Allan Watt

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology | CEH

The European Union (EU) 2020 Biodiversity strategy will soon come to an end and may not have been as successful as envisioned. In the current context of the global biodiversity crisis, the European Commission, the research community, and broader society cannot risk another, likely ineffective, attempt by the EU to halt biodiversity loss after 2020....

EKLIPSE has published the report, annexes and press release on Understanding farmer uptake of measures that support biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Science-policy interface organizations and initiatives (SPIORG) are a key component of environmental governance designed to make links between science and society. However, the science­policy interface literature lacks a structured approach to explaining the impacts of context on and by these initiatives. To better understand these impacts on and i...

With a web of different local actors, often with different perspectives and interests, turning ideas into practice for biodiversity often involves communicating, negotiating, bargaining and, therefore, argumentation. Within this process arguments are selected by actors, to achieve their goals, with varying levels of effectiveness. We examine the us...

To address the pressing problems associated with biodiversity loss, changes in awareness and behaviour are required from decision makers in all sectors. Science-policy interfaces (SPIs) have the potential to play an important role, and to achieve this effectively, there is a need to understand better the ways in which existing SPIs strive for effec...

The absence of a good interface between scientific and other knowledge holders and decision-makers in the area of biodiversity and ecosystem services has been recognised for a long time. Despite recent advancements, e.g. with the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), challenges remain, particularly concerning th...

This paper provides an analysis of the spectrum of arguments associated with the term biodiversity, as expressed in the literature. Through sampling of the grey and peer-review literature, and testing of results through semi-structured interviews, this review presents a total of 31 different instrumental and non-instrumental premises used in argume...

Growing pressure on natural resources is leading to more conservation conflicts. Governments and their statutory agencies devote increasing financial and human resources to this subject, but tend to adopt reactive, ad hoc approaches to management. 2.We combined theory and empirical data about five conservation conflicts in a transdisciplinary colla...

A better, more effective dialogue is needed between biodiversity science and policy to underpin the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity. Many initiatives exist to improve communication, but these largely conform to a ‘linear’ or technocratic model of communication in which scientific “facts” are transmitted directly to policy advisers...

Se estudió el efecto del contenido de nitrógeno, de los compuestos secundarios (taninos y prohantocianidinas) y de la materia seca de 4 clones de macadamia y de los diferentes estados de desarrollo de la nuez, sobre la abundancia de Gymnandrosoma aurantianum. El contenido de nitrógeno varió entre clones y los estados de desarrollo de la nuez, siend...

To foster strong connections between knowledge and policy action, science–policy interfaces, and the information they produce and exchange, need to be credible, relevant and legitimate. Though this is widely accepted, there has been less emphasis on the problem of trade-offs between these attributes, and how the trade-offs manifest themselves in pr...

Multi-taxon surveys were conducted in species-rich, lowland palaeotropical and neotropical forested landscapes in Sumatra, Indonesia and Mato Grosso, Brazil. Gradient-directed transects (gradsects) were sampled across a range of forested land use mosaics, using a uniform protocol to simultaneously record vegetation (vascular plant species, plant fu...

Against the background of a continuing biodiversity loss there is a strong need to improve the interfaces between science and policy. Many approaches for such interfaces exist, the most recent being the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). A less prominent approach to interface science with policy consists of r...

Litsted authors contributed to the EU Target 2 - Maintaining and enhancing ecosystems and their services. The complete list of contributors is provided in the paper.

There is general acceptance that biodiversity management should be adapted to ecological scale but only recently has the precise role of scale in participatory biodiversity governance begun to be explored. We investigated stakeholder perceptions in three case studies of biodiversity management planning to understand the effect of framing a manageme...

Conservation conflicts are increasing and need to be managed to minimise negative impacts on biodiversity, human livelihoods, and human well-being. Here, we explore strategies and case studies that highlight the long-term, dynamic nature of conflicts and the challenges to their management. Conflict management requires parties to recognise problems...

We consider quantification of biodiversity in the context of targets set by the Convention on Biological Diversity. Implicit in such targets is a requirement to monitor biodiversity at a regional level. Few monitoring schemes are designed with these targets in mind. Monitored sites are typically not selected to be representative of a wider region,...

In a changing global environment, with increasing pressure on ecosystem goods and services, biodiversity conservation is likely to become increasingly important. However, with the current global financial crisis, governments are increasingly trying to stabilise economies through spending cuts aiming to reduce national deficits. Within such an econo...

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is broadly defined as the variety of life on Earth and the natural patterns it forms. Almost two million species have now been identified and the actual number of species in the world is estimated to be between 10 and 30 million (IUCN 2006). This enormous biodiversity is an essential provider of ecosystem good...

Conflicts between the conservation of biodiversity and other human activities occur in all habitats and can impact severely upon socio-economic and biological parameters. In a changing environment, with increasing pressure on ecosystem goods and services and increasing urgency for biodiversity conservation, these conflicts are likely to increase in...

