Fen Farming Futures: Benefits and drawbacks of sustainable farming on organic soils

Project Highlights:

• The project will offer the opportunity to study alternative management options for the intensively farmed peatlands of the East Anglian Fens, now recognised as being the largest source of land-based greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, and to work with local farmers and Cambridgeshire County Council (major land owner in the Fens and CASE partner).
• It will combine an extensive programme of field measurements with in-depth analysis of peat geochemistry and peat microbial communities.
• The project aims to produce the first comparison of peatland under business-as-usual versus sustainable, ‘regenerative’ farming by exploring differences in soil greenhouse gas emissions, soil chemistry and biology, to establish how these are affected by land-use. Data will be used to provide science-based evidence for climate change mitigation schemes.

Overview

In England, lowland peat occupies around 960 km² and stores large amounts of carbon. Nearly all lowland fen peatland has been drained to provide some of the most fertile agricultural soils in the UK. However, drainage has resulted in loss of peat (with rates of ~1 cm/yr under intensive agriculture) and associated high CO₂ emissions. Until recently, there had been limited scientific focus on the greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes from lowland peatlands, but recent studies involving several of the supervisors have highlighted their scale, with intensively farmed lowland peatlands now known to be the largest land-based source of GHG emissions in the UK (Figure 1). To date, almost no research has been undertaken on agricultural management options to reduce C loss and GHG emissions whilst also improving soil health. This project provides a unique opportunity to study the effects of implementing more sustainable farming management practices on soil and climate security. An improved understanding of the strategies available for fenland farmers will provide important insights as to whether alternative agricultural management strategies on peat soils can provide emissions mitigation and other co-benefits, in comparison to conventional land management. This will provide data which will help inform landscape-scale feasibility planning for reduced GHG emissions, improved biodiversity, natural reserves, and ecosystem CO₂ uptake by the CASE partner, Cambridgeshire County Council who are a major agricultural land-owner in the Fens.

Methodology:

The PhD will measure soil respiration in situ using a Licor 8100 field CO₂ and H₂O analyser, at replicated sites under conventional and modified agricultural management in the Fens. Samples will be collected for characterisation of peat physical, hydrological, geochemical and microbiological properties to gain mechanistic understanding of controls on GHG fluxes and influence of different farming techniques on soil health. Organic geochemical analyses will be undertaken at UoL, including pyrolysis GCMS and FTIR, with comparisons to data from other lowland peat land sites. Taxonomic richness and microbial community structure will be analysed via high-throughput DNA sequencing and bioinformatics at the NHM, and compared to existing sequencing data from other temperate peatland sites. The student will also work with the CASE partner (Cambridgeshire County Council) to analyse and interpret Earth Observation (EO) data, allowing upscaling of site-based observations in relation to the potential for large-scale land-use change.

For more details of the CENTA consortium please see the CENTA website: www.centa.org.uk.

Entry requirements:

Applicants are required to hold/or expect to obtain a UK Bachelor Degree 2:1 or better in a relevant subject or overseas equivalent.

The University of Leicester English language requirements apply where applicable.

Application advice:

To apply please refer to

https://le.ac.uk/study/research-degrees/funded-opportunities/centa-phd-studentships

Project / Funding Enquiries to: [Email Address Removed] or [Email Address Removed]