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There is growing concern in Higher Education around job security, work–life balance and inequalities, and early career researchers (ECRs) must make difficult trade-offs and life choices. Literature confirms that women navigating academia face additional challenges compared to their male counterparts. Few studies connected contractual circumstances, employment priorities and their impacts on the life choices of individual academics. We report results from a survey exploring the experiences of 37 ECRs who completed PhDs in the United Kingdom (UK) navigating the academic ladder in geomorphology and earth/environmental science, and contextualize these findings by drawing on personal experiences and wider literature. We find evidence of multi-directional pressures that have materially negative effects on individuals' life choices, including concern that academic employment is a barrier to living where and with whom one may want to. The level of precarity amongst survey respondents is stark in terms of number of years they have held fixed-term contracts (maximum 10 years), the number of individual contracts held (maximum 14) and number of different institutions worked at (maximum six). Women respondents were less prepared to be employed on precarious contracts and put more emphasis on job security when applying for academic posts, with men being generally more satisfied by financial aspects of university employment; which will amplify the leaky pipeline and gender gaps at more senior levels. We also find that perceived institutional prestige was a surprisingly low priority for the majority of respondents, and there were notable divergences between career advice given by more senior colleagues and the priorities of ECRs seeking guidance. We put forward a set of key considerations: improving policies on parental leave and flexible working; formalizing and improving mentorship; more considerate recruitment procedures; reducing contract precarity; and, transparency on pay and promotion. We believe these are within the scope of action by departments, laboratories and research groups.

Extensive erosional gully networks are commonplace in degrading peatlands. Gullying produces local water table drawdown and the increase in drainage density associated with gully networks increases hydrological connectivity between hillslope and channel. Peatland restoration methods commonly involve blocking of gullies with peat or timber dams to limit further erosion and promote higher water tables. Blocking is also demonstrated to attenuate channel flow in peatland catchments, suggesting that gully blocks can provide Natural Flood Management (NFM) benefits. Block design can be further optimised for flood attenuation purposes, such as including an outlet pipe through the block to provide dynamic in-storm storage. This paper compares the hydrological functioning of standard peat dams and piped-peat dams optimised for NFM from neighbouring microcatchments (

The restoration of damaged UK peatlands is a major conservation concern and landscape-scale restoration initiatives are extensive in areas of blanket peatland in upland Britain. Because of the importance of a high water table to healthy peatland systems, it is the primary physical parameter considered in the monitoring the impacts of peatland restoration projects. Degraded peatland water tables can be highly variable in both time and space so require characterisation at a variety of scales. As such, a baseline understanding of landscape scale water table behaviour is required to properly assess the outcome of restoration projects.This paper presents the preliminary findings of the first major restoration works of the Great North Bog Initiative – a new and exciting partnership that brings together the seven regional peatland restoration partnerships across the north of England under a single collaborative banner. The Protected Landscapes of the Great North Bog represent around 92% of the upland peat in England and includes four National Parks and three Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This first phase of restoration spans 5670 ha of peatland across Yorkshire and the North Pennines, with the aim of abating 455,500 of CO2eq over a 50 year trajectory of recovery. We report the results of pre-restoration water table monitoring at ten sites with different degrees of management and degradation, including: drained, eroding and topographically ‘intact’ surfaces; heather and grass dominated vegetation covers; and unfavourable through to favourable national conservation designations. Our findings will provide a solid understanding of hydrological variation across these different sites and will form the baseline from which trajectories of recovery will be assessed.

Gully erosion is a formidable land degradation process globally. It is omnipresent across India, wherein two of the largest badlands regions in the world also exist. However, despite being affected by widespread gullying, gully erosion research in India has been rather limited, with key aspects of gully formation, morphologies and dynamics remaining unknown. Through this comprehensive systematic review, we synthesise previous studies on gully erosion in India and in turn highlight pivotal knowledge gaps. The review starts with a discussion of the causal factors of gullying in India, which underlines how gully initiation in several regions was an aftermath of deforestation and overgrazing. Contrastingly, the badlands of Central and Western India have mainly developed in response to natural triggers like neotectonics and Holocene climate change. The section on mapping highlights how mapping methodologies have not only been dictated by the availability of imagery and/or means of data processing, but also the mapping purpose—that is, individual gully channels or entire badlands. Although a few studies applying concepts of fractal geometry to characterise badlands’ geomorphology are innovative and unique, the most striking research gaps we have identified also pertain to understanding and quantification of gully geomorphology and erosion dynamics in different regions of India. Our review reveals that gullies of peninsular India have been the least studied, followed by those of the Himalayan and Sub-Himalayan region. Although the literature provides interesting examples of linkages between badlands development and the wider geomorphic evolution of the landscape, better chronological understanding is required to disentangle the relative importance of natural and anthropogenic drivers of landscape change in India’s badlands. Large-scale mapping of gully characteristics, quantification of gully morphologies, gully erosion rates and its share in catchment sediment budget across various physiographic regions or river basins of the country also constitute important areas for future research.

