Papers by Paul Scholefield
Mapping of ecosystems and their services in the EU and its Member States
This project has developed an analytical framework that indicates under which circumstances a foc... more This project has developed an analytical framework that indicates under which circumstances a focus on the provision of ecosystem services might provide benefits for species conservation. The focus is on the regulating services. A series of reports and papers have resulted from this project that has influened the DG-ENV policies for mapping of land use, Nature and Biodiversity.
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Apr 17, 2023
Oil palm agriculture has caused extensive land cover and land use changes that have adversely aff... more Oil palm agriculture has caused extensive land cover and land use changes that have adversely affected tropical landscapes and ecosystems. However, monitoring and assessment of oil palm plantation areas to support sustainable management is costly and labour-intensive. This study used an unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to map smallholder farms and applied multi-criteria analysis to data generated from orthomosaics, to provide a set of sustainability indicators for the farms. Images were acquired from a UAV, with structure from motion (SfM) photogrammetry then used to produce orthomosaics and digital elevation models of the farm areas. Some of the inherent problems using high spatial resolution imagery for land cover classification were overcome by using texture analysis and geographic object-based image analysis (OBIA). Six spatially explicit environmental metrics were developed using multi-criteria analysis and used to generate sustainability indicator layers from the UAV data. The SfM and OBIA approach provided an accurate, high-resolution (~5 cm) image-based reconstruction of smallholder farm landscapes, with an overall classification accuracy of 89%. The multi-criteria analysis highlighted areas with lower sustainability values, which should be considered targets for adoption of sustainable management practices. The results of this work suggest that UAVs are a costeffective tool for sustainability assessments of oil palm plantations, but there remains the need to plan surveys and image processing workflows carefully. Future work can build on our proposed approach, including the use of additional and/or alternative indicators developed through consultation with the oil palm industry stakeholders, to support certification schemes such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
Contrasting UV-Vis Spectra of Terrestrial and Algal Derived Dissolved Organic Matter
EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, Apr 1, 2016
Assessment of the water quality outcomes from Agri-Environment & development of an associated Rural Development Programme (RDP) ‘impact’ indicator for Agriculture & Water Quality. Environmental Stewardship monitoring and evaluation framework request for mini-tender
Linear features length
Length (m) of linear and woody linear features in 1 km buffers around survey sites
Data from: A national-scale model of linear features improves predictions of farmland biodiversity
1. Modelling species distribution and abundance is important for many conservation applications, ... more 1. Modelling species distribution and abundance is important for many conservation applications, but it is typically performed using relatively coarse-scale environmental variables such as the area of broad land-cover types. Fine-scale environmental data capturing the most biologically-relevant variables have the potential to improve these models. For example, field studies have demonstrated the importance of linear features, such as hedgerows, for multiple taxa, but the absence of large-scale datasets of their extent prevents their inclusion in large-scale modelling studies. 2. We assessed whether a novel spatial dataset mapping linear and woody linear features across the UK improves the performance of abundance models of 18 bird and 24 butterfly species across 3723 and 1547 UK monitoring sites respectively. 3. Although improvements in explanatory power were small, the inclusion of linear features data significantly improved model predictive performance for many species. For some species, the importance of linear features depended on landscape context, with greater importance in agricultural areas. 4. Synthesis and applications. This study demonstrates that a national-scale model of the extent and distribution of linear features improves predictions of farmland biodiversity. The ability to model spatial variability in the role of linear features will be important in targeting agri-environment schemes to maximally deliver biodiversity benefits. Although this study focuses on farmland, data on the extent of different linear features are likely to improve species distribution and abundance models in a wide range of systems, and also can potentially be used to assess habitat connectivity. 10-Mar-201
