Environmental Research and Knowledge Exchange

Dr Andrew Bowen

• What is the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)?• What do we do?

– Summary of programmes– Specific examples

• NERC Research Centres• Research Case Studies

– Measuring toxicity in water– Managing peatland– Managing shallow lakes

• NERC Knowledge Exchange (KE)– KE mechanisms– Water KE Programme

Summary

• The largest funder of environmental research in the UK• The main UK agency for funding, managing research,

training and knowledge exchange in environmental sciences

• We use our budget of ~£400 million to fund research in Universities and our own Research Centres:– Centre for Ecology and Hydrology– British Antarctic Survey– British Geological Survey– National Oceanographic Centre

• We also work with many national and international partners to deliver research

What is NERC?

• Fund research:– Research grants and contracts– Research Centres

• Fund research studentships– PhD and Masters students

• Fund and carry out Knowledge Exchange– Collaborative research funding– Knowledge Exchange Fellowships– Knowledge Transfer Partnerships– Knowledge Exchange Programmes

What do we do?

Specific investments

Virtual Observatory £1.7m

Changing Water Cycle £10.1m

Macronutrients £9.5m

Flood Risk and Extreme Events £7.4m

Network of Sensors £5m

LOCAR (completed) £10m

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability £13m

Valuation of Biodiversity and Natural Resources £500k

• Our changing climate and society is radically affecting the water cycle in some areas of the world

• The CWC programme aims to:1. Develop a quantitative understanding of changes taking

place in the global water cycle2. Improve predictions of water movement around the

water cycle on a decadal scale3. To understand how local and regional scale hydrological

and biogeochemical processes are responding to the changes in climate and land use

4. To understand the consequences of the changing water cycle for water-related hazards and to improve mitigation of these hazards

Changing Water Cycle

• Human activities have enhanced average phosphorus levels by 400% and nitrogen levels by 100%

• Nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus are pivotal in sustaining global geochemical cycle, protecting human health and ensuring healthy ecosystems

• The programme aims to:1. Evaluate the nature and scale of macronutrient

exchange between terrestrial, freshwater and atmospheric systems

2. Investigate the role of macronutrients on ecosystem functions (i.e. decomposition and productivity)

3. Determine implications of nutrient enrichment on other non-nutrient contaminants and their effects on human health and biodiversity

Macronutrients

• The FREE programme is involved in research to predict floods minutes to weeks to seasons to decades ahead

• Is conducting research into the causes and propagation of floods to help forecast and quantify flood risk, and inform society about the likely effects of climate change

• Example projects1. “Modelling groundwater flood risk in the Chalk aquifer

from future extreme rainfall events”2. Exploitation of new data sources, data assimilation and

ensemble techniques for storm and flood forecasting

• More information at: www.free-uk.org

Flood Risk From Extreme Events

• The programme investigated how water enters, is stored within and discharged from three rivers in groundwater-dominated catchments

• Looked at the movement of sediments and chemicals• Example:

– Tracked the movement of rainwater in the layers of soil and rock

– Because of this scientists are now able to predict the movement of water into the water table below

– They also found that it carried a cocktail of nutrients, particularly in areas contaminated by agricultural chemicals

• More information at: catchments.nerc.ac.uk

Lowland Catchment Research

• The UK spends at least £50 million per year on environmental monitoring1

• But much of it is uncoordinated and fragmented1

• The Virtual Observatory is a partnership between NERC, EA, Defra and WAG

• Aims to create an integrated community to address research questions on water-soil systems at differing locations

• Take advantage of the latest computing technology to create a cyber-infrastructure network– Allows exploitation of both traditional field measurements

and near real-time data

1. ERFF Report 02 – Strategic Analysis of UK Environmental Monitoring Activity 2007

Virtual Observatory

NERC Research Centres

• The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is the UK's Centre of Excellence for integrated research in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems and their interaction with the atmosphere

• It is entirely or partly responsible for several long-term monitoring projects, including:– Countryside Survey– Loch Leven– Biological Records Centre– Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme– Environmental Change Network– Carbon Catchment

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

• The British Geological Survey (BGS) is the nation's principal supplier of objective, impartial and up-to-date geological expertise and information for decision making for governmental, commercial and individual users

• Involved in a wide variety of geological mapping, research and consultancy across the globe

• Main team involved in catchment science and monitoring is the Groundwater Science Team– Groundwater mapping– Continuation of LOCAR work– Groundwater ecology– Groundwater quality (collaboration with WaterAid)

British Geological Survey

Research – Case Studies

• Grant to Prof Andrew Nelson (University of Leeds)• Funded part of the group’s work on synthetic cell

membranes• To detect toxins a membrane ‘mimic’ is assembled on a

chip with a miniature electrode• Any toxins that pass through the membrane create a

signal, providing an instant alert• It has the potential to detect all pollutants in water and

is of particular interest because of its ability to detect nanoparticles

• The technology has been licensed to Modern Water

Nano-toxin sensor

• Grant to Dr Karen Andersen (University of Exeter)• Blanket mire and lowland mire are ‘priority habitats’

within the Habitats Directive of the EU• Monitoring using standard field measurement

techniques is extremely time consuming and costly• The team looked specifically at Wedholme Flow and

combined LiDAR with satellite data• They used LiDAR to identify peatland surface structures

and the satellite data to accurately determine the location of vegetation and water

• The resulting data made it much easier to spot where a bog was growing and where it needed further management

Remote monitoring of peat bogs

• CEH have been conducting detailed water quality studies on Loch Leven since 1968

• The Loch had regular problems with algal blooms, with a particularly serious one in 1992

• This bloom was estimated to have cost the local economy over £1m in a single year

• In 1985 CEH carried out a detailed study to identify the cause of pollution (point sources of phosphorus pollution)

• A management plan was enacted (at a cost of £4 million), based on the long-term CEH monitoring

• This reduced the phosphorus released into the lake by 60% over the next 10 – 15 years

Loch Leven

NERC Knowledge Exchange

• Application– Applying current research to meet a need or challenge

• Adaption– Reformatting past research outputs through further short-

term research

• Creation– Creating new research where no current work is applicable

• Connection– Ensuring communication between different initiatives

What is Knowledge Exchange?

• Science Programme KE activities• KE Fellowships• KE Projects• CASE Studentships• KTPs

• and next year KE Programmes

KE Mechanisms

Knowledge Exchange Programmes1. Water Security

2. Marine Renewable Energy

3. Food and Agriculture

4. Resource Management

5. Financial Services

• Start in April 2010• Have a budget of £500K per year

– No set activities, flexible • Will engage with, and act as a link to:

– NERC Science Programmes– NERC KE Fellows– Businesses– LWEC

• A contact point for Water Security or Marine Renewables information throughout NERC

KE Programmes

1. Integrated Catchment Management

2. Extreme Hydro-Meteorological Events

3. Decision Making for Water Security

4. Coordination of Water Data

5. Waste Water Treatment and Reuse

Priorities

• NERC carries out research and education through a huge variety of activities

• We are committed to ensuring that the research outputs and knowledge that we generate are used as widely as possible

• A number of mechanisms have been adopted to support this– KE in Science Programmes, KE Fellowships and Collaborative

Research

• Next year two new KE Programmes will be introduced

Summary

Dr Andrew BowenNERC Knowledge and Innovation ManagerCommercialisation and Innovation Team

e-mail: andrew.bowen@nerc.ac.ukphone: 01491 692673mobile: 07717 714693

Contact Information