We are delighted to share with you our Annual Review for 2022, which presents a cross-section of the research and innovation carried out at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) last year.
Rising demand for our science meant we were able to invest in our people and in the research infrastructures and monitoring we provide to benefit the broader UK research community. At the same time, we continued to expand our international reach through new collaborative partnerships, supporting sustainable development around the world.
Highlights of the year included:
• As the UN biodiversity conference COP15 concluded in Montreal, our scientists worked nationally and internationally to inform strategies and targets to bend the curve of biodiversity loss.
• Thanks to investment from the Natural Environment Research Council, we are establishing a new centre for micro-spectroscopic analysis of environmental samples – the first of its kind in the UK.
• Our long-term monitoring revealed how climate change is affecting the UK’s lakes, with new studies published on Scotland’s lochs and reservoirs, and on the Windermere catchment.
• We expanded our national networks for greenhouse gas monitoring, improving emissions inventories and informing net zero strategies and plans; and we paved the way for private investment in restoration through the development of saltmarsh and peatland codes.
• Results from a long-term large-scale project at Hillesden, a 1,000 hectare arable farm in Buckinghamshire, showed that nature-friendly farming can bring wildlife back to farms without compromising food production.
• We improved understanding of how air pollution affects human health, and informed plans and targets for clean air. In China, for example, we helped to assess the effectiveness of the national Air Clean Plan (ACP), implemented from 2014-2020.
You can read more about how scientists across our four sites in Bangor, Edinburgh, Lancaster and Wallingford tackled key science challenges by downloading our Annual Review 2022 at ceh.ac.uk/about-us/annual-review-2022
