Science Newsletter Issue 22 – December 2017 ______

Scottish Natural Heritage Science Newsletter Issue 22 – December 2017 ______

In this issue: Page

 Welcome from the SNH Chairman 2  Circulation of SNH Science newsletter 2  Causes of decline of common scoter in North Scotland 3  Seed collecting in Scotland 2017 4  Coring for Carbon: The buried benefit of Saltmarsh restoration 5  The ecology of black guillemots in relation to marine renewable energy developments 6  A ditch in time… 8  SNH Blogs 10  Conferences and meetings 10  SNH Staff profile 12  SAC Expert Panel member profile 12

Welcome from the SNH Chairman Mike Cantlay

SNH has a long-standing, excellent reputation for careful and thorough use of evidence and science to support its policy and advice. As the new Chairman of SNH, I want to build on that reputation to strengthen SNH’s science capability and to ensure that future advice we give is securely founded on the best available evidence. To ensure this, we need to continue to build scientific capability within SNH and also to strengthen our relationships and collaborations with external scientific bodies, including universities, research institutes, and the scientific staff of other agencies and NGOs. There are many ways to achieve this. SNH holds large quantities of environmental data, often in the form of long-term monitoring, and we are keen to share this resource with researchers. We have a very productive PhD studentship programme with SNH staff co-supervising postgraduates based in many universities, frequently carrying out research that helps us understand the many new challenges facing us all. Sound science and clear evidence underpin our key role in protecting Scotland’s nature while supporting sustainable development, and making Scotland a better place for everyone privileged to be in Scotland. And remember, science is great glue for joining nature and people.

Circulation of SNH Science newsletter Lynne Clark

As we approach the end of the year and due to recent changes in data protection, we’re requesting that all recipients of the SNH Science newsletter, who would like to continue to receive future issues, should please send a short email to [email protected] to confirm they are willing to continue to receive this publication. If I do not here back from you, your name will be removed from the distribution list at the end of the year. The Newsletter is made available on our website, so there is no need for us to send you a copy, but it may help if we notify you of its publication.

Causes of decline of Common scoter (Melanitta nigra) in North Scotland: Evidence from Palaeolimnology Andy Douse

The common scoter is rare breeding bird of nutrient poor lochs throughout Scotland. Once widespread it has declined markedly in recent years and now only occurs in significant numbers in two areas: the Caithness Flows and West Inverness Lochs (especially Loch Garry and Loch 2

Loyne). The driving factors behind this decline are unknown and probably vary across different parts of Scotland. In order to understand changes in the Caithness Flows population, a PhD project was established to look at the environmental history of the Caithness Flow lochs used by scoters (past and present) by investigating the palaeolimnology of these lochs. Funded and supervised by University College London, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the Natural History Museum, with a financial contribution from SNH, the student (Hannah Robson) has just successfully completed her PhD.

Eighteen lochs were initially studied, with four lochs selected for more research. Changes in scoter numbers were compared with environmental changes shown by loch cores. All lochs varied considerably across time, with marked changes in water chemistry and invertebrate community composition. No clear causal factor was found that was associated with scoter decline but two hypotheses were developed to explain the decline. Competition with fish populations through reduced invertebrate abundance has been highlighted as one potential driver of change, but no evidence was found to support this hypothesis. In contrast, evidence was found that marked nutrient enrichment and changes in the invertebrate community have occurred in tandem with increasing afforestation of the Caithness Flows. Palaeolimnological evidence strongly supports the theory that forestry has affected the lochs of the Flow Country. The lochs appear to be becoming less oligotrophic, particularly since the 1980s. The associated shifts in invetebrate community composition could make the lochs less profitable or suitable for common scoter, a species that typically chooses low nutrient, oligotrophic sites.

Information : [email protected]

Seed Collecting in Scotland 2017 Stephanie Miles, Kew Gardens and Richard Lansdown

The UK Flora Project is part of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Millennium Seed Bank’s (MSB) activities in the UK. The MSB cold rooms currently hold seeds of 96% of the bankable native flora and this resource is made available for research, education and conservation programmes. The aim of the project is to make collections from the species that are missing from our conservation collections, together with a focus on sampling from multiple populations of the UK’s most threatened flora.

The project is working with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland specialist botanists. This is the penultimate collecting season for this project and the remainder of the missing species are either difficult to find, shy flowering or have peculiar reproductive strategies meaning that seed are either challenging to collect or have not been found in sufficient quantity to justify a collection.

