EMBER: Effects of Moorland Burning on the Ecohydrology of River basins

EMBER：沼泽地燃烧对流域生态水文的影响

• 批准号: NE/G00224X/1
• 负责人: Lee Brown
• 金额: $ 79.5万
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FG00224X%2F1
• 关键词: EMBER; Effects; Moorland; Burning; Ecohydrology

Controlled burning is used worldwide for the management of vegetation, yet there is serious concern about the environmental implications of such practices. Across Northern England and parts of Scotland, moorland burning is a traditional practice for encouraging and maintaining heather growth (75% of the world's heather cover occurs in the UK uplands). However, detailed evaluations of the costs, benefits and sustainability of burning are hampered by a lack of basic scientific data. Many moorland owners feel pressured to change what they see as traditional practice despite any convincing evidence of environmental degradation and this is causing serious tension between farmers and regulators. The problem also has major financial implications because heather burning is subsidised by the government under its environmental stewardship scheme, whilst paradoxically an estimated £450-630M is being spent on trying to improve the quality of water courses to meet Water Framework Directive requirements. Unsurprisingly, evaluation of burn sustainability is one of the most pressing applied ecological issues for which upland managers are requesting evidence from the scientific community. EMBER will address these issues by providing the first co-ordinated evaluation of moorland burning effects on river catchment hydrological and ecological processes. Case study sites influenced by prescribed burns will be established in internationally important SSSIs in the Peak District and North Pennines, UK. Without this research, our understanding of hydrological and ecological responses to moorland burning will remain poor, biodiversity will be at risk and these systems will potentially fail to meet EU and UK policy requirements with resultant implications for landowners. EMBER will increase understanding of the processes linking prescribed moorland burning, hydrology, water quality and stream invertebrate communities in upland peat dominated catchments. Four work packages (WP) will aim to: 1. increase understanding of the effects of moorland patch burning on the hydrology and physicochemistry of peat, through examination of changes in soil hydrology and water quality. 2. provide a better understanding of the effects of moorland patch burning on basin runoff quantity and quality, through examination of river flow regimes, suspended sediment concentration and water chemistry. 3. assess the influence of changes in stream hydrology, water quality and sediment fluxes on stream ecosystems through examination of stream invertebrate community biodiversity and fish abundance 4. gain a more fundamental understanding of some environmental drivers of upland aquatic community response to burning by experimentally manipulating fine sediment flux under controlled conditions using a series of streamside mesocosms. Taken together these packages will provide a holistic patch- to basin-scale evaluation of burning from the perspective of peat hydrology, chemistry, river water quantity and quality, and stream ecosystems, thus providing the balanced knowledge base which is currently lacking. In the longer-term we expect EMBER to act as a major reference underpinning UK moorland burning policy.

全世界都采用控制燃烧的方法来管理植被，但人们对这种做法的环境影响表示严重关切。在英格兰北方和苏格兰部分地区，焚烧高沼地是鼓励和维持石楠生长的传统做法（世界上75%的石楠覆盖在英国高地）。然而，由于缺乏基本的科学数据，对焚烧的成本、效益和可持续性的详细评估受到阻碍。许多高沼地的所有者感到压力，要改变他们所认为的传统做法，尽管有任何令人信服的证据表明环境退化，这正在造成农民和监管机构之间的严重紧张关系。这个问题也有重大的财政影响，因为石楠燃烧是由政府根据其环境管理计划补贴的，而矛盾的是，估计有4.5亿至6.3亿英镑用于改善水道的质量，以满足水框架指令的要求。毫不奇怪，燃烧可持续性的评价是一个最紧迫的应用生态问题，高地管理者正在要求科学界的证据。欧洲环境与生物研究局将通过提供关于高沼地燃烧对河流流域水文和生态过程影响的第一次协调评估来解决这些问题。受处方烧伤影响的病例研究中心将在英国Peak District和North Pennines的国际重要SSSI中建立。如果没有这项研究，我们对高沼地燃烧的水文和生态响应的理解将仍然很差，生物多样性将处于危险之中，这些系统将可能无法满足欧盟和英国的政策要求，从而对土地所有者产生影响。EMBER将增加对连接指定的高沼地燃烧、水文、水质和高地泥炭为主的集水区的河流无脊椎动物群落的过程的理解。四个工作包（WP）将旨在：1。通过检查土壤水文和水质的变化，增加对高沼地小块燃烧对泥炭的水文和物理化学的影响的了解。2.通过对河流流态、悬浮泥沙浓度和水化学的研究，更好地了解高沼地斑块燃烧对流域径流量和水质的影响。3.透过研究溪流无脊椎动物群落的生物多样性和鱼类的数量，评估溪流水文，水质和沉积物通量的变化对溪流生态系统的影响通过在受控条件下使用一系列河边中型生态系统实验性地操纵细沉积物通量，获得对高地水生群落对燃烧反应的一些环境驱动因素的更基本的理解。这些资料包合在一起，将从泥炭水文学、化学、河流水量和水质以及河流生态系统的角度，对焚烧进行从小块到流域的全面评价，从而提供目前缺乏的平衡的知识基础。从长远来看，我们预计EMBER将成为英国高沼地燃烧政策的主要参考依据。

项目成果

Effects of Moorland Burning on the Ecohydrology of River basins. Full report of key findings from the EMBER project

高沼地燃烧对流域生态水文的影响。

• 发表时间: 2014
• 作者: Brown, LE

Contextualizing UK moorland burning studies with geographical variables and sponsor identity

将英国沼泽地燃烧研究与地理变量和赞助者身份联系起来

• DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13708
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Journal of Applied Ecology
• 影响因子: 5.7
• 作者: Brown L

Effects of fire on the hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecology of peatland river systems

• DOI: 10.1086/683426
• 发表时间: 2015-12-01
• 期刊: FRESHWATER SCIENCE
• 影响因子: 1.8
• 作者: Brown, Lee E.;Holden, Joseph;Grayson, Richard
• 通讯作者: Grayson, Richard

Moorland vegetation burning debates should avoid contextomy and anachronism: a comment on Davies et al. (2016).

Moorland植被燃烧的辩论应避免上下文和过时：对Davies等人的评论。 （2016）。

• DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0432
• 发表时间: 2016-11-19
• 期刊: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
• 作者: Brown LE;Holden J;Palmer SM
• 通讯作者: Palmer SM

Fire effects on aquatic ecosystems: an assessment of the current state of the science

• DOI: 10.1086/684073
• 发表时间: 2015-12-01
• 期刊: FRESHWATER SCIENCE
• 影响因子: 1.8
• 作者: Bixby, Rebecca J.;Cooper, Scott D.;Dwire, Kathleen A.
• 通讯作者: Dwire, Kathleen A.