globally, is that the majority of land use nationwide is allocated to farming.

Bioenergy crop production and carbon sequestration potential under changing climate and land use: A case study in the upper River Taw catchment in southwest England.

Reductions in CO emissions are essential to support the UK in achieving its net zero policy objective by around mid-century. Both changing climate and land use change (LUC) offer an opportunity to deploy suitable bioenergy crops strategically to enhance energy production and C sequestration to help deliver net zero through capturing atmospheric CO. Against this background, we applied process-based models to evaluate the extent of net primary productivity (NPP) losses/gains associated with perennial bioenergy crops and to assess their C sequestration potential under changing climate in the upper River Taw observatory catchment in southwest England.

Are single global warming potential impact assessments adequate for carbon footprints of agri-food systems?

The vast majority of agri-food climate-based sustainability analyses use global warming potential (GWP) as an impact assessment, usually in isolation; however, in recent years, discussions have criticised the 'across-the-board' application of GWP in Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), particularly of food systems which generate large amounts of methane (CH) and considered whether reporting additional and/or alternative metrics may be more applicable to certain circumstances or research questions (e.g. Global Temperature Change Potential (GTP)).

A reconnaissance survey of channel bank particulate phosphorus concentrations, controls and estimated contributions to riverine loads across England.

Channel banks can contribute a significant proportion of fine-grained (<63 μm) sediment to rivers, thereby also contributing to riverine total particulate phosphorus loads. Improving water quality through better agricultural practices alone can be difficult since the contributions from non-agricultural sources, including channel banks, can generate a 'spatial mismatch' between the efficacy of best management applied on farms and the likelihood of meeting environmental objectives. Our study undertook a reconnaissance survey ( = 76 sites each with 3 profiles sampled) to determine the total phosphorus (TP) concentrations of channel banks across England and to determine if TP content can be predicted using readily accessible secondary data.

Use of a submersible spectrophotometer probe to fingerprint spatial suspended sediment sources at catchment scale.

Sediment fingerprinting is used to identify catchment sediment sources. Traditionally, it has been based on the collection and analysis of potential soil sources and target sediment. Differences between soil source properties (i.

Impacts of different vegetation in riparian buffer strips on runoff and sediment loss.

Buffer strips continue to feature in the management of agricultural runoff and water pollution in many countries. Existing research has explored their efficacy for reducing environmental problems in different geoclimatic settings but, the evidence on the efficacy of different vegetation treatments is less abundant than that for other buffer strip characteristics, including width, and is more contradictory in nature. With policy targets for various environmental outcomes including water or air quality and net zero pointing to the need for conversion of agricultural land, the need for robust experimental evidence on the relative benefits of different vegetation types in buffer strips is now renewed.

Data, and sample sources thereof, on water quality life cycle impact assessments pertaining to catchment scale acidification and eutrophication potentials and the benefits of on-farm mitigation strategies.

Based on recent spatially aggregated June Agriculture Survey data and site-specific environmental data, information from common farm types in the East of England was sourced and collated. These data were subsequently used as key inputs to a mechanistic environmental modelling tool, the Catchment Systems Model, which predicts environmental damage arising from various farm types and their management strategies. The Catchment Systems Model, which utilises real-world agricultural productivity data (samples and appropriate consent provided within the Mendeley Data repository) is designed to assess not only losses to nature such as nitrate, phosphate, sediment and ammonia, but also to predict how on-farm intervention strategies may affect environmental performance.

Assessing catchment scale water quality of agri-food systems and the scope for reducing unintended consequences using spatial life cycle assessment (LCA).

Life cycle assessment is a multidisciplinary framework usually deployed to appraise the sustainability of various product or service supply-chains. Over recent decades, its use in the agri-food sector has risen sharply, and alongside this, a wide range of methodological advances have been generated. Spatial-life cycle assessment, defined in the current document as the interpretation of life cycle assessment results within a geographical nature, has not gone unexplored entirely, yet its rise as a sub-method of life cycle assessment has been rather slow relative to other avenues of research (e.

Separating natural from human enhanced methane emissions in headwater streams.

Headwater streams are natural sources of methane but are suffering severe anthropogenic disturbance, particularly land use change and climate warming. The widespread intensification of agriculture since the 1940s has increased the export of fine sediments from land to streams, but systematic assessment of their effects on stream methane is lacking. Here we show that excess fine sediment delivery is widespread in UK streams (n = 236) and, set against a pre-1940s baseline, has markedly increased streambed organic matter (23 to 100 g m), amplified streambed methane production and ultimately tripled methane emissions (0.

Prolonged heavy rainfall and land use drive catchment sediment source dynamics: Appraisal using multiple biotracers.

Excessive sediment loss degrades freshwater quality and is prone to further elevation and variable source contributions due to the combined effect of extreme rainfall and differing land uses. To quantify erosion and sediment source responses across scales, this study integrated work at both field and catchment scale for two hydrologically contrasting winters (2018-19 and 2019-20). Sediment load was estimated at the field scale (grassland-arable conversion system).

Coupled steroid and phosphorus leaching from cattle slurry at lysimeter scale.

Water quality degradation can be caused by excessive agricultural nutrient transfers from fertilised soils exposed to wet weather. Mitigation measures within the EU Nitrates Directive aim to reduce this pressure by including 'closed' fertiliser spreading periods during wet months. For organic fertilisers such as slurry and manure, this closed period requires sufficient on-farm winter storage and good weather conditions to relieve storage at the end of the period.

Exploring the effects of land management change on productivity, carbon and nutrient balance: Application of an Ensemble Modelling Approach to the upper River Taw observatory, UK.

Agriculture is challenged to produce healthy food and to contribute to cleaner energy whilst mitigating climate change and protecting ecosystems. To achieve this, policy-driven scenarios need to be evaluated with available data and models to explore trade-offs with robust accounting for the uncertainty in predictions. We developed a novel model ensemble using four complementary state-of-the-art agroecosystems models to explore the impacts of land management change.

Tackling unintended consequences of grazing livestock farming: Multi-scale assessment of co-benefits and trade-offs for water pollution mitigation scenarios.

A farm-to-landscape scale modelling framework combining regulating services and life cycle assessment mid-point impacts for air and water was used to explore the co-benefits and trade-offs of alternative management futures for grazing livestock farms. Two intervention scenarios were compared: one using on-farm interventions typically recommended following visual farm audits (visually-based) and the other using mechanistical understanding of nutrient and sediment losses to water (mechanistically-based). At farm scale, reductions in business-as-usual emissions to water of total phosphorus (TP) and sediment, using both the visually-based and mechanistically-based scenarios, were <5%.

The Alternative Pre-hospital Pathway team: reducing conveyances to the emergency department through patient centered Community Emergency Medicine.

Background: Internationally increasing demand for emergency care is driving innovation within emergency services. The Alternative Pre-Hospital Pathway (APP) Team is one such Community Emergency Medicine (CEM) initiative developed in Cork, Ireland to target low acuity emergency calls. In this paper the inception of the APP Team is described, and an observational descriptive analysis of the APP Team's service data presented for the first 12 months of operation.