Ecosystem services

Research into ecosystem services at Llyn Brianne follows major leadership provided by the National Ecosystem Assessment, in which we were closely involved.

Streams provide many ecosystem services including regulation of water quality and sustaining fish.

Recent research

Duress

Diversity of upland rivers for ecosystem service sustainability

Duress is part of a major Research Council initiative to assess the role of biodiversity in delivering key ecosystem services on which society relies. Launched in 2012, the project makes significant contributions to understanding how river biodiversity sustains ecosystem services in a changing world. Duress investigated how organisms and ecosystem functions maintain important river ecosystem services such as the regulation of water quality, the provision of fish for anglers, or river birds as culturally valued biodiversity. This is crucial knowledge because these services are at risk from climate and land-use change, with potentially large economic and social costs.

National Ecosystem Assessment

The first analysis of the UK’s natural environment in terms of the benefits it provides to society and continuing economic prosperity

After years of stream ecosystem research, much based around Llyn Brianne, Professor Steve Ormerod co-led the freshwater sections of the National Ecosystem Assessment for Defra and the devolved administrations.