Outcome NR1 – peatlands

Key research interests include, but are not limited to:

• Landscape-scale monitoring of peatlands using freely and commercially available remote sensing data.
• Improving spatiotemporal measurements of the water table, peat depths and surface motion to better characterise and monitor peatlands.
• Quantifying the socio-economic impacts of peatland restoration.
• Enhancing understanding of the biodiversity of peatlands and restoration sites, particularly bryophytes (such as sphagnum mosses), microbes, birds, herptiles and invertebrates.
• Mapping the distribution and frequency of occurrence sphagnum species.
• Evaluating the success of existing and new restoration interventions and investigating which factors are crucial for faster recovery trajectories.
• Quantifying the water storage and quality effects of peatland restoration.
• Trialling new technologies and approaches to increase restoration efficiencies.
• Predicting peatland resilience to climate change, including wildfires and increased numbers of extreme weather events.
• Local provenance alternatives to coir (coconut husk) rolls for peatland restoration.
• Spatial distribution and extent, on shallow peat soils, of important microhabitats. These include:
  • • • open water
      • fens and flushes
      • species-rich acid grasslands.
• More data on key species and assemblages in this heathland landscape, their distribution, connectivity, and how these are affected by different management goals and operations. Species include:
  • • • species which are part of the ‘Black Grouse Assemblage’ in the Cumbria Local Nature Recovery Strategy (draft) – Black grouse, Whinchat, Tree pipit, Cuckoo, Ring ouzel, Adder, Common Lizard, Large heath, Bilberry bumblebee, Juniper, Dwarf juniper and Dwarf birch
      • freshwater invertebrates – including the importance of different types of water bodies and wetlands to key species, and their distribution in this landscape
      • adder - population sizes, genetic variability, permeability of this landscape to movement/connection (see also Outcome NR8)
• Examination of land under different forms of management (cutting, burning, grazing at different intensities) and outcomes for key species and habitats.
• Fire risk and heather management on shallow peat soils.
• Best practice heathland restoration techniques on felled conifer or grass moorland sites.
• How to assess sites for restoration.