Extensive coastal and floodplain wetlands were a feature of lowland Britain in the past, but there has been a 90% reduction since Roman times with consequent loss of biodiversity. The 25-year Environment Plan and associated initiatives around Nature Recovery Networks and rewilding envisage the restoration of some of these wetlands on a scale not previously seen.
Reintroduction guidelines dictate that in order to progress this species restoration agenda, clear information is needed on which species are genuinely native, where they occurred and what drove their extirpation, but this information is often lacking for many locally extinct species.
This project will focus on new technologies, which have transformed our ability to reconstruct past ecology, and could resolve many of the uncertainties about wetlands in the past. We will explore how eDNA in lake sediment cores can be used track changes in species presence at key sites over several hundred years. In addition, we will investigate the drivers of local species extinctions, specifically changes in available food sources (aquatic invertebrates) and resulting change in food web structure. This will be analysed via remains of invertebrates and their stable carbon/nitrogen isotope composition, extracted from dated sediment cores.
CASE partner Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), has a track record of work on wetland restoration and species recovery in the UK and around the globe. It has a number of UK wetland centres with captive populations and several long-term pond and wetland monitoring projects, providing the ideal setting to establish the pathways of DNA preservation and loss from animal to sediment under controlled conditions. Its wide range of wetland conservation projects will allow us to apply the methodology and the results of this project will be used directly to prioritise and plan future restoration projects.
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