This paper provides data from two years of monitoring of the chemical quality of rivers and strea... more This paper provides data from two years of monitoring of the chemical quality of rivers and streams in North West England from the clean headwaters to polluted rivers just above the tidal reach and covers 26 sites including the Ribble, Wyre and the tributary rivers of the Calder and Douglas. Across the basins that include areas of rural, urban and industrial typologies, data is presented for three of the priority substances in the Water Framework Directive i.e., nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb). Average concentrations are low and well below the Environmental Quality Standards values for all three of these substances. Cadmium and Pb appear in approximately equal proportions in the dissolved (<0.45 µm) and in the acid available particulate fractions (>0.45 µm) whilst Ni occurs predominantly in the dissolved form (92%). Regional inputs of these metals arise mostly from diffuse sources as the storm-flow concentrations are generally greater than at base-flow condition. Greater concentrations of Ni are transported at the headwaters and smaller tributary sites under storm flow condition than for the main stream of the Ribble. For Ni, amounts increase as the river proceeds from its headwaters down towards the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, whilst Cd and Pb show consistent values throughout the catchment. There is annual cycling of dissolved concentrations of Cd, Pb and Ni for the clean headwater streams that gives maxima during the latter half of the year when the river flow is greater. For the impacted sites the pattern is less distinct or absent. Our estimates
Final Report to Welsh Government, prepared by CEH on behalf of the Glastir Monitoring & Evaluatio... more Final Report to Welsh Government, prepared by CEH on behalf of the Glastir Monitoring & Evaluation Programme Team. The Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (GMEP) provides a comprehensive programme to establish a baseline against which future assessments of Glastir can be made. GMEP also contributes national trend data which supports a range of national and international biodiversity and environmental targets. GMEP fulfils a commitment by the Welsh Government to establish a monitoring programme concurrently with the launch of the Glastir scheme. The use of models and farmer surveys provides early indicators of the likely direction, magnitude and timing of future outcomes. The programme ensures compliance with the rigorous requirements of the European Commission’s Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) through the Rural Development Plan (RDP) for Wales. This report represents the final results of the GMEP programme which ran from 2012 to 2016.
Restricted access to European wide species data prevented work on the indicator 'abundance and di... more Restricted access to European wide species data prevented work on the indicator 'abundance and distribution of species'. With respect to the indicator 'fragmentation', we investigated ways of delivering EO derived measures of habitat patterns that are meaningful to sampled in-situ observations. EBONE-WP5: Assessing the role of EO in biodiversity monitoring 26.4.2012 EBONE-D5.5-2.0 6 Earth Observation Short, mid, long-wave Active, passive sensing • Value • Spectral Signature • Time-series of values • Pattern
PLOS ONE
Passive rewilding is a potential tool for expanding woodland cover and restoring biodiversity by ... more Passive rewilding is a potential tool for expanding woodland cover and restoring biodiversity by abandoning land management and allowing natural vegetation succession to occur. Land can be abandoned to passive rewilding deliberately or due to socio-economic change. Despite abandonment being a major driver of land use change, few have studied the long-term outcomes for vegetation and biodiversity in Western Europe. Studies are also biased towards sites that are close to seed sources and favourable to woodland colonisation. In this case-study, we reconstruct a time series of passive rewilding over 33 years on 25 ha of former farmland that had been subject to soil tipping, far from woodland seed sources. Natural colonisation by shrubs and trees was surveyed at three points during the time series, using field mapping and lidar. Breeding birds were surveyed at three time points, and compared with surveys from nearby farmland. Results showed that natural colonisation of woody vegetation w...
Species abundance data from Sullivan et al. A national-scale model of linear-features improves predictions of farmland biodiversity
Bird (from the BBS) and butterfly (from the UKBMS) abundance data used in the paper. Bird species... more Bird (from the BBS) and butterfly (from the UKBMS) abundance data used in the paper. Bird species names are given as BTO species codes. Sites where no study species were recorded have "NoTargetBirdRecorded" or "NoTargetButterflyRecorded" in the species column, and no value in the count column. NOTE - because this dataset has been processed as described in the paper, we strongly recommend researchers wishing to use BBS and UKBMS data in their own research to obtain data from the BTO (https://www.bto.org/research-data-services/data-services/data-request-system) and the UKBMS (http://www.ukbms.org/Obtaining.aspx) rather than use this file
Our new method eliminates the use of a fibre and the problems associated with it such as the high... more Our new method eliminates the use of a fibre and the problems associated with it such as the higher absorption in the UV spectral region and optical coupling loss from the dip probe mirror. We use a free space approach by moving the flash lamp source away from the spectrometer and allowing for a cuvette or a flow cell be placed in the beam optical path. The optical absorption interaction occurs over a path length of 10mm but shorter path lengths can be used by changing the cell, so that more turbid samples can be analysed. This improved the instrument’s performance and accounted for the higher absorption in the deep UV from water containing higher concentrations of DOC.
