Doctoral Training Partnerships: a range of postgraduate training is funded by the Research Councils. For information on current funding routes, see the common terminology at https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/how-we-fund-studentships/. Training grants may be to one organisation or to a consortia of research organisations. This portal will show the lead organisation only.

Doctoral Training Partnerships: a range of postgraduate training is funded by the Research Councils. For information on current funding routes, see the common terminology at https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/how-we-fund-studentships/. Training grants may be to one organisation or to a consortia of research organisations. This portal will show the lead organisation only.

An increasing human population and the associated need to produce food in a changing world is one of the greatest challenge facing our generation. It is clear that we need to manage our agricultural systems more judiciously to yield benefits from ecosystem services, including biodiversity conservation, carbon and nutrient cycling and greenhouse gas regulation, along with food production. Grasslands are thought to be a key system for provision of these ecosystem services due to their large global coverage, but also because of their potential as reservoirs of biodiversity and nutrients. For instance, in the UK grasslands cover 36% of the land surface and already hold 32% of the UK soil carbon stock, and if managed correctly they could store even more. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have identified grassland management as having the greatest potential to sequester additional C if managed correctly, and so grasslands are a key system for climate change mitigation. Here we propose that multiple ecosystem services, such as carbon storage, nutrient retention and reduced greenhouse gas emissions in grassland can be enhanced with management of the diversity and composition of the plant community. The reason for this is that plant species differ greatly in their functional characteristics, or traits, and these differences strongly influence the amount and quality of organic inputs to the soil, which in turn stimulates components of the soil microbial community responsible for soil carbon and nitrogen cycling. Moreover, these differences in traits could change the magnitude and direction of ecosystem services such as from net emission of greenhouse gases, towards mitigation via vegetation management. In this study we will characterise the differing traits of key grassland plant species associated with grassland biodiversity restoration, and test their impact on grassland ecosystem services including emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, soil microbial activity and nutrient cycling and retention. This will provide the first information on the potential for plant diversity to be utilised to manipulate soil nutrient cycling towards greater carbon and nitrogen storage, and lower greenhouse gas emission.

Feeding the rapidly growing global population in a sustainable way is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Addressing this will require a flexible mix of strategies, including minimising wasteful losses of food, reducing the amount of animal products in diets, together with increasing the productivity and efficiency of the existing farmed area whilst maintaining natural capital on which it and other ecosystem services depend. The latter concept of 'sustainable intensification' (SI) of agriculture is considered central to ensuring food security and a healthy environment for future generations. However, how best to achieve this is the subject of vigorous debate. Testing fully the concept of SI will require world-leading research into agro-ecosystems, which integrates environmental, agricultural and social sciences, and is applied across a range of scales. To support the research community in achieving this goal we will build a long-term (10 year+) national capability between BBSRC and NERC institutes, Rothamsted Research (RRes), Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and British Geological Survey (BGS). This will require a critical and stable mass of expertise from a number of disciplines, together with capacity building by training and developing early career researchers. Only by bringing together expertise in management of natural resources (CEH, BGS) with that of crop production (RRes) will we be able to examine fully the impacts of intensification on the wider environment, and develop synergistic farming systems that contribute towards environmental sustainability. The ASSIST programme - Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems - will develop innovative farming systems that maintain or increase productivity and resilience to future perturbations, while reducing the environmental and ecological footprint of agriculture. It will advance knowledge in five core areas: 1) identifying current and future biophysical limitations on crop productivity; 2) predicting the impacts of changes in agricultural management the wider environment, 3) understanding and enhancing the ecological processes underpinning food production; 4) developing innovative farming systems which minimise inputs while maximising yield, and build resilience to future environmental change; and 5) providing tools and data for planning future multi-functional land use that optimises benefits to food production whilst minimising trade-offs and conflicts with other ecosystem services. SI is currently an area of considerable research investment. However, current initiatives are justifiably short-term and have a narrow focus on existing policies and practice (Defra), or on single components of the agro-ecosystem, such as soil processes (RCUK). While they form an invaluable starting point and provide detailed understanding of critical processes, we will complement and go beyond these initiatives through consideration of the longer-term (10 year+), large-scale effectiveness, impacts and robustness of novel mid- and far-horizon agricultural systems and technologies. This national capability will provide the community with validated biophysical models and data at the field and national scale, a UK-wide research infrastructure using commercial farms, and tools to explore and synthesise the data generated. It will provide opportunities for new partnerships between the wider academic community and industry to address critical knowledge gaps, including the socio-economic barriers to uptake and implementation of these new farming systems, and the integration of advances in crop breeding. Together these activities will support the agricultural industry in assessing the potential to meet ambitious goals for environmental sustainability whilst remaining competitive in the global market.

The potential increased use of offsetting to reduce the ecological impacts of development in the UK is under detailed evaluation by Defra, Natural England, conservationists, land owners and developers. To assist with finding an evidence-based approach that takes into account the views of all sectors, NERC-CEH, together with other partners in the Natural Capital Initiative, is organising three workshops in 2010. These will address some of the most urgent and cross-cutting challenges for the potential large scale implementation of biodiversity offsetting in the UK. 22nd June - practical challenges for the implementation (Workshop 1) 29th September - scientific knowledge and environmental data needs (Workshop 2) 7th December - how offsetting might be account for ecosystem service provision (Workshop 3) Workshop 1 involved 41 external participants representing all relevant sectors and disciplines. Workshops 2 and 3 will involve a similar mix of scientists and ¿end users.. All events will be followed by reports to decision makers, summarising the workshop discussions.