Ecology Research Theme
Testing the effectiveness of different ecological approaches for nature recovery to support biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem services such as climate change mitigation and adaptation.
About
We will examine and quantify the ecosystem health, climate benefits and challenges of different approaches to nature recovery, by directly targeted data collection, synthesis of data collected by partners and assimilation of the wider literature and evidence base.
Our approaches
Our first approach will be experimental, because there is a need for well-designed long-term studies with consistent baselines and monitoring and evaluation of nature recovery pathways. The 10-year funding for the Centre uniquely enables long-term ecological, social and financial experiments to be initiated, monitored and rigorously evaluated for their effectiveness in delivering successful outcomes.
We will provide scientific support for a range of studies in our Case Study landscapes, working with local partners on their lands. Most locally, we will establish a flagship set of robustly designed long-term nature recovery experiments on University of Oxford-owned lands. Experiments will include different strategies for biodiversity-supportive agriculture, for assisted and natural regeneration of forests and other ecosystems, and the effects of animal-mediated rewilding.
Our second approach will harness cutting-edge approaches in AI to develop innovative methods for the compilation and continuous updating of a global open-access evidence base of the effectiveness and benefits of nature recovery strategies.
A key challenge is the rapid rate of increase of data and evidence: a huge and rapidly growing literature is scattered across disciplines in the physical, natural, and social sciences in thousands of publications and is thus not easily accessible to decision-makers. To address this challenge, we will utilise state-of-the art machine learning/natural language processing technologies to expedite and deepen our learning from systematic reviews of existing literature on nature recovery.
We will examine how the key findings of our robust studies can be integrated within development plans at local, national and global scales and contribute towards goals to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Read more about our use of novel technologies now.
Theme lead
Projects
Theme outputs
- Ecology
- Ecology
- Ecology
Treescape story map
Our maps are published by Oxfordshire County Council in an accessible, interactive story format that allows you to investigate treescape opportunities across Oxfordshire
Treescapes guide
The treescapes guide offers a summary explanation of the treescapes included in the maps and the benefits they bring, together with some case studies of famers and landowners who have put them into action and further resources. It also includes a brief explanation of the mapping rules we have adopted.
Our land, our future report
The Our Land our Future report sets out the changes in Oxfordshire’s land use that the Oxfordshire Treescape Project believes need to be achieved between now and 2050 if we are to reach Net Zero. Our calculations are based on the Climate Change Committee’s ‘Balanced Pathway’ route which we have then applied to Oxfordshire.