Ecologist Richard Lansdown from Ardeola Environmetal has been pursuing some of these species in Scotland over the last two years. His fieldwork experiences from a few days in August 2017 are described below, providing an overview of the challenges and rewards of carrying out fieldwork.

The trip started in Loch Lomond where RSPB showed an extensive but sadly non-flowering populations of tufted loosestrife (Lysimachia thyrsiflora). Next it was on to Perthshire making collections from species such as few-flowered sedge (Carex pauciflora), few-flowered spike- rush (Eleocharis quinqueflora), both living up to their names but happily occurring as very large populations enabling good seed collection.

Fruiting heads of Carex pauciflora, Rannoch Moor

Moving on to Insh Marshes where local information enabled successful location of strong populations of string sedge (Carex chordorrhiza) and narrow small-reed (Calamagrostis stricta). String sedge is an intriguing species, it has only ever been found at a total of two sites in the UK, both in Scotland, however it appears to be increasing in its stronghold at Insh.

Up to Wick and Durness before heading back south to Glen Clova, collecting Blysmus rufus, Calamagrostis scotica, Eleocharis uniglumis and another endemic subspecies of lesser spearwort (Ranunculus flammula subsp. minimus) on the way. At Glen Clova I spent a day in Corrie Sharroch and Corrie Fee, where, thanks to detailed and informative help from SNH staff, small collections of intermediate water-starwort (Callitriche brutia var. hamulata), black alpine sedge (Carex atrata), close-headed alpine sedge (C. norvegica), three-flowered rush (Juncus triglumis) and alpine meadow-rue (Thalictrum alpinum), were made, as well as a large collection of stiff sedge (Carex bigelowii). Finally heading back south wandering through Perthshire, collecting autumnal water-starwort (Callitriche hermaphroditica), lesser tussock-sedge (Carex diandra), eight-stamened waterwort (Elatine hydropiper) and perfoliate pondweed (Potamogeton perfoliatus) The trip ended on a high with a fortuitous collection of narrow-fruited water-starwort (Callitriche palustris) which appears to represent the first record of this species from West Perthshire.

For our work in Scotland, we are very grateful to SNH staff for help with contact details for access to various sites, as well as to the owners and managers. In particular, we would like to thank RSPB for access to many of their sites.

Information: Stephane Miles ([email protected]) and Richard Lansdown ([email protected])

Coring for Carbon: The Buried Benefit of Saltmarsh Restoration Ben Taylor, Clare Maynard and David Paterson, Sediment Ecology Research Group, University of St Andrews

A PhD project supported by Scottish Natural Heritage and MASTS (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) is assessing the carbon capture rates of the fringe saltmarshes in the Eden Estuary, near St Andrews in Scotland. The ability of saltmarshes to store carbon is well-known, but understanding how much carbon capture is increased after restoration will help to determine the effectiveness of saltmarsh restoration as a carbon store and ‘natural capital asset’.

Scottish saltmarshes account for an estimated 15% of the UK’s total extent and are present on 3% of Scotland’s coast. These ecosystems biodiversity value, and are important for, nutrient provision and carbon sequestration. These valuable areas are experiencing losses in extent; estimated to be 2% per year. Therefore, the need to understand, conserve and restore saltmarshes is of increasing importance. The Eden Estuary, Fife has been a site of such long- term conservation efforts for over 15 years. Restoration has taken the form of transplantation of Bolboschoenus maritimus (Figure 1) from donor marshes within the estuary onto un-vegetated upper mudflats, encouraging the spread or growth of new swards of saltmarsh. The resulting alterations to local conditions has been studied to quantify the climate change mitigation potential of this work through (potentially) enhanced carbon storage. The study compares ‘business as usual’ scenarios (i.e. bare mudflat and natural saltmarsh extent) with restored areas, quantifying changes from the status quo.

Figure 1. A ‘carbon capture’ site of transplanted Bolboschoenus maritimus in the Eden Estuary. Notice the permenant marker stakes in the first image have become incorporated into the vegetation in the second image.

Several methods were used to record the carbon sequestration rates and storage efficiency in each of the areas. One aimed to quantify the total carbon stock of the different area types. This was achieved through the extraction of sediment cores more than half a meter deep with a mechanical corer. Sampling was carried out in natural marsh dominated by Puccinellia maritima, in established restored marsh (over 15 years old) and on adjacent bare mudflat. Depth profiles of bulk density and carbon content of the sediments were created from sectioned cores.

