Identifying and understanding multiple benefits and trade-offs

Identifying and understanding multiple benefits and trade-offs – this work aims to have developed approaches that will support integrated decision-making to protect multiple natural assets and maximise benefits in socially acceptable ways.

Natural Asset Inventory and Natural Capital Accounts

Natural Asset Inventory and Natural Capital Accounts: the aim is to develop a spatially-referenced register of Scotland’s natural assets and contribute to a set of natural capital accounts for Scotland that can over time track the progress of Scotland's green growth aspirations.

Novel Vaccines

The aim of this RD is to develop safe, highly effective, optimised, novel vaccines for the control of the most production- and welfare-limiting endemic diseases of Scottish livestock. The key drivers for this research are:

Animal disease epidemiology

To advance our knowledge of how to improve disease control strategies through epidemiological and socio-economic approaches.  This includes research into the spread of important, targeted, endemic pathogens and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) via livestock and the environment including transmission of such pathogens to humans. 

In order to achieve this, we will more specifically:

Livestock genetic improvement tools

The aim of this RD is to improve livestock production, efficiency and welfare, whilst decreasing the use of resources and impact on the environment. This will be achieved using current and next generation tools, focussing on genomics and targeted gene approaches for production (growth, efficiency), maternal and health characteristics (including economically important endemic diseases).

GHG reductions from livestock

Animal-based strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ruminant livestock: The aim of this work is to address major knowledge gaps in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock by investigating the effects of different grassland management systems, the rumen microbiome (the microbes that normally inhabit the gut), endemic diseases and host genetics on methane produc

Disease mechanisms

Disease mechanisms: The aim of this work is to provide increased understanding of how pathogens (viruses, bacteria and parasites) interact with their host to cause disease.  This new knowledge will underpin the development of next-generation control strategies for a range of infectious diseases of importance to livestock production both nationally and internationally.

Evaluation of livestock health

Disease has a detrimental effect on animal health and welfare and causes substantial losses in production. In order to assess the effectiveness of control measures and determine their economic impact, a quantification of the level of disease and/ or health status is needed.

Improved husbandry & reduction of painful procedures

Our aim is to provide an evidence base for advice to farmers on the best approaches to improve the welfare of their animals. Guided by Scottish Government (RESAS) priorities, our work covers two specific areas, covering 4 species of commercial importance:

Welfare assessment techniques

To improve assessment of animal welfare in order to be able to characterise where animals are experiencing a net positive Quality of Life: Welfare of farmed livestock is an important ethical concern. Policy interest in the concept of 'positive welfare’ underlies our work.

Novel diagnostic tools

To develop novel tools and approaches to improve diagnosis of the most economically important endemic diseases of livestock in Scotland, the UK and Europe.

Environmental sustainability and circularity of the rural economy

The aim of this RD is to assess the environmental sustainability of different sectors of the rural economy and identify trade-offs and opportunities for the production and use of bio-materials in a circular economy. The key drivers for this research are policies for the circular economy and zero waste domains.

How rural economies can adapt to key external drivers

The aim of this RD is to improve understanding of recent and anticipated adaptive responses to environmental change, policy drivers and market shifts. This will identify processes of innovation, diversification and collaborative action in agricultural household adjustment and assess future influences on the adaptive capacity of segments of the agriculture sector. 

Resilience of rural economies to key external drivers

The aim of this RD is to address how well Scotland’s rural industries (e.g. farming, forestry and tourism) can cope with outside pressures such as price volatility, new trade agreements and changes in government policies. The key drivers for this research are:

Soil management

To support the sustainable use and management of Scotland’s soil resource. We will provide new and improved tools to predict how soil functions respond to land use, management and environmental pressures.

Soil and GHG emissions

To improve understanding of the impacts of extensive land use and management on greenhouse gas dynamics  The work will focus on the impacts of land use, including the agricultural intensification of extensive/upland soils and the management of semi-natural ecosystems such as peatlands and moorlands (wet and dry heathlands excluding areas of deep peat) on soil carbon stocks and

Soil and its ecosystem function

To combine physical, chemical and biological approaches to characterise soil functions delivering essential ecosystem services. This will be done in the context of identifying the potential to promote beneficial functions of soils (e.g. water-holding capacity, resistance to erosion, storage of carbon, nutrient cycling) and to mitigate impacts on the environment (e.g.

Soil resilience

To understand resilience of soils in Scottish semi-natural ecosystems.  This research aims to understand the relationships among disturbance factors, soil properties, processes and soil functions for a range of important Scottish semi-natural ecosystems (peatland, moorland, woodland, grassland, alpine systems).

Water and its ecosystem functions

To understand how  pressures such as problems arising from agricultural and urban land use and, increasingly, climate change affect the biophysical and ecological processes within our catchments.  The focus of the research is on understanding how the biophysical and ecological processes within water bodies operate and contribute to the delivery of ecosystem function and health.

Impacts of change on water

To support a range of Scottish policy priorities These include:

1) Flooding e.g. helping local authorities incorporate uncertainty into Flood Risk Management (FRM) plans; meeting the requirements of the Floods Directive (FD); 2) Water quality e.g. providing evidence for the Nitrates Directive (ND) review;  informing regulation of shellfish and bathing water protected areas; reducing water treatment costs through improved catchment management; and meeting the requirements of the Drinking Water Directive (DWD) and WFD.

The project will address questions such as: What changes may take place in the future, where and why? What determines sensitivity, resilience and response to change? Can we detect change? What statistical methods are appropriate? Can we separate the effects of policy interventions from other factors? What management approaches are effective in controlling water quantity and quality at catchment scale? How might this change in the future? What are the key uncertainties and how do they affect decision making?

A range of models and data analysis tools are being developed to characterise Scotland’s present-day water resources (quantity and quality), including any existing trends, and improve our understanding of how these may change in the future. Possible effects of land use and climate change on Scotland’s water resources will be considered to help to define limits for the fair and sustainable use of natural assets such as water, land, energy and nutrients (e.g. nitrogen and phosphorus).