Agri-Environment
The aim of our agri-environmental research is to understand interactions at the interface of Agriculture and the wider Environment. In undertaking such research, we aim to better understand how natural biotic and abiotic processes can by harnessed in the development of sustainable farming systems and land use practice. Effective management of our wider rural environment requires the integration and application of knowledge concerning fundamental biological and ecological processes at the ecosystem level. This is especially so in intensively managed systems of natural resource use including agriculture and forestry, but is equally true for the effective management of the ‘semi-natural’ ecosystems that have been created by older, more traditional forms of land management, including traditional agricultural systems. Our systems-based research strategically focuses on environments of national importance from both economic and wider ecological and aesthetic landscape perspectives including farmland, woodlands, wetlands and peatlands.
An essential feature of our system-based studies is the assessment of ongoing negative environmental impacts, and the application of fundamental ecological knowledge and derivation of information essential for the formulation of improved environmental policy to ensure sustainable resource use. Within studied ecosystems, important interactions include both natural and anthropogenic influences, including climate change and the relationships between land management practices, such as nutrient and pest and disease management, and wider environmental quality issues affecting natural resources (water, soil and air), biodiversity, landscape and ecosystem integrity. Current and/or recently completed large-scale projects specifically include:
- Ag-Biota (biodiversity in grass-based Irish agriculture – ERDTI),
- AE-Footprint (evaluation methodology for EU agri-environmental policy – EU/FP6)
- Agri-Baseline (baseline for evaluation of the impact of farming on biodiversity – DAFF),
- Bogland (sustainable peatlands management – ERTDI),
- CréBeo (sustainable soil management – ERDTI).