Preliminary results suggest that natural marsh stores the most carbon, and the data indicate that areas of restoration are sequestering and storing more carbon than the adjacent mudflat (Figure 2). A common trend across all the areas was a low percentage carbon content below 40 cm, suggesting a limit to the influence of vegetation on sedimentary carbon storage in these areas. Data processing continues to quantify the extent of carbon storage benefit afforded by 5 restoration, considering soil bulk density, these initial data suggest that restored areas may offer similar carbon storage functioning to natural marshes.

% Carbon content

(cm) depth Sediment

Figure 1. Percentage carbon content profiles: natural marsh (green); restored area (red) and mudflat (brown). All images © Ben Taylor

The ecology of black guillemots in relation to marine renewable energy developments Daniel Johnston, Environmental Research Institute, North Highland College, University of the Highlands and Islands

On the seafloor of the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth, 398 tidal stream turbines have been proposed for construction within the MeyGen tidal lease area (3km2, situated 0.5km offshore). Phase 1 of the MeyGen development included the construction of four submerged tidal turbines in Winter 2016/17, with four more turbines planned for construction in 2018, and a further 49 to be added by 2022. By 2022 the Inner Sound could be producing 73.5 MW renewable energy, and 597MW if 398 turbines are installed. However, it is important to consider environmental sustainability during the generation of renewable energy and this should apply to the construction and operation of renewable energy devices. The introduction of benthic-mounted tidal turbines to the Pentland Firth may cause changes in the tidally dynamic inshore environment by altering current flow and sedimentation patterns, and through the creation of reefs. For seabirds, these changes may modify foraging habitat, and tidal turbine structures may pose a collision risk to diving species. Black guillemots (Cepphus grille), a benthic-foraging seabird, commonly associated with tidal currents and which dives to depths overlapping with turbine rotor blades, may be particularly vulnerable to impacts of tidal turbines. However, little is known regarding the extent these devices will affect black guillemots.

My PhD is funded by SNH and the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS) and is addressing this knowledge gap by investigating the foraging ecology of the black guillemot breeding populations of Stroma (adjacent to the MeyGen tidal lease site) and North Ronaldsay, Orkney. This PhD is supervised by Dr. Elizabeth Masden (ERI), Prof. Robert Furness (MacArthur-Green), Dr. Alexandra Robbins (SNH), and Dr. Mark Taggart (ERI). Using GPS tracking technology, coupled with camera traps and visual observations for intensive diet study, this project aims to identify the foraging habitat of adult breeding black guillemots in tidally dynamic areas. This will be achieved by exploring the links between foraging behaviour, tidal currents, prey species and benthic habitat.

From initial visual inspection of GPS data retrieved from 35 individuals tagged across the 2016 and 2017 breeding seasons, there is clear variation in foraging site preferences. On both Stroma and North Ronaldsay some individuals appear to associate closely with tidal processes, potentially tide direction and areas of upwelling such as eddies. On Stroma, this association with the tidal stream brought some individuals within close proximity to the MeyGen lease area. On the other hand, some individuals appeared to prefer Scapa Flow, undertaking a journey greater than 24km to their foraging grounds, the furthest foraging distances recorded for black guillemots.

Ongoing analyses of GPS derived foraging locations focuses on the relationship between tidal currents, benthic habitat, and prey species. More specifically, relationships between foraging (in space and time) and tidal dynamics (such as velocity and turbulent kinetic energy dissipation) will be investigated closely. This will provide an insight into the conditions associated with foraging, allowing comparison with conditions suggested to be altered by turbine installation.

Figure 2 - GPS tracks of two individual black Plate 1 - Black guillemot with fish. guillemots (denoted by colour) from Stroma. MeyGen is coloured in red.

Information: [email protected]

A ditch in time… Phil Baarda

One of the SNH’s many successes in the Central Belt in recent years has been the delivery of the £2.3m EcoCoLIFE project. Starting in September 2014, this four-year project – funded by the EU LIFE programme, SNH and other partners – is charged with ‘improving ecological coherence across the Central Scotland Green Network (CSGN) area’, and by doing this in ‘innovative’ ways. Some of this innovation is now reaching fruition.

This idea of innovation is central to the whole project rationale. Ecological Coherence itself is a poorly understood concept, and has arguably not really been adequately addressed throughout the EU to date. A key element of this is to understand how patches of similar habitat are connected functionally or structurally, and a basic premise of the project was to assess this across the CSGN area for four habitats (‘peatland’, ‘wetland’, ‘freshwater’ and brownfield/Open Mosaic habitat), and to improve their ecological coherence by targeted habitat creation and land management in the most beneficial places.

