In 'The Space for Nature' a 120 page government report released in September 2010, Lawton and colleagues ask how we can enhance the natural environment in England in the face of climate change and other environmental insults. Their report argues that the answer is 'large-scale habitat creation and restoration, under-pinned by the re-establishment of ecological processes and ecosystem services, these being for the benefits of both people and wildlife'. In this NERC studentship proposal The University of Bristol and The Somerset Wildlife Trust will work collaboratively on habitat restoration and the restoration of two ecosystem services, those of pollination and pest control. Collaborations between academics and practitioners are likely to lead to the most effective conservation (Editorial 2008, Nature: 450, 135-136) with the former providing expertise in experimental design, statistics and the scientific context, and the latter providing logistical help (here, large scale field manipulations), detailed knowledge of field sites and habitat management expertise. We will test whether the restoration of one species can facilitate the restoration of other parts of the community, namely the large community of bees, flies, beetles and butterflies that visit flowers for pollen and nectar, ie. an ecological 'two for the price of one'. It has been possible to identify dominant or keystone plants in all the plant-pollinator communities studied so far by Memmott. Thus the approach is readily applicable to a range of communities worldwide and could provide a scientific basis for which plant species to restore and could also jump start the restoration of ecosystem services. Our model study system is the ongoing restoration of Sium latifolium (greater water parsnip) in the Somerset Levels. Memmott's pilot data on S. latifolium at two sites in Norfolk indicates that this species, like others in the same plant family, is highly attractive to flower visitors. Many parasitoids (providers of pest control in agroecosystems) were also found feeding on the S. latifolium flowers. For this studentship the Somerset Wildlife Trust will plant out populations of S. latifolium at eight sites in the Somerset Levels, with a further eight sites left as controls. A successful pilot transplantation took place in 2008/9 at the field site. A paired design will be used and at each of the 16 sites, quantitative plant-pollinator network will be made and the structure of the webs compared. This approach has proved a highly publishable approach for Memmott's students. For example Carvalheiro et al. (2008) Carvalheiro, Buckley & Memmott (2010), Lopezaraiza et al. (2007), Heleno et al. (2009 & 2010). All references are listed under 'Supervisors'. A second Somerset Levels restoration programme, still at a very preliminary stage, is the reintroduction of the swallowtail butterfly (Papillo machaon britannicus). While not important from an ecological function point of view, the restoration of this iconic species would provide a tremendous local attraction (tourism, like pollination and pest control, is an ecosystem service) and huge potential for environmental education about the habitat in general. Whether or not the swallowtail was actually a resident species remains a subject of some debate though. Using a molecular approach we will determine whether specimens of swallowtail butterflies in museums local to the Somerset Levels are from populations different to those found in museums close to sites where good evidence exists as to their presence. At the University the student will join a vibrant group of 5 PhD students, a PDRA, two Research Fellows and a £1.3 million grant on urban pollinators led by Memmott. At the Somerset Wildlife Trust, the student will be a member of an active team of conservation practitioners involved in agroecology, conservation, public engagement and school activities.

Rapid climate change and habitat fragmentation are expected to disrupt ecological interactions between species, even before extinctions due to direct loss of suitable habitat occur. Such disruptions are likely to have serious implications for the services that ecosystems provide for human health and agriculture. In particular, asynchronies are likely to develop in flowering time both between plant populations, and between these plants and their pollinators. These mismatches could substantially reduce both the spatial connectivity of populations, and the ecological resilience of plant-pollinator networks. Attempts to predict such effects assume that traits such as flowering times and flower morphology change little in space and time within a species. However, recent studies of flower traits and emergence time within and between populations reveal very high levels of heritability, which could generate rapid evolutionary change in flower morphology and pollinator visitation. The CASE partner, the Avon Wildlife Trust, has been quick to adopt a 'Living landscape' approach to its conservation to maximise the capacity for species to adapt. Pollination networks on its grassland reserves are already being studied by Dr Michael Pocock (NERC fellow; 2008-11).This studentship will develop a close collaboration between the AWT and the UoB to explore the impact of phenotypic variation and evolutionary change within and between sites of the cowslip, Primula veris, and extrapolate these effects across the reserve network as a whole. Field observations suggest large differences in flower morphology between sites, and in its pollinators, especially when individuals on neutral and calcareous grassland are compared. Flowers are typically pollinated by bee species. P. veris usually flowers for a short period at a site, and produces abundant seed that is typically dispersed close to the parental plant, so detectable neutral genetic differentiation is possible even at small spatial scales (10s of metres). Objectives are: 1.Quantify variation in microclimate, flowering times and morphology within and between reserves in P. veris. Relate this variation to visitation rates by different pollinators, and variation in insect mouthpart size. Assess levels of local adaptation by correlating local microclimate with flowering time, and testing for significant differences between sites (Oct 2010-July 2013) 2.Partition variation in flowering traits into genetic and environmental components. Assess how much of this variation is present between versus within sites, suggesting local adaptation, and confirm fitness effects of this differentiation using reciprocal transplants of seed in the field. (May 2010-July 2012) 3.Estimate current gene flow between plant populations at 15 different sites using 400 AFLP markers and 30 allozyme markers. Relate this to observed levels of overlap in flowering time and pollinator abundance between and within sites. (Aug-May 2010-13). 4.Assess to what extent variation within species and the potential for evolutionary change will affect the generation of asynchrony in flowering time, or maintain ecological networks by causing evolution of flower morphology under different climate change scenarios. Extrapolate these data across larger spatial scales to assess the effectiveness of the 'Living Landscape' networks in generating ecosystem resilience, once within-species variation is included in models (July-Oct 2010-3). Wider significance: Maintaining ecological interactions in the face of global change is a key NERC priority. This will be the first study to estimate genetic and ecological variation in life-history traits in a single species, and assess how maintaining a given networks of distinct habitat reserves is likely to maximise ecological resilience. These data will also inform the value of translocation programmes, which are advocated by some practitioners as critical for conservation in a changing world.

There is considerable evidence that a healthy natural environment - particularly where people live - and regular access to it, can contribute positively to the health and wellbeing of the population, and that it has the most benefit on those with the highest levels of ill-health. As society looks for cost effective ways to boost mental and physical health and quality of life, it is clear that increased positive interaction between people and the natural environment could be a significant part of the UK's future health care arrangements. However, this potential is not yet being fulfilled - in part because we do not fully understand how and why people interact with the natural environment, and which aspects of the environment, and people's experience of it, lead to positive health and wellbeing outcomes. Does the biodiversity of a place affect people's health and wellbeing? Why are some sections of society, on whom natural environments could have the greatest positive impact, less likely than average to visit natural places? What part does experience of and connection to nature play? What role does access to a high quality natural environment have in the health and wellbeing of people at particularly significant stages in their lives (when they are most vulnerable to ill-health)? If we understood the physical, psychological and socio-economic reasons why members of black, asian and minority ethnic communities, the elderly, disadvantaged urban residents, and those from lower socio-economic groups (in particular) interact with the natural environment as they do - and how this changes through their lives - it would enable us to design and manage our urban spaces more effectively to generate health and wellbeing benefits, and to engage critically important sections of society more effectively, to great social and economic benefit. This project will study the interaction within one large city between people, their local natural environment and their health and wellbeing. It aims to: 1. Understand at a detailed level how the health and wellbeing of the people within different neighbourhoods relates to the quantity, quality and distribution of natural greenspaces where they live; 2. Investigate the role that culture, upbringing, social values and norms play in this; 3. Explore how people from different ethnic and socio-economic groups interact with greenspaces and how this affects their connectedness to nature, and mental health and wellbeing; 4. Discover how the biodiversity value of the places that people visit affects their mental health and wellbeing; 5. Develop a way to assess the economic implications of these insights; 6. Develop effective ways to feed this knowledge into the policy, delivery and investment decisions of politicians, planners, designers, developers, land managers, public health commissioners and other professionals, business leaders and relevant voluntary and community organisations. It will: 1. Explore the relationship between urban natural environments and health and wellbeing across the whole of Sheffield - focusing especially on mental health and using more detailed datasets than those used in previous research; 2. Explore how urban residents from diverse backgrounds (especially differentiated by age, gender, ethnicity and mental health service use) communicate their own stories and values relating to contact and connectedness with nature; 3. Use an innovative smartphone App to record the interactions of a large population sample with Sheffield's natural environment, and its relationship to their nature connectedness and personal wellbeing; 4. Quantify the biodiversity value of different parts of Sheffield's environment and identify the relationship between this and the nature connectedness and personal wellbeing of people experiencing them; 5. Identify the economic, practical and policy implications of these insights, and effective ways of applying them.

