Publications by authors named "R Brazier"

Peatland restoration is experiencing a global upsurge as a tool to protect and provide various ecosystem services. As the range of peatland types being restored diversifies, do previous findings present overly optimistic restoration expectations? In an eroding and restored upland peatland we assessed short-term (0-4 year) effects of restoration on ecohydrological functions. Restoration significantly reduced discharge from the site, transforming peat pans into pools.

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In the UK, tree, hedgerow, and woodland (THaW) habitats are key havens for biodiversity and support many related ecosystem services. The UK is entering a period of agricultural policy realignment with respect to natural capital and climate change, meaning that now is a critical time to evaluate the distribution, resilience, and dynamics of THaW habitats. The fine-grained nature of habitats like hedgerows necessitates mapping of these features at relatively fine spatial resolution-and freely available public archives of airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) data at <2 m spatial resolution offer a means of doing so within UK settings.

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Article Synopsis
  • Beavers build dams that change how water flows in streams, which was studied in a place in South West England over many years.
  • The study found that after beavers moved in, it took longer for water to flow in the affected area (up by almost 56%), while it flowed faster in a nearby area that wasn’t affected.
  • Beaver dams help reduce the amount of fast-flowing water during storms, but it’s tough to predict exactly how they will act during really big storms because there isn't enough long-term data.
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High frequency ultraviolet - visible (UV-VIS) sensors offer a way of improving dissolved organic carbon (DOC) load estimates in rivers as they can be calibrated to DOC concentration. This is an improvement on periodic grab sampling, or the use of pumped sampling systems which store samples in-field before collection. We hypothesised that the move to high frequency measurements would increase the load estimate based on grab sampling due to systemic under-sampling of high flows.

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