‘Most beneficial places’, again, is something innovative that the EU LIFE programme is particularly keen to see; where both people and wildlife benefit. The project has been developing an Ecological Coherence Protocol which helps identify current habitat connectivity and where management could be implemented, AND areas where land management would also improve ecosystem services and socio-economic benefits – with best value, cost effectiveness and sustainability also key. The Protocol has been tested, and has proved to be extremely effective. It is currently being refined and re-tested, and further information on its use and application is forthcoming. One of the likely applications is in supporting the implementation the National Ecological Network.

Innovation cuts across the whole project – not just in identifying and planning action of the ground, but also in much of the management work itself. For example, the project has bought a ‘Softrak’; a low ground pressure ‘cut and collect’ machine that can access hitherto inaccessible and sensitive wetlands and bogs - the first one in public ownership in Scotland – and is training up a number of operators from external organisations so that sites across the Central Belt (and further afield) can continue to be managed after the project has finished.

At Flanders Moss NNR, the project has been also been testing three new methods of restoring the peatland habitat. These are: ‘stump flipping’, ‘leaky dams’, and ‘double ditching’.

During the late 1990s, a conifer plantation was felled along the edge of the Moss, though the remaining tree stumps, and the ridges and furrows, have hindered return of the water table nearer to the Moss’s surface. Mulching scrub and stump grinding proved to be reasonably effective in filling the furrows and levelling the ground, but was very expensive (£3k to £5k per ha). Stump flipping, as the name suggests, involves using the Softrak to turn the tree stumps upside down, and then driving over the them to form a ‘plug’ which helps block the furrow. This technique is simpler, quicker (0.5ha a day), cheaper (around £1k per hectare), doesn’t need any particularly specialised equipment, and seems to allow much more rapid re-vegetation by sphagnum. The completed work has the added benefit of the site looking much more quickly ‘naturalised’ than by other methods.

Plate 1. Successful ‘stump flipping’, a couple of years after the work

The experimental ‘leaky dams’ at Flanders Moss use wood chips – which are cut and mulched from nearby scrub, and dumped by the project’s Softrak upstream of plastic piling dams. The leaky dams don’t completely stop water flow, but they slow it down sufficiently to allow sphagnum to proliferate over time – which becomes self-damming. This ensures and safeguards an increasingly high water table – on-going and sustainably – when the piling dam eventually fails in time. This also has the advantage that the newly-proliferated sphagnum dam can hold back a larger hydrostatic head that might otherwise cause a ‘traditional’ plastic piling dam to fail – plus it uses a by-product of another bog improvement operation, on-site.

Plate 2. A leaky woodchip dam – retaining water on the right

The ‘double ditching’ is not unique to Flanders per se, but the technique used has been adapted for the Moss’s unique circumstances. This work took place in an area that was ditched and drained up to 200 years ago. As the ditch was so old, it had dried over a long period of time resulting in slumping and cracking of the peat up to 30 metres away from the ditch and parallel

9 to it, causing accelerated loss of bog habitat and exacerbated drainage of the peat. ‘Normal’ plastic piling dams would simply have diverted water into these cracks, and so be ineffective. A detailed plan was drawn up to use a deep trench bund to slow water flow into the ditch, and the main ditch dammed with plastic piling, coupled with the cracks sealed with peat dams. The work also needed to accommodate a resident adder population – they used the dry ridge from the original 19th century ditch as a hibernaculum – and it was fundamentally necessary to ensure the new dams and water levels were at precisely the right height to prevent water loss and flooding on the surrounding farmland.

These techniques are being applied alongside others by Peatland Action team, and will be compiled as Best Practice Guides to aid future peatland management within Scotland and the rest of the UK, and potentially across the rest of the peatland world!

There’s more information about Flanders Moss via the NNR webpages: http://www.nnr- scotland.org.uk/flanders-moss/

For further details about the EcoCoLIFE project, see https://www.ecocolife.org.uk/

Information: [email protected]

SNH Blogs

A number of our blogs have interesting scientific material, and can be found under SNH’s blog page - Scotland’s Nature:

Saltmarshes on the fringe = https://scotlandsnature.wordpress.com/2017/11/14/saltmarshes-on- the-fringe/

Scotland’s geodiversity charter = https://scotlandsnature.wordpress.com/2017/11/13/scotlands- geodiversity-charter-recognising-and-celebrating-the-influence-that-geology-has-on-society/

Sand quarry supporting biodiversity = https://scotlandsnature.wordpress.com/2017/11/07/a- sand-quarry-supporting-biodiversity/

