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

全世界都在使用受控燃烧来管理植被，但人们对这种做法对环境的影响表示严重关切。在英格兰北部和苏格兰部分地区，荒地焚烧是鼓励和保持石南花生长的传统做法(世界上75%的石南花覆盖在英国高地)。然而，由于缺乏基本的科学数据，对燃烧的成本、效益和可持续性的详细评估受到阻碍。尽管有任何令人信服的证据表明环境退化，但许多沼泽地所有者感到有压力改变他们认为的传统做法，这在农民和监管机构之间造成了严重的紧张。这个问题还具有重大的财政影响，因为石南花焚烧是由政府根据其环境管理计划提供补贴的，而矛盾的是，估计有4.5亿至6.3亿GB的资金被用于努力改善水道的质量，以满足水框架指令的要求。不出所料，燃烧可持续性的评估是最紧迫的应用生态学问题之一，山地管理者正在向科学界寻求证据。EMBER将通过首次协调评估沼地燃烧对河流集水区、水文和生态过程的影响来解决这些问题。受规定烧伤影响的个案研究地点将在英国山顶地区和北宾宁的国际重要SSSIS建立。如果没有这项研究，我们对沼地燃烧的水文和生态反应的了解将仍然很差，生物多样性将受到威胁，这些系统可能无法满足欧盟和英国的政策要求，从而对土地所有者造成影响。EMBER将增加对高地泥炭为主的集水区规定的沼地燃烧、水文、水质和溪流无脊椎动物群落之间联系的过程的理解。四个工作包(WP)将旨在：1.通过检查土壤水文和水质的变化，增加对沼泽地燃烧对泥炭水文和物理化学影响的了解。2.通过对河流流态、悬浮泥沙浓度和水化学的研究，更好地了解沼地燃烧对流域径流数量和质量的影响。3.通过研究河流无脊椎动物群落的生物多样性和鱼类丰度，评估河流水文、水质和沉积物通量的变化对河流生态系统的影响。4.通过利用一系列河流沿岸中观系统在受控条件下对细小沉积物通量的实验操纵，更基本地了解旱地水生群落对燃烧的反应的一些环境驱动因素。总而言之，这些成套资料将从泥炭水文学、化学、河流水量和水质以及河流生态系统的角度提供从补丁到流域的全面燃烧评估，从而提供目前所缺乏的平衡的知识库。从长远来看，我们预计EMBER将成为英国荒地焚烧政策的主要参考。

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.