Drones, DNA profiling and ultra-sensitive listening devices are being deployed in conservation efforts safeguarding the UK’s forests as the battle to reverse biodiversity decline and manage climate change goes hi-tech.
Forestry England (FE) is gathering data on the variety of wildlife in some of its 1,500 woodlands at an unprecedented pace and level of detail.
The body is harvesting environmental DNA – genetic material shed by organisms in an ecosystem – from soil, water and air samples to build a picture of the range of species across 21 forests.
Results from four months of sampling have revealed more than 5,000 unique species of fungi – more than have been found in the last century using traditional sampling methods – alongside 1,000 species of invertebrates.
The data will create a new biodiversity baseline enabling FE to monitor the success of its conservation work.
Meanwhile, bioacoustic listening devices have been installed in four wild areas in Somerset, Dorset, North Yorkshire and Northumberland. The technology is being used to track bumblebee activity by listening to the sound of their wings in flight.
Andrew Stringer, Forestry England head of environment and nature recovery, called the fungi and invertebrate data ‘mind-blowing’ and said the new techniques represented a step-change in its biodiversity monitoring work.
“These emerging technologies mean soon we’ll have ‘weather stations for nature’ throughout the nation’s forests telling us what is happening to nature at a level of detail we’ve never had before,” Stringer added.
These emerging technologies mean soon we’ll have ‘weather stations for nature’ throughout the nation’s forests
FE said the work is part of a new approach to forestry in wild spaces, ‘putting landscape-scale nature restoration at the forefront.’
Elsewhere, the Woodland Trust has been using laser scanning technology to create 3D models of some of the UK’s most famous veteran oaks. The project builds a digital archive of these living arboreal legends as well as informing future conservation efforts and helping scientists better understand the carbon capture potential of ancient trees.
And in Scotland, drones have been used to repopulate barren hillsides with native birch by carpet-bombing slopes beside the A38 with tens of millions of seeds. It’s hoped the work will reduce landslips and surface erosion.
Main image: Wild Neroche in Somerset, which is one of the four wild areas where Forestry England is using the biodiversity monitoring techniques. Credit: Forestry England/Crown copyright
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