Natural resources
Research Topic
Language: English
This is a research topic created to provide authors with a place to attach new problem publications.
Research problems linked to this topic
- What is the relationship between chemicals and environmental and human stressors, such as climate change and biodiversity loss? What will the impact be on ecosystem services, both now and in the future?
- How can innovation in chemical production, use, and disposal across the supply chain minimise chemical-related risks, benefiting the circular economy and reducing pollution?
- What are the biggest chemical, pesticide, and hazardous waste-related risks to the environment and human health, both in the UK and globally? What are the costs of inaction? How are these risks most effectively monitored and managed, and what is the role of government?
- Better understanding of ecosystem responses to air quality impacts and of restoration trajectories / rates of recovery of impacted systems in response to policy interventions
- Assess how marine protected areas can act as nature-based solutions to the effects of climate change by sequestering carbon
- Further our understanding of how climate change is affecting the health of the ocean as a result of acidification and warming seas
- How effective are marine protected areas and how can we monitor and evaluate the ecological, social, economic, and cultural costs and benefits of these areas?
- Understand the full benefits of offshore renewables. To identify and mitigate their environmental impacts by establishing socio-economic evidence to provide information to influence marine policy and development decisions
- Understand the risks from contaminants of emerging concern, micro and macro marine plastic litter, emergencies (for example oil spills), and man-made underwater noise
- How do we protect pollinators and maximise beneficial insects?
- How do we improve our modelling of water resource availability for people and the environment?
- How can we promote efficiency and investment in the water sector and incentivise environmentally responsible behaviour from all branches of society?
- How do we better understand the impacts of climate change on water, habitats, and species?
- How do we better understand the impact of the past, the pressures on the present, and the changes of the future when understanding water and the environment?
- How do we increase societal resilience to flood and coastal erosion risk?
- Where do interactions exist between climate adaptation in transport infrastructure and other net zero or natural environment policies? Are there any co-benefits/trade-offs and how can we implement solutions that deliver on all these priorities?
- How could technology and data be better utilised to identify, classify and monitor biodiversity alongside transport infrastructure? What can asset managers in the transport sector learn from other sectors in this area.
- How can we design and embed robust, cross-cutting indicators of, and improve our understanding of, human, animal, plant, and environmental health in systems under pressure from climate change?
- How can we optimise the food system to support future food production and consumption sustainably whilst reducing environmental impacts?
- What are the likely changes to our agricultural sector following COVID-19 and how can the agricultural system transition be best guided towards a sustainable trajectory while ensuring food security?
- How can we develop pathways towards net zero that are socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable? What is the range of viable solutions, and what are the associated co-benefits and trade-offs? This includes developing spatially explicit models and tools to inform decisions at the landscape level, including prioritisation of conflicting land use demands
- How can technological change reduce pressures on natural resources?
- What pressures will there be on global natural resources - especially energy, food, water and critical elements - in the short, medium and long term, and with what strategic policy implications for the UK in a changing world?
- How do we incorporate the full spectrum of natural capital and the value of the benefits it provides into policy development, analysis, and appraisal? What are the tools we need to make use of robust economic values easier for everyone – across government and beyond?
- How can we most effectively implement nature-based solutions, such as tree planting and peatland restoration, to address climate change, support progress to net zero carbon emission, reduce biodiversity loss and prevent poverty?
- What are the positive and negative environmental impacts of increasing renewable energy production (wind, solar, geothermal, and so on) and other actions taken to decarbonise the economy?
- What are the population-level impacts of sublethal pesticide and other chemical exposure in the environment?
- Develop innovative and improved abatement technologies for air pollutant emissions and noise generation across all sectors and sources
- Can other land-based approaches to greenhouse gas removal, such as enhanced weathering and biochar, help achieve net zero without negative environmental impacts?
- What are the interventions needed to reverse climate change or at least hold it steady to begin to mitigate the multiple stresses it causes?
- What are the competing pressures, trade-offs, and synergies of different land-uses in relation to climate change in a post COVID-19 world?
- Using climate-smart management, how do we best protect marine biodiversity that might change as a result of climate change?
