Publications

Oxfordshire’s greenspace-deprived neighbourhoods

Coordinating author: Martha Crockatt

This report explores Natural England’s Green Infrastructure data to identify neighbourhoods in Oxfordshire experiencing both socio-economic deprivation and poor provision of accessible greenspace, with a view to these neighbourhoods being prioritised in terms of planning, allocation of funding, and effort for improving quality and quantity of accessible greenspace.

Contributors: Matt Witney (Oxfordshire Local Nature Partnership), Alison Smith (University of Oxford), Rosie Rowe (Oxfordshire County Council), Mark Hirons (University of Oxford),  Constance McDermott (University of Oxford), Camilla Burrow (Wild Oxfordshire) and Joseph Gent (University of Oxford).

Oxfordshire’s greenspace-deprived neighbourhoods

A new report which has just been launched explores Natural England’s Green Infrastructure data to identify neighbourhoods in Oxfordshire experiencing both socio-economic deprivation and poor provision of accessible greenspace, with a view to these neighbourhoods being prioritised in terms of planning, allocation of funding, and effort for improving quality and quantity of accessible greenspace.

Research at the interface of indigenous and western science in the Amazonian Peatlands

Our researchers, Aoife Bennet and Jesus Aguirre-Gutierrez, along with partners in Peru are empirically applying an intercultural interdisciplinary mapping methodology “Non Oñamboan Joi” for assessing nature recovery potential in the Amazon.

More about the project here

Huanyuan Zhang-Zheng, Stephen Adu-Bredu, Akwasi Duah-Gyamfi, Sam Moore, Shalom D. Addo-Danso, Lucy Amissah, Riccardo Valentini, Gloria Djagbletey, Kelvin Anim-Adjei, John Quansah, Bernice Sarpong, Kennedy Owusu-Afriyie, Agne Gvozdevaite, Minxue Tang, Maria C. Ruiz-Jaen, Forzia Ibrahim, Cécile A. J. Girardin, Sami Rifai, Cecilia A. L. Dahlsjö, Terhi Riutta, Xiongjie Deng, Yuheng Sun, Iain Colin Prentice, Imma Oliveras Menor & Yadvinder Malhi (2024). Contrasting carbon cycle along tropical forest aridity gradients in West Africa and Amazonia. Nature Communications.

Here we present a detailed field assessment of the carbon budget of multiple forest sites in Africa, by monitoring 14 one-hectare plots along an aridity gradient in Ghana, West Africa. When compared with an equivalent aridity gradient in Amazonia, the studied West African forests generally had higher productivity and lower carbon use efficiency (CUE). The West African aridity gradient consistently shows the highest NPP, CUE, GPP, and autotrophic respiration at a medium-aridity site, Bobiri. Notably, NPP and GPP of the site are the highest yet reported anywhere for intact forests. Widely used data products substantially underestimate productivity when compared to biometric measurements in Amazonia and Africa. Our analysis suggests that the high productivity of the African forests is linked to their large GPP allocation to canopy and semi-deciduous characteristics.

Bending the curves – balancing nature, economy and society, from the bottom up

Bending the curve of biodiversity decline, ie. halting and reversing loss, has been adopted as the mission for the Global Biodiversity Framework. While conservation and restoration are necessary to achieve this, they are not sufficient and this talk focuses on the two sets of actions that need far greater attention – a) bending and reversing the drivers of biodiversity decline, which requires primary focus on indirect drivers, in particular overconsumption, and b) redressing equity imbalances. Both entail specific responsibilities and actions, by those who over-consume, and for those who under-consume. Focusing on healthy and sufficient nature at square kilometre scales provides a direct approach to address these issues, providing tangible opportunities to revert financial capital into natural capital to nature, economy and society for a sustainable future.

Building collaborations with Indigenous and Local Communities using Extreme Citizen Science – Jerome Lewis

This talk will describe the work of the Extreme Citizen Science Research Group designing and testing solutions for building effective collaborations with Indigenous People and local communities in the context of local conservation initiatives, extractive industry, human rights abuses, or to address the impacts of climate and environmental change on local livelihoods.

Emma Cary, Flurina Wartmann (2024). Rewilding in the British policy landscape. A qualitative analysis of policy documents related to rewilding. Scottish Geographical Journal.

This paper situates rewilding in national policy contexts in England, Scotland and Wales to assess prospects for future rewilding implementation.

Soil Ecology from the microbe’s eye view

Edith Hammer

Discusses how ‘soil chips’ enable us to study the influence of trophic interactions such as the presence of predators on bacterial and fungal nutrient cycling, and various predation strategies of protists otherwise difficult to culture. Beyond the scientific potential, the chips can also bring soils closer to people aiming to make more to appreciate their beauty and increase engagement in soil health conservation.