Ecological Indicators, 2016
The NERC and CEH trademarks and logos ('the Trademarks') are registered trademarks of NERC in the... more The NERC and CEH trademarks and logos ('the Trademarks') are registered trademarks of NERC in the UK and other countries, and may not be used without the prior written consent of the Trademark owner.
Isoprene emissions from higher plants growing in elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide
Ribble and Wyre catchment study
The project continues to provide support for NERC Macronutrient Cycles Projects as it was chosen ... more The project continues to provide support for NERC Macronutrient Cycles Projects as it was chosen to be one of the case study catchments. The data is held on the EIDC hub: http://doi.org/10.5285/b4b44b04-bfd0-40ca-b60a-681018eb78ce Several papers have been published from this project. e.g. Neal, Colin; Rowland, Phil; Scholefield, Paul; Vincent, Colin; Woods, Clive; Sleep, Darren. 2011 The Ribble/Wyre observatory: Major, minor and trace elements in rivers draining from rural headwaters to the heartlands of the NW England historic industrial base. Science of the Total Environment, 409 (8). 1516-1529.
Protecting ecosystems brings benefits to society
project set up by PEER, the Partnership for European Environmental Research, to examine some of t... more project set up by PEER, the Partnership for European Environmental Research, to examine some of the knowledge gaps that exist in assessing ecosystem services in Europe has published its second report for policy makers. Launched in 2010, the PRESS initiative demonstrated how European researchers, including social scientists, economists, and ecologists, can combine their expertise to map and assess the natural, social and economic values of ecosystems services. The first phase of the study, which was concluded in September 2011 with the publication of a first PRESS report, demonstrated methodologies to map the role of ecosystems as providers of clean water and recreation and investigated how ecosystem services can be mainstreamed into agriculture, fisheries or forestry policies. The second and final phase of the study consisted of case studies carried out on pollination, recreation and water purification to explore how assessment methods to measure and map ecosystem services might be developed at multiple spatial scales. The results of this research initiative were presented in Brussels on 13 September to an international panel of experts which helps DG Environment of the European Commission with the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. The report prepared to describe these results outlines a strategy which aims to promote a better understanding of how ecosystems and biodiversity provide essential benefits to our society. The PRESS project was coordinated by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), Alterra Wageningen UR and the Helmholtz Zentrum fur Umweltforschung (UFZ). PEER comprises seven research groups from around Europe, including the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH). http://www.ceh.ac.uk/news/news_archive/PRESS2_ecosystem_society_benefits_report_2012_51.html
Science of The Total Environment, 2010
This paper presents information on the spatial and seasonal patterns of river water chemistry at ... more This paper presents information on the spatial and seasonal patterns of river water chemistry at approximately 800 sites in North West England based on data from the Environment Agency regional monitoring programme. Within a GIS framework, the linkages between average water chemistry (pH, sulphate, base cations, nutrients and metals) catchment characteristics (topography, land cover, soil hydrology, base flow index and geology), rainfall, deposition chemistry and geo-spatial information on discharge consents (point sources) are examined. Water quality maps reveal that there is a clear distinction between the uplands and lowlands. Upland waters are acidic and have low concentrations of base cations, explained by background geological sources and land cover. Localised high concentrations of metals occur in areas of the Cumbrian Fells which are subjected to mining effluent inputs. Nutrient concentrations are low in the uplands with the exception sites receiving effluent inputs from rural point sources. In the lowlands, both past and present human activities have a major impact on river water chemistry, especially in the urban and industrial heartlands of Greater Manchester, south Lancashire and Merseyside. Over 40% of the sites have average orthophosphate concentrations N 0.1 mg-P l − 1. Results suggest that the dominant control on orthophosphate concentrations is point source contributions from sewage effluent inputs. Diffuse agricultural sources are also important, although this influence is masked by the impact of point sources. Average nitrate concentrations are linked to the coverage of arable land, although sewage effluent inputs have a significant effect on nitrate concentrations. Metal concentrations in the lowlands are linked to diffuse and point sources. The study demonstrates that point sources, as well as diffuse sources, need to be considered when targeting measures for the effective reduction in river nutrient concentrations. This issue is clearly important with regards to the European Union Water Framework Directive, eutrophication and river water quality.