- We need to better understand the true value of plants and trees to society and deliver ongoing research to understand and prevent the introduction and spread of threats to UK plants – natural and crops. This include key threats such as Xylella, emerald ash borer, and other risks highlighted on the UK Plant Health Risk Register.
- How can the UK optimise sustainable growth of biomass for use in power generation (bioenergy) and, with appropriate storage, for removal of atmospheric CO2? How can the negative environmental consequences from biomass production and use (on soil quality, water quality, air quality, and biodiversity) be minimised? What’s the full life cycle analysis for different feedstock? What’s the scalability of different feedstocks within sustainable limits?
- How can we manage the land to provide benefits to society and minimise harm to the aquatic ecosystem?
- How can we predict the potential impacts of a changing climate on actions and strategies to mitigate climate change (for example how will future climate change impact the delivery of carbon sequestration by different habitats)? What tools are available to allow for effective planning of climate change mitigation strategies that are resilient to a changing climate?
- How should policies be designed and schemes implemented to help the food and farming sector preserve and enhance the natural environment, while meeting other priorities such as the commitment to net zero emissions of greenhouse gases?
- How do we reduce the impacts of production on the environment through more sustainable food production, processing, and manufacture? And how do we influence consumer choice towards healthy and sustainable dietary choices?
- How can the UK protect and increase its standing stock of organic carbon: trees, peat, soil, and salt marshes? How can these habitats most efficiently be distributed spatially given limited land and other needs (for example urban space, food production, recreation)? How can increases in carbon stocks be achieved while maximising co-benefits such as biodiversity, clean water, and nutrient balance?
- How do we respond effectively to challenges including a rapidly growing population, changing consumption trends, finite land use, resource constraints, changing climate, globalised markets, and black swan events such as COVID-19 all of which impact on food and farming system security and supply chain resilience?
- Which interventions can be used to incentivise improvements in water quality in the environment?
- What will be the ecological, economic, and social impacts of sea level rise? How effective are our current responses?
- How will the changing climate affect the persistence and movement of chemical contaminants in the environment?
- How do we effectively monitor and assess the impact of emerging threats on water quality and ecology (for example plastics, antimicrobial resistance, neonicotinoid pesticides, nanoparticles, pharmaceuticals, invasive species, and chemicals) to inform risk-based decision making?
- How can we build resilience of biodiversity and society to climate change through ecosystem restoration, better land management, and land use?
- What are the actions that will have the biggest impact on restoring freshwater habitats as far as possible to more naturally functioning ecosystems?
- What is the impact of rising sea level on coastal systems, natural, and human? Can natural systems help to mitigate against coastal incursion and degradation?
- How does investment in the environment bring benefits to society, including through health, wellbeing, and natural capital? Who are the beneficiaries and how do we quantify and communicate those benefits – and costs?
- How can we assess and mitigate systemic risks involving environmental factors? What are the best approaches for monitoring that tracks system dynamics based on key ‘watchpoints’ to trigger mitigation actions?
- How will changing freshwater budgets impact river flow, water availability, the risk of flooding, and natural systems?
- What actions would most effectively and efficiently improve the status of the natural environment and secure economic, social, and health benefits domestically and globally?
- Analysis of social and economic interactions with the environment and natural resources. What are the links and trade-offs between biodiversity, climate, sustainable management of forestry, soils and peatland restoration, economic development, food, health, wellbeing, and global poverty?
- Global drivers of declines in nature are well documented but we need to understand how drivers interact in the UK and globally, as well as the global impacts of UK activities. We also need to understand how our actions to address declines (such as policy responses, intervention and environmental management) impact drivers
- What is the status of our natural environment, is it being effectively monitored to note change in the UK and globally? We require robust, reliable data and information that can be used to assess status and trends in the natural environment (genetic and species diversity and trends, invasive species, habitats extent, condition and character, as well as soils and ecosystem services and functions)
- How to measure ecological connectivity and design coherent ecological networks through nature restoration?
- How do we deploy emerging technologies to move from post-disease/outbreak surveillance to pre-emergence surveillance and mitigation of risks?
- What is needed to further understand the value of plants and the wider environment to society, and how is this relationship eroded by pests and disease?
- What is the UK’s long-term requirement for natural resources from global markets? Which resources are exposed to production/supply risks owing to geopolitical, macro-economic, pandemic, or environment factors and what are the likely impacts of change to the UK economy?