The growing need for baseline data against which efforts to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss can be judged highlights the importance of long-term datasets, some of which are as old as ecology itself. We review methods of evaluating change in biodiversity at the community level using these datasets, and contrast whole-community approaches with t...

Using a range of different methods including extensive reviews, workshops and an electronic conference, 70 key research recommendations and 12 priority research needs to integrate the ecosystem services approach into biodiversity conservation policy and funding were identified by a cross-disciplinary group of over 100 scientists and 50 stakeholders...

1. Anthropogenic pressures have produced heterogeneous landscapes expected to influence diversity differently across trophic levels and spatial scales. 2. We tested how activity density and species richness of carabid trophic groups responded to local habitat and landscape structure (forest percentage cover and habitat richness) in 48 landscape par...

The growing need for baseline data against which efforts to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss can be judged highlights the importance of long-term datasets, some of which are as old as ecology itself. We review methods of evaluating change in biodiversity at the community level using these datasets, and contrast whole-community approaches with t...

Biological control on crop infesting insects represent an useful method in modem agriculture. A search for parasitoids of the macadamia nutborer was carried out during a three year study, and their effect on the population fluctuation of the borer was determined. An egg parasitoid belonging to the family Trichogrammatidae and four larval parasitoid...

The distribution of eggs laid by the pine beauty moth on lodgepole pine was investigated on 177 trees at two sites in northern Scotland in 1985–86. The average total number of eggs per tree was 1845. The average number of eggs per whorl rose from 15.8 on the leading shoot to 214.6 on the fifth whorl, then dropped gradually to 56.4 on the fifteenth...

Research on biodiversity is essential to help the European Union and EU Member States to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity as well as reach the target of halting the loss of biodiversity in Europe by 2010. The need for co-ordination between researchers, the policy-makers that need research results and the organisations that fund rese...

Biodiversity is essential for multiple aspects of human life and well-being, but many current assessments of the functioning of biodiversity and ecosystems, understanding of risks posed by environmental change and the best practice of their management of ecosystems are lacking a unified scientific and conceptual basis. Methods such as scenario anal...

1 The pine beauty moth Panolis flammea has two main host plants in Britain: Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine), which is the ancestral food plant where the insect is never abundant enough to cause tree mortality, and Pinus contorta (lodgepole pine), an introduced host tree that has experienced periodic widespread tree mortality due to this pest. 2 We re...

1. Significantly more eggs were laid by adult female pine beauty moths (Panolis flammea (D&S)) on previously undefoliated lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Douglas) saplings than on those which had been partially defoliated the year before. 2. The larval weights, mean relative growth rates and survival rates of P.flammea were lower on defoliated trees...

1. Population budgets for Rhynchaenus fagi, based for the most part on samples of beech leaves taken in June, were constructed for a 10-year period (Northern Ireland) and a 3-year period (Scottish borders). 2. There were years of sustained population growth and sustained decline, but not enough evidence to suggest a cycle. Similar population levels...

This paper reviews conflicts between biodiversity conservation and agricultural activities in agricultural landscapes and evaluates strategies to reconcile such conflicts. Firstly, a historical perspective on the development of conflicts related to biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is presented. Secondly, recent trends in agricultural policie...

In the United Kingdom, Panolis flammea (Den. and Schiff.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is an important pest species of the introduced lodgepole pine but not of its natural host Scots pine. The timing of P. flammea larval growth must be synchronized with its host tree if the larvae are to succeed. We collected field data during 1990 which revealed that...

Conflicts between the conservation of biodiversity and other human activities have been and continue to be of increasing concern in the European Union, often having important political, economic, and environmental repercussions. These conflicts have been addressed in the European Union by using a wide array of top down and bottom up tools, with var...

Habitat heterogeneity contributes to the maintenance of diversity, but the extent that landscape-scale rather than local-scale heterogeneity influences the diversity of soil invertebrates-species with small range sizes-is less clear. Using a Scottish habitat heterogeneity gradient we correlated Collembola and lumbricid worm species richness and abu...

Abstract 1. Spatial habitat structure can influence the likelihood of patch colonisation by dispersing individuals, and this likelihood may differ according to trophic position, potentially leading to a refuge from parasitism for hosts. 2. Whether habitat patch size, isolation, and host-plant heterogeneity differentially affected host and parasitoi...

The conservation of biodiversity is increasingly dependent on human-altered habitats. In a fragmented forest landscape in northern Costa Rica within the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, an area of great conservation importance, we compared the diversity and composition of ground-dwelling beetle communities in five habitat types along a gradient of...

Climate change is already impacting upon global biodiversity, and projections of climate change impacts indicate that very significant future changes will occur, although such projections are associated with key areas of uncertainty. In order to develop adaptation and mitigation strategies for the conservation of biodiversity during climate change...

