Ennerdale's hairy ant experiment to make forest more resistant
"[Hairy wood ants] can reduce plant damage by keeping herbivorous pests away," a spokesman explained."However, other herbivores, with adapted ant-defences, can thrive."
This is the second phase of the project, with nests already relocated earlier this year using a different method, and early signs suggest they had been "unaffected by the journey".Hayley Dauben, Forestry England's species reintroduction officer who is leading the project, said they would closely monitor how the colonies establish themselves and any differences between the two methods."The next crucial milestone will be in April 2026 as the ants emerge from their period of winter hibernation," she added.
Forestry England has worked on the project with the University of York.From September, the organisations will collaborate to support a PhD to help study the wider impacts of the project at Ennerdale.
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BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Ennerdale's hairy ant experiment to make forest more resistant
An experiment to make woodland more resilient has seen hairy wood ant nests relocated across England moved six colonies with thousands of ants from Cropton Forest in North Yorkshire to Ennerdale in Cumbria, in a bid to bring back lost wildlife species and support Gardner, from Forestry England said the project in the Lake District would help "rebuild complex forest communities" that can better deal with extreme weather, climate change and organisation said hairy wood ants' nests, which are mounded and can be up to 6.5ft (2m) high, are ideal habitats for over 100 species including beetles, hoverflies, mites, woodlice and other ants. "[Hairy wood ants] can reduce plant damage by keeping herbivorous pests away," a spokesman explained."However, other herbivores, with adapted ant-defences, can thrive." This is the second phase of the project, with nests already relocated earlier this year using a different method, and early signs suggest they had been "unaffected by the journey".Hayley Dauben, Forestry England's species reintroduction officer who is leading the project, said they would closely monitor how the colonies establish themselves and any differences between the two methods."The next crucial milestone will be in April 2026 as the ants emerge from their period of winter hibernation," she added. Forestry England has worked on the project with the University of September, the organisations will collaborate to support a PhD to help study the wider impacts of the project at Ennerdale. Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Sellafield robotic arms to decommission nuclear gloveboxes
A development in robotic technology could be the answer to cleaning up hundreds of nuclear devices collected over in Cumbria, Europe's largest nuclear plant, has built up a stack of 700 gloveboxes - sealed containers with built in gloves that allow operators to handle radioactive are up to 60 years old, vary in size and shape and still contain contaminated materials like pipework and valves.A team of robotics experts has developed a dextrous mechanised arm that can be fitted inside an active nuclear glovebox to help tackle the challenging task of cleaning up and disposing of these devices. Known as the Risk Reduction of Glovebox Operations (RrOBO) project, it was developed in partnership with AtkinsRéalis, Cavendish Nuclear and Taylor Kightley Engineering."Removing hands from gloveboxes is a key challenge for the nuclear industry and we're proud to be helping to drive change and improve safety," said Robert Marwood, from AtkinsRé proved the robotic arm could successfully carry out a complex series of tasks safely, meaning the technology can now be deployed to legacy gloveboxes to accelerate decommissioning. A spokesman for Sellafield, which opened in 1947 and has the largest stockpile of radioactive plutonium in the world, said some of its older labs contained gloveboxes dating back decades, taking up space and posing "a potential hazard to workers and the environment"It started running a glovebox training facility this year to help meet demand for the spokesman said: "We'll need a pipeline of skilled glovebox operators for many years to come, but it's difficult work requiring high levels of dexterity and consistent standards."They added the nuclear industry nationally needed thousands of new gloveboxes to support "current and future missions in the decommissioning and defence sectors." Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- The Guardian
Earth's underground networks of fungi need urgent protection, say researchers
The underground networks of fungi that underpin the planet's ecosystems needs urgent conservation action by politicians, a research organisation has said. Scientists from the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (Spun) have created the first high-resolution biodiversity maps of Earth's underground mycorrhizal fungal ecosystems. The research, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, found that 90% of the biodiverse hotspots of mycorrhizal fungi were in unprotected ecosystems. Loss of the ecosystems could lead to reductions in carbon drawdown, crop productivity and ecosystem resilience to climate extremes. Mycorrhizal fungi have 'remained in the dark, despite the extraordinary ways they sustain life on land', said Dr Toby Kiers, the executive director of Spun. 'They cycle nutrients, store carbon, support plant health, and make soil. When we disrupt these critical ecosystem engineers, forest regeneration slows, crops fail and biodiversity above ground begins to unravel … 450m years ago, there were no plants on Earth and it was because of these mycorrhizal fungal networks that plants colonised the planet and began supporting human life. 'If we have healthy fungal networks, then we will have greater agricultural productivity, bigger and beautiful flowers, and can protect plants against pathogens.' Mycorrhizal fungi are found on the roots of plants and help regulate Earth's climate and ecosystems. Its underground networks provide plants with essential nutrients, while drawing more than 13bn tonnes of carbon dioxide a year into soils – equivalent to roughly one-third of global emissions from fossil fuels. Spun launched the initiative in 2021 alongside organisations including GlobalFungi, Fungi Foundation, the Global Soil Mycobiome consortium and researchers from around the world to map out the under-researched networks of mycorrhizal fungal. Using machine-learning techniques on a dataset containing more than 2.8bn fungal samples from 130 countries, scientists were able to predict mycorrhizal diversity at a 1km2 scale across the planet. They discovered that only 9.5% of these fungal biodiversity hotspots fell within existing protected areas, revealing huge conservation gaps. The coast of Ghana was found to be a global hotspot for fungi, but with the country's coastline eroding at a rate of 2 metres a year, scientists fear this crucial biodiversity will be washed into the sea. This research marks the first large-scale scientific application of the global mapping initiative, which 'are more than scientific tools – they can help guide the future of conservation', said the study's lead author, Dr Michael Van Nuland. 'Given the impact of these fungal symbioses on the health and functioning of Earth's ecosystems, continuing to ignore them could be a hugely missed opportunity.' Nuland said the fungi respond negatively to human stressors, and without addressing the possible loss of these vital fungus, we could lose our ability to develop novel natural climate solutions. Land use is a significant cause of mycorrhizal fungal degradation, and it is 'frustrating that no action has been taken to prioritise conservation of it', said Kiers. 'The fungi are needed for agricultural productivity and human health.' Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion These fungal ecosystems were largely invisible in law and policy, said César Rodríguez-Garavito, a professor of law and the faculty director of the More-Than-Human Life (Moth) programme at NYU's School of Law. '[The data is] incredibly important in strengthening law and policy on climate change and biodiversity loss across all of Earth's underground ecosystems.' The findings are accessible through Spun's underground atlas interactive tool for conservation groups, researchers and policymakers to identify hotspots that require intervention. With more than 400 scientists and 96 underground explorers from 79 countries, Spun's international team is sampling the Earth's most hard-to-access, remote underground ecosystems including in Mongolia, Bhutan, Pakistan, and Ukraine. Spun is seeking new collaborators and funding to scale its mycorrhizal fungal maps, which cover only 0.001% of the Earth's surface. The expansion of its fungal maps would guide decision-makers to start leveraging mycorrhizal systems. The preservation and protection of mycorrhizal fungi could help to solve some of the world's greatest challenges – biodiversity decline, climate change, and declining food productivity, said Dr Rebecca Shaw, the chief scientist at the World Wide Fund for Nature, who added that it had a direct benefit to people.