- How can local planning for nature-based solutions be best reconciled with regional and national strategies? What are the most effective ways to combine place-based participatory approaches with evidence and analysis of the likely effectiveness of nature-based solutions?
- What are the trade-offs between primary resource extraction versus reclamation of resources from waste streams in the context of resource security? How circular can the UK economy become?
- How can we effectively use nature on our land to help provide the services we need (carbon uptake, flood defence, resilience through biodiversity, clean air and water, recreation for public health and so on) and balance the provision of these services?
- How do we maximise the various benefits of nature-based solutions, and address any trade-offs and associated risks, through our plans for nature recovery, afforestation, peatland restoration, natural flood management, and improved water quality?
- How can we understand better land/sea interactions?
- What is needed to enhance or create natural areas to provide nature-based solutions?
- What are the broader environmental consequences of changes to the housing and planning system, and what is needed to support a lower-carbon future?
- How to optimize the deployment of different nature-based solutions to realise their various benefits and avoid negative outcomes (for example some tree planting on peatland)?
- As well as modelling and understanding major land use change (for example from agriculture to forestry), how can we understand the effects of more subtle changes in land management across wide areas (for example changing tillage practice)?
- How can a more strategic approach to land use be developed through aligning climate change objectives (adaptation and mitigation) with objectives for biodiversity and ecosystem services? How can the environmental co-benefits of mitigation actions be identified and quantified?
- How will agriculture affect the resilience to climate change of surrounding habitats and communities- for example water availability, flooding, land use change, chemical harm on ecosystem functions related to climate resilience?
- How will crop, livestock, and woodland resilience alter in the future, impacting optimal agricultural and forestry practices for the UK? What practices and policies can we develop to drive adaptation?
- How can society and government act to protect and enhance nature, thereby sustaining the ecosystem services (including mitigation and adaptation to climate change) it provides, under a changing climate?
- How can we balance different interests at local and national levels, to provide the resources we need, reduce degradation of natural capital and improve the state of the environment?
- How can the UK develop measurement of carbon fluxes from different habitats and farming systems which are in different conditions and using different management approaches? This is especially relevant for peatland and coastal habitats
- What is the GHG emissions reductions potential from different land-based interventions per unit area per year, how will natural carbon sources and sinks evolve in the future, and what are their timeframes for delivery from implementation? For example, what levels of emissions reductions can be achieved by actions within the new Environmental Land Management Scheme’s outcomes framework, and from forestry, and over what time frames are these delivered?
- How will natural habitats and systems respond to accelerating rate of change, including woodlands, soils, freshwater ecosystems, and marine systems? What will be the implications of these responses on managing the risks and impacts of climate change, and what inevitable changes will we have to accept in our ecosystems?
- How do you incentivise collective efforts to improve resilience capabilities locally (and in a context of scarce resources)?
- How can we improve the management of our ecosystems, including biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, environmental degradation, and the introduction of alien species, to reduce the risk of infectious zoonotic, animal, and plant diseases?
- Improve fish stock assessments over a greater range of species and improve management of freshwater, migratory, and marine fisheries, and protected species
- Assess socio-economic information to support and incentivise a change to secure the long-term sustainability of seafood exploitation whilst reducing the environmental impact of exploitation
- Determine the socio-economic costs of plastic litter on marine wildlife, ecosystems, and maritime industries. The costs incurred from changing to other materials, including the potential benefits to be made from new industries including small medium-size enterprise.
- Consistent and long-term environmental monitoring: Time-series increase in value for ecology and policy making as they grow in length. Decades of data are required to answer emerging questions around, for example, climate change impacts on biodiversity and the efficacy of management measures
- How can we model existing data from human, animal, plant, and environmental health indicators to better understand the interconnection and potential impacts of climate change?
- How can a One Health approach promote a cultural change to curb the expansion of illegal wildlife trafficking and implement solutions that will ultimately benefit humans and the planet, galvanising the role of protected species conservation and biodiversity on disease prevention and mitigation?
- Which practises can most effectively reduce emissions of GHG (including CH4 and N2O) from agriculture, waste, and wastewater, land-use, and F-gases in the UK and internationally?