Predators play a fundamental role in integrated pest management programmes, yet are often underutilized because of a lack of information about their effect on pest populations. In this study, the mortality of larvae and pupae of Ecdytolopha torticornis in a macadamia orchard in Costa Rica, caused by predators, was quantified during the period betwe...

Changing land use has a major impact on lichen diversity. This study attempts to identify patterns or trends of lichen functional groups along a land use gradient, ranging from natural forests to open agricultural landscape. In eight countries, covering six main European biogeographic regions, lichen vegetation was assessed according to a standardi...

Changes in Collembola richness and diversity along a land-use intensity gradient were studied in eight European countries (Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, Hungary, UK, Ireland and Finland). In each country a set of six 1 km2 land-use units (LUUs) were selected forming a gradient ranging from natural forest to agricultural dominated landscapes...

1. Environmental heterogeneity can produce effects that cascade up to higher trophic levels and affect species interactions. We hypothesized that grazing-dependent habitat heterogeneity and grazing-independent host plant heterogeneity would influence directly and indirectly a host-parasitoid interaction in a woodland habitat. 2. Thistles were plant...

The majority of studies demonstrating local adaptation of insect herbivores involve sessile species, particularly those with a parthenogentic phase to their life history or endophagous “parasites” of plants. Current arguments suggest the strength of selection determines whether local adaptation can or cannot take place. Therefore local adaptation s...

Pine beauty moth, Panolis flammea (Denis & Schiffermüller), is a recent but persistent pest of lodgepole pine plantations in Scotland, but exists naturally at low levels within remnants and plantations of Scots pine. To test whether separate host races occur in lodgepole and Scots pine stands and to examine colonization dynamics, allozyme, randomly...

Conflicts between biodiversity conservation and human activities are becoming increasingly apparent in all European landscapes. The intensification of agricultural and silvicultural practices, land abandonment and other land uses such as recreation and hunting are all potential threats to biodiversity that can lead to conflicts between stakeholder...

Carabid beetle assemblages were studied to assess how diversity and community structure varied along a gradient of land-use. This gradient was composed of six 1 km2 quadrats with an increasing proportion of agricultural land reflecting the anthropogenic fragmentation and intensification of landscapes. Carabid species richness and abundance was pred...

In this paper, circumstances where various human activities and interests clash with the conservation of forest biodiversity are examined, with particular focus on the drivers behind the conflicts. After identifying past and current human-related threats potentially leading to conflicts in forests, the paper will focus on conflict management and mo...

In this paper, circumstances where various human activities and interests clash with the conservation of forest biodiversity are examined, with particular focus on the drivers behind the conflicts. After identifying past and current human-related threats potentially leading to conflicts in forests, the paper will focus on conflict management and mo...

Young, J., Gray, B., Lambdon, P., Rientjes, S., Vella, A., Zaunberger, K. and Watt, A.D. (Editors). 2004. Biodiversity research that matters! Report of an electronic conference. The Message from Malahide and the Killarney Recommendations set ambitious goals for biodiversity research in support of the 2010 targets. How are these goals to be reache...

The larvae of the pine beauty moth, Panolis flammea, were severely affected by a fungal epizootic during 1998. The rate of parasitism of field collected larvae was much lower in 1998 than was recorded 10 years earlier in the same forests. This occurred even when host densities were greater. The parasitism rate declined further in the third year of...

In the UK, Panolis flammea (Denis & Schiffermüller) is a pest of monocultures of non-native lodgepole pine Pinus contorta Douglas, but not of the indigenous host Scots pine P. sylvestrisL. This difference in population dynamics may be due to the adaptation of P. flammea populations to the phenology, chemical composition and natural enemy complement...

1. Operophtera brumata L. (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), a polyphagous herbivore usually associated with deciduous trees such as oak Quercus robur L., has expanded its host range to include the evergreen species heather Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull and, most recently, Sitka spruce Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carrière. 2. Phenology, morphology, and survival...

Cedrela odorata is in many ways well suited to plantation silviculture. However, this potential has not been realized, largely due to the attack of the mahogany shoot borer, Hypsipyla grandella, which destroys growing shoots, retards growth and causes forking. The present paper reports on genetic variation in a shoot borer attacked clonal trial. We...

Natural enemies are important contributors to the differences in Panolis flammea abundance observed in Scots pine and lodgepole pine plantations in Scotland. This study compared the diversity and abundance of harvestmen species in Scots pine sites and lodgepole pine sites within forests of Northern Scotland. While the native Scots pine sites have n...

The silvicultural management of Scottish birch woodlands for timber production is replacing traditional low intensity management practices, such as domesticated livestock grazing. These new management practices involve thinning of existing woodlands to prescribed densities to maximize biomass and timber quality. Although presently infrequent, the w...