Urban areas cover just 2.8% of the Earth's land area, but over 50% of the human population lives in them, and these proportions are growing rapidly. Such heavy concentration of people has a wide variety of important consequences. Those for their relations with the environment have attracted much recent attention from the media, pressure groups, policy makers, researchers, and local and national government. Of particular concern have been how improvements can most effectively be made to the environmental conditions experienced in urban areas, to the levels of interaction between urban dwellers and the natural environment, and to the contribution of urban areas to the broader scale provision of ecosystem services. This raises the key issue of the form of relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban areas, how the structure of urban areas (the spatial structure of the different kinds and extents of impermeable and permeable surfaces; urban form) influences these relationships, and thus how the existing structure can best be managed and how future structure can be planned to best effect. Although understanding of the levels and distributions both of biodiversity and of ecosystem services in urban areas has improved dramatically in recent years the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services have been extremely poorly studied in urban areas (and are largely absent from major collations of empirical studies). Indeed, these environments pose significant and unusual challenges: - the urban landscape is highly fragmented, with large portions sealed by buildings and paving; - greenspaces are embedded in a complex mosaic of buildings and roads that imposes major constraints and directionality on the flows of biodiversity and ecosystem service delivery across the urban landscape; - the intensity of human management of these environments can give rise to spatial patterns and scales of flows of energy, materials and biodiversity on which ecosystem services depend that would not naturally occur; and, - the very aggregations of people that give rise to urban areas typically necessitate less conventional approaches to conducting ecological research therein, involving greater engagement with the general public, and less dependence on the use of large pieces of equipment, which is "out of bounds" to the general population. In order to determine these biodiversity-ecosystem service relationships, develop deeper understanding and to test this understanding our overall approach to this project involves five main steps. We shall: - characterise the spatial ecological structure of urban areas; - determine biodiversity-ecosystem service relationships and the influence of connectivity on them; - determine the flows of biodiversity, and service delivery in selected cases; - experimentally perturb those flows to determine the impact on ecosystem service delivery; and - integrate these findings in the form of spatially explicit models which will form the basis of an "ecosystem service" layer for GIS models. This will enable us to deepen understanding, and to provide illustrations for stakeholders (such as planners, local people and NGOs) as to how "scenarios" of different development proposals might be tested, to provide support for decisions based on sound science and stakeholder engagement.

There is growing interest in understanding how natural environments may support good health and wellbeing. Researchers have investigated effects of natural spaces on health behaviours, physical and mental health, and socio-economic health inequalities. Generally, positive relationships are demonstrated, and some explanatory theories for positive effects have been proposed. These include provision of locations and motivation for physical activity and opportunities for 'restoration' from the stresses of daily life. However, the evidence is mixed and occasionally contradictory. One reason for this variation may be related to the crude definitions of the natural environment or 'greenspace'. Researchers often consider all natural areas together regardless of type, variety or quality. Natural areas, whether urban or rural, actually encompass a wide range of environmental characteristics which may have differing impacts on people's behaviours, health and wellbeing. The lack of a nuanced consideration of nature with regard to its human health and wellbeing impacts has been highlighted as a gap in the evidence in several systematic reviews of existing research. The aim of this project is to improve our understanding of relationships between natural environments and health by addressing the question: Do different types and qualities of natural environment have varying relationships with human health and wellbeing, and do these relationships differ according to rural/urban context and socio-economic status? This will be achieved by using some of the UK's extremely valuable existing (secondary) datasets. Secondary datasets are very useful for this research because a) they have already been funded, collected and processed, so are very cost-effective and b) they tend to be very large, allowing us to address complex research questions. Our project will integrate two types of secondary data: 1) health and socio-economic status data (such as from the census and household surveys) and 2) indicators of ecological type (e.g. grassland, woodland, coast) and character (e.g. biodiversity, ecosystem quality, designated status). These relationships will initially be explored at a national level. This will be complemented by a case study using detailed local environmental data, which is only available at a smaller scale. The dual approach will allow for the cross-validation of findings. The analyses will mainly take an epidemiological approach, but the interdisciplinary nature of the team, research question and data means that a mix of social and natural science methods will be used. The project will be led by a cross-disciplinary research team and advisory board incorporating experienced researchers in epidemiology, ecology, geography, sociology and psychology. It will benefit from collaboration with public and third sector bodies - Natural England, Forest Research and Cornwall Wildlife Trust. Expected outcomes include advances in knowledge of direct environment/health policy relevance, developments in methodology and theory, increased research capacity, and (dependant on permissions) an ecological indicator dataset suitable for further linkage with population data. The outcomes will be of interest to academic and other public/private research end users. The evidence produced will allow Natural England, the Forestry Commission, Local Authorities and other organisations who manage the natural environment for human benefit to develop appropriate national and locally context relevant responses to policies such as those set out in the new DEFRA white paper 'The Natural Choice'. This research will facilitate the effective allocation of resources and the development of targeted interventions and programmes resulting in maximised benefit to the environment, society and individual. The project findings will be shared through various means including academic publication, international conference presentations, websites and networking events.