51³Ô¹ÏÍø

"Biodiversity keeps rivers running in more ways than one" was the theme of the recent consortium meeting held at Cardiff University

Biodiversity keeps rivers running in more ways than one” was the theme of the recent consortium meeting held at Cardiff University (lead institute) in the £3 million NERC funded project “Diversity in Upland Rivers for Ecosystem Service Sustainability”. 

The two-day meeting brought together researchers from an array of institutions and disciplines  - including ecologists, molecular biologists, hydrologists and social scientists - all working towards understanding how river ecosystem services are driven by multiple components of biodiversity (from genes to food webs).

The project focuses on four main river services that are all economically important for upland Wales: 1) game fish production, 2) regulation of water quality, 3) the cultural value of fishing and 4) river birds. We are now two years into the project and fascinating results are starting to emerge highlighting the biological links mediating river services and how these play out under different environmental contexts. For example, our work here at Silwood Park 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, suggests that energy transfer in food webs is more efficient for rivers situated in catchments dominated by broadleaf woodland, resulting in greater numbers, size and biomass of game fish such as brown trout (Salmo trutta). 

A key component of the project has been to develop future land use change scenarios (up until 2050), directly relevant for a host of Stakeholders including the RSPB, the Forestry Commission and Welsh Water. The task now is to link these different research components to provide a range of predictions for changes in ecosystem services over the coming decades. Early signs are promising that we are making rapid progress to meeting these (grand) challenges facing our upland freshwaters.