Browsing by Author "Davies, J. A. C."

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Ecosystem service delivery by urban agriculture and green infrastructure – a systematic review
    (Elsevier, 2022-02-11) Evans, Daniel L.; Falagán Sama, Natalia; Hardman, C. A.; Kourmpetli, Sofia; Liu, L.; Mead, B. R.; Davies, J. A. C.
    The ability for urban ecosystems to deliver provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services is vital for the health, sustainability, and resilience of urban environments. The increasing pressures being placed on urban environments by global climate change and the need to create sustainable food systems contributes to rising interest in green infrastructure and urban agriculture solutions. Yet, few studies have systematically assessed the ecosystem service provision of urban agriculture and green infrastructure in parallel. In this systematic review of 157 peer-reviewed journal articles, we synthesize the benefits and disbenefits of implementing various forms of urban agriculture and green infrastructure for the delivery of ecosystem services in urban areas. While both provide a diverse variety of ecosystem services, our review suggests that some services are provided more prevalently when green infrastructure is solely adopted (e.g., Local Climate and Air Quality Regulation), while other services are best delivered when green infrastructure is combined with urban agriculture (e.g., Biological Control and Maintenance of Genetic Diversity). Our data also show that ecosystem service delivery is partly modulated by the spaces in which urban growing takes place. Community Gardens, Green Spaces, Allotments, and Parks are found to be most conducive for diverse service provision, although it is also clear that some growing spaces have not been studied as frequently in urban ecosystem service research. We conclude by highlighting some key research gaps and priorities for urban ecosystem service research, including a stronger focus on under-represented services and growing spaces, the need for more systematic data collection, and the value of incorporating ecosystem service assessments into wider suitability and cost-benefit analyses.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    How the composition of sandstone matrices affects rates of soil formation
    (Elsevier, 2021-07-10) Evans, Daniel L.; Quinton, John Norman; Tye, A. M.; Rodés, Á.; Rushton, J. C.; Davies, J. A. C.; Mudd, S. M.
    Soils deliver multiple ecosystem services and their long-term sustainability is fundamentally controlled by the rates at which they form and erode. Our knowledge and understanding of soil formation is not commensurate with that of soil erosion, in part due to the difficulty of measuring the former. However, developments in cosmogenic radionuclide accumulation models have enabled soil scientists to more accurately constrain the rates at which soils form from bedrock. To date, all three major rock types – igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic lithologies – have been examined in such work. Soil formation rates have been measured and compared between these rock types, but the impact of rock characteristics on soil formation rates, such as rock matrices and mineralogy, have seldom been explored. In this UK-based study, we used cosmogenic radionuclide analysis to investigate whether the lithological variability of sandstone governs pedogenesis. Soil formation rates were measured on two arable hillslopes at Woburn and Hilton, which are underlain by different types of arenite sandstone. Rates were faster at Woburn, and we suggest that this is due to the fact that the Woburn sandstone formation is less cemented that that at Hilton. Similarly, rates at Woburn and Hilton were found to be faster than those measured at two other sandstone-based sites in the UK, and faster than those compiled in a global inventory of cosmogenic studies on sandstone-based soils. We suggest that the cementing agents present in matrix-abundant wackes studied previously may afford these sandstones greater structural integrity and resistance to weathering. This work points to the importance of factoring bedrock matrices into our understanding of soil formation rates, and the biogeochemical cycles these underpin
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Long-term increases in soil carbon due to ecosystem fertilization by atmospheric nitrogen deposition demonstrated by regional-scale modelling and observations
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2017-05-15) Tipping, Edward; Davies, J. A. C.; Henrys, P. A.; Kirk, Guy J. D.; Lilly, Allan; Dragosits, U.; Carnell, Edward J.; Dore, A. J.; Sutton, M. A.; Tomlinson, S. J.
    Fertilization of nitrogen (N)-limited ecosystems by anthropogenic atmospheric nitrogen deposition (Ndep) may promote CO2 removal from the atmosphere, thereby buffering human effects on global radiative forcing. We used the biogeochemical ecosystem model N14CP, which considers interactions among C (carbon), N and P (phosphorus), driven by a new reconstruction of historical Ndep, to assess the responses of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in British semi-natural landscapes to anthropogenic change. We calculate that increased net primary production due to Ndep has enhanced detrital inputs of C to soils, causing an average increase of 1.2 kgCm−2 (c. 10%) in soil SOC over the period 1750–2010. The simulation results are consistent with observed changes in topsoil SOC concentration in the late 20th Century, derived from sample-resample measurements at nearly 2000 field sites. More than half (57%) of the additional topsoil SOC is predicted to have a short turnover time (c. 20 years), and will therefore be sensitive to future changes in Ndep. The results are the first to validate model predictions of Ndep effects against observations of SOC at a regional field scale. They demonstrate the importance of long-term macronutrient interactions and the transitory nature of soil responses in the terrestrial C cycle.