Plant, Cell and Environment, 2004
Isoprene basal emission (the emission of isoprene from leaves exposed to a light intensity of 100... more Isoprene basal emission (the emission of isoprene from leaves exposed to a light intensity of 1000 m m m m mol m-2 s-1 and maintained at a temperature of 30 ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ C) was measured in Phragmites australis plants growing under elevated CO 2 in the Bossoleto CO 2 spring at Rapolano Terme, Italy, and under ambient CO 2 at a nearby control site. Gas exchange and biochemical measurements were concurrently taken. Isoprene emission was lower in the plants growing at elevated CO 2 than in those growing at ambient CO 2. Isoprene emission and isoprene synthase activity (IsoS) were very low in plants growing at the bottom of the spring under very rich CO 2 and increased at increasing distance from the spring (and decreasing CO 2 concentration). Distance from the spring did not significantly affect photosynthesis making it therefore unlikely that there is carbon limitation to isoprene formation. The isoprene emission rate was very quickly reduced after rapid switches from elevated to ambient CO 2 in the gas-exchange cuvette, whereas it increased when switching from ambient to elevated CO 2. The rapidity of the response may be consistent with post-translational modifications of enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway of isoprene formation. Reduction of IsoS activity is interpreted as a long-term response. Basal emission of isoprene was not constant over the day but showed a diurnal course opposite to photosynthesis, with a peak during the hottest hours of the day, independent of stomatal conductance and probably dependent on external air temperature or temporary reduction of CO 2 concentration. The present experiments show that basal emission rate of isoprene is likely to be reduced under future elevated CO 2 levels and allow improvement in the modelling of future isoprene emission rates.
Journal of Applied Ecology, 2013
The NERC and CEH trademarks and logos ('the Trademarks') are registered trademarks of NERC in the... more The NERC and CEH trademarks and logos ('the Trademarks') are registered trademarks of NERC in the UK and other countries, and may not be used without the prior written consent of the Trademark owner.
Biomass and Bioenergy, 2013
The drive for sustainable energy production is leading to increased deployment of land based rene... more The drive for sustainable energy production is leading to increased deployment of land based renewables. Although there is public support, in principle, for renewable energy at a national level, major resistance to renewable energy technologies often occurs at a local level. Within this context, it can be useful to consider the "energyscape" which we initially define as the complex spatial and temporal combination of the supply, demand and infrastructure for energy within a landscape. By starting with a consideration of the energyscape, we can then consider the positive and negative interactions with other ecosystem services within a particular landscape. This requires a multidisciplinary systems-approach that uses existing knowledge of landscapes, energy options, and the different perspectives of stakeholders. The approach is examined in relation to pilot case-study comprising a 155 km2 catchment in Bedfordshire, England. Energyscapes Highlights Novel approach setting the whole energy system in a real landscape context. Describes a method that can be used to clarify how different groups view biomass deployment Uses different stakeholders perspectives of how the landscape interacts with all ecosystem services and how modifications of the energy system will influence them. Demonstrated for Marston Vale, a sub catchment of the Great Ouse in eastern England. Applicable across spatial scales and geographic zones.
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Papers by Paul Scholefield