Autumn gems in your lawn – our grassland fungi = https://scotlandsnature.wordpress.com/2017/10/09/autumn-gems-in-your-lawn-our-grassland- fungi/

Autumn leaves / climate change = https://scotlandsnature.wordpress.com/2017/10/16/autumn- shock-leaves-eat-rocks/

Conferences and meetings

Tuesday 27th February, 2018 – Scotland’s Land: Successes and Failures, Challenges and Solutions joint lecture, Royal Society Edinburgh

This talk will begin by celebrating Scotland’s natural assets. It will question whether all that has happened in recent times has been beneficial and whether we would now have acted differently. The key inherited and current challenges will be addressed, including the industrialisation of land use and ignorance of natural processes, lack of space for nature and species debates. Further information: https://www.rse.org.uk/event/joint-annual-rsescrr-peter-wilson-lecture- scotlands-land-successes-and-failures-challenges-and-solutions/

20-21 March 2018, The 3rd Annual Scottish Ecology, Environment and Conservation Conference 2018 at University of St Andrews. Theme - “The environment of Scotland in the next 50 years.”

We present the third ‘Scottish Ecology, Conservation and Environment’ conference geared towards advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students. It offers fantastic opportunities to present and hear about the very best of research work, and to meet with government staff, agencies, NGOs and researchers keen to make the best use of excellent research. Feedback from previous conferences has been excellent so we know this is THE conference to go to as an enthusiastic student or researcher keen to contribute to a better environmental future in Scotland.

The program will consist of:

1. Student talks and posters to give an opportunity to share research and ideas

2. Two plenary talks (Dr John Armstrong, Marine Scotland Science Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory & Nicola Melville, Senior Scientist with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency)

3. A panel debate including a politician, landowner, fisheries scientist, rewilding expert, landscape sustainability planner and environmental consultant to discuss what Scotland should look like environmentally in 50 years’ time. Chaired by Sally Thomas, Director of Policy and Advice, SNH.

4. A poster, pizza and networking event to allow students to meet both academics and employers informally

5. Career desks to provide an opportunity for key agency/NGO staff to be on hand to offer advice – SNH, SEPA, Forestry Commission Scotland, RSPB, British Trust for Ornithology, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and Natural Research have already agreed to come.

Registration is free and includes all refreshments; there will also be a range of options for overnight accommodation which we will outline with the official registration email.

So please put these two days in your diary – March 20th and 21st 2018 – we will send a more specific email out mid-January with a website address where we will post all the details. We will then also be accepting abstracts for student talks and posters. We will be offering 3 and 6 minute slots for talks and will have a competition for anyone who wants to do one of the two student plenary talks of 25 minutes.

The St Andrews SEECC 2018 organising committee: Will Cresswell, Faith Jones, Faye Moyes and Rob Patchett.

SNH Staff Profile Sally Thomas

Sally Thomas joined SNH in 2017 as Director of Policy and Advice. Sally was previously head of the Scottish Government Land Use and Biodiversity Team and has extensive experience working with Defra and the other devolved administrations, public agencies, NGOs and the third sector to develop and deliver Scotland’s ambitions with regard to land use and biodiversity. This includes Scotland’s international obligations under the Aichi targets. Previous roles in Government have included leading the implementation of Part 1 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 relating to access, the development of Scottish landscape policy, and embedding the concept of an ecosystems approach into Scottish Government policy. Prior to working on strategic environmental policy Sally undertook roles in Scottish Government relating to health, private finance initiatives, maritime state aids and sustainable transport. Sally is a Chartered Town Planner and worked for many years in local Government policy planning before joining the civil service. She has a degree in Town Planning from Heriot Watt University and completed a Masters in Environment, Culture and Society at the University of Edinburgh in 2016. Sally is a trustee of the Andrew Raven Trust.

SAC Expert Panel member Profile Prof Richard Ennos

Richard Ennos is a Professor of Ecological Genetics and now Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. His broad research interests centre on the integration of genetic and evolutionary approaches into ecology, with special emphasis on how this can contribute to better guidance for conservation and management of plant, and particularly forest tree populations. Much of Richard’s research has been based in Scotland and has involved native plants (twinflower, aspen, Arran whitebeams) and communities (native woodlands) of conservation concern. Current interest is in developing sound policies for facilitating genetic adaptation of native tree populations to the twin threats posed by climate change and emerging pathogens. Richard has long running collaborations with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and Forest Research. He is also a visiting Professor at SRUC.

Click to see some highlights from SNH for 2017: https://arcg.is/aGXLi

SNH Science newsletter

Editor: Lynne Clark, [email protected]