Browsing by Author "Bradley, R. Ian"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Carbon losses from all soils across England and Wales 1978−200
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2005-09-08T00:00:00Z) Bellamy, Patricia H.; Loveland, Peter J.; Bradley, R. Ian; Lark, R. Murray; Kirk, Guy J. D.
    Most terrestrial carbon is held in soils, more than twice as much as in vegetation or the atmosphere 1 , and changes in soil carbon content can have a large effect on the global carbon budget. The possibility that climate change is being reinforced by increased carbon dioxide emissions from soils with rising temperature is the subject of a continuing debate 29 . But to date evidence for the suggested feedback mechanism has come solely from small-scale laboratory and field experiments and modelling studies 29 . Here we use data from the National Soil Inventory of England and Wales obtained between 1978 and 2003 to show that carbon was lost from soils across England and Wales over the survey period at a mean rate of 0.6 per cent per year (relative to the existing soil carbon content). We find that the relative rate of carbon loss increased with soil carbon content and was more than two per cent per year in soils with carbon contents greater than 100 grams per kilogram. The relationship between rate of loss and carbon content held across the whole country and across all forms of land use suggesting a link to climate change. Our findings indicate that losses of soil carbon in England and Wales, and by inference other temperate regions, are likely to have been offsetting absorption of carbon by terrestrial si
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Irrigation Demand and On-Farm Water Conservation in England and Wales
    (1997-01-01T00:00:00Z) Weatherhead, E. K.; Knox, Jerry W.; Morris, Joe; Hess, Tim M.; Bradley, R. Ian; Sanders, Catherine L.
    The study confirmed that water use for agricultural irrigation is increasing, both in area irrigated and depths applied, and is increasingly concentrated on the more valuable crops. Underlying volumetric growth was 3% per annum from 1982 to 1995. On-farm reservoir capacity doubled from 1990 to 1995, but 90% of the water still came from summer abstraction in 1995, mostly from rivers and streams.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    A land information system for Turkey - a key to the country's sustainable development
    (Elsevier, 2003-07) Hallett, Stephen H.; Ozden, D. M.; Keay, C. M.; Koral, A.; Keskin, S.; Bradley, R. Ian
    This paper describes the development by the General Directorate of Rural Services (GDRS) of a land information system for Turkey, namely the National Soil and Water Information System. It is of great significance for the modern state of Turkey as, prior to its establishment in 1999 under the Turkish Agricultural Research Project, there was no definitive, national technological information resource underpinning land and water resource management. The system will underpin the operational and research responsibilities of the Directorate in combating some of the pressing contemporary environmental concerns in Turkey, including wind and water erosion, waterlogging, sodicity and salination of the soil resource. The complex process of compiling the first national digital soil map will be among the initial tasks, as well as establishing a national infrastructure for distributing the information amongst GDRS managers and scientists. With the proposed accession of the Turkish Republic to the European Union, alignment of the National Soil and Water Information System with European standards and protocols will prove to be an important facet of its ongoing development.