The dramatic badland landscapes of severely eroded peatlands represent significant degradation of the ecosystems, which when intact, provide a range of regulating ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and runoff regulation. Increasing efforts are being made to restore these landscapes through re-vegetation and gully blocking. Restoration has been driven by the aims of restoring biodiversity and carbon storage but the transformation of hillslopes and channels also has significant impacts on hillslope runoff. This paper reports on a major project from the uplands of the UK which has been studying the generation of hillslope runoff in restored peatlands and the potential to optimise restoration approaches to mitigate downstream flood risk. Peatlands are highly productive of runoff so that these approaches have the potential to deliver multiple benefits including Natural Flood Risk management for headwater communities.Our work has demonstrated that whilst static storage of water behind gully blocks is one component of the NFM benefit, dynamic storage on hillslopes during storm events is enhanced by increased surface roughness in restored catchments and is the larger component of the overall NFM benefit. Gully blocks with pipes or slots which enable drawdown between storms maximise static storage whilst the planting of sphagnum moss dramatically increases dynamic storage on the hillslopes.Taken together these data support the potential role of peatland restoration in NFM schemes and suggest that restoration of gully-eroded peatlands can deliver flood protection in headwater communities alongside wider benefits.

The UK supports 15% of the world’s blanket peat cover but much of this vital resource is significantly degraded. In damaged peatlands runoff is quickly evacuated from hillslopes across bare peat surfaces and through erosional gullies, exacerbating downstream flooding. The restoration of damaged UK peatlands is a major conservation concern, and landscape-scale restoration by revegetation and damming of gullies is extensive in areas of upland Britain. There is increasing evidence that the restoration techniques can significantly slow the flow of water in addition to providing other ecosystem service benefits. More recently, focus has shifted from stabilising eroding surfaces to the reintroducing Sphagnum moss as part of multi-benefit restoration initiatives.This paper reports the results of long-term post-restoration monitoring on the Kinder Plateau in the southern Pennines of the U.K. Two sites were revegetated using lime-seed-fertiliser-mulch in 2011 and one of the sites was also gully blocked in 2012 and had a further phase of restoration in the form of intensive Sphagnum planting in 2015. A third unrestored control site was also monitored. We present post-intervention biogeomorphological changes spanning 10 years, showing the long-term trajectories of vegetation cover, runoff, sediment production, and water table.The trajectories of recovery for different functions differ in form and rate. At both treatment sites, vegetation cover increases rapidly then slows as full cover is approached. Sediment production is quickly reduced to levels comparable to intact peatlands within two years and bare peat cover becomes negligible after ~7 years. Key runoff metrics (e.g. peak discharge and lag time) show similar immediate step changes as a result of increased surface roughness from the rapid vegetation expansion, followed by more gradual improvements as species richness develops through time. The addition of gully blocking enhances the impact of re-vegetation alone, amplifying the step change, but there are no further benefits apparent in the longer-term trajectory. The introduction of Sphagnum provides further roughness, leading to marked increases in lag times and attenuation of runoff. There is also preliminary evidence that the Sphagnum inhibits surface drying, providing resilience to future climatic and anthropogenic stressors.This study provides the first evidence that the reintroduction of Sphagnum in degraded headwater peatlands can provide additional Natural Flood Management benefits compared to standard restoration techniques aimed at stabilising eroding surfaces. We also show that water table recovery is not at odds with flow attenuation. We also note the importance of control assessing the impact of restoration interventions and the need for investment in longer-term (>10 year) monitoring to better understand the recovery of restored peatlands.

Erosion gullies are a common feature of degraded blanket peatlands and in recent years gully blocking has been increasingly employed as a restoration approach. The stated aims of gully blocking are typically to stabilise eroding gullies and to rewet the adjacent peatland by raising water tables, but in recent years the potential benefits of gully blocking for natural flood management (NFM) have also been recognised. However, data on the hydrological effects of gully blocking and for different gully blocking techniques are sparse.We report on a before-after-control-intervention (BACI) experiment of gully blocking in peatland micro-catchments (hectare scale) in the Peak District National Park, UK. Three different gully blocking interventions were made in March 2020: impermeable peat dams, permeable cobble dams, and peat dams with a restricted diameter bypass pipe. The first two interventions represent standard restoration techniques, whereas the piped peat dams are specifically designed to be optimal for natural flood management benefit. The micro-catchments were monitored for one year before and two years after gully blocking for: rainfall, discharge, depth to water table proximate to the gullies (within 2m) and depth to water table distal from the gullies (>10m away). Storm hydrograph data (peak discharges and lag times) were extracted for >120 storms from the rainfall-runoff data. All intervention data were analysed relative to data from a control micro-catchment.After blocking for all interventions there were significant declines in median depth to water table proximate to the gullies, with the magnitude of the rewetting benefit in the following order: peat dams > piped peat dams > cobble dams. There were no significant changes in depth to water table at the distal locations. Peat dams led to a slight increase in storm peak flows but no change in hydrograph lag times. Stone dams led to no change in peak flows but increases in lag times. Piped peat dams resulted in the greatest changes to storm hydrographs, with substantial declines in peak flows and increases in lag times once the pipe diameter had been optimised to the discharge regime.Peat dams maximise the rewetting benefits of gully blocking but appear to have limited NFM potential, whereas once optimised, piped peat dams provide maximum NFM benefit and greater water table recovery than stone dams. These findings are important for restoration practitioners when making decisions on which gully blocking techniques to employ to balance the co-benefits of peatland restoration.

Microcatchments (This paper investigates the sensitivity of catchment delineation to DEM/DSM error for 30 peatland microcatchments across the Peak District National Park, UK. To evaluate the suitability of DSMs for hydrological applications in peatlands, a 0.25m photogrammetric DSM is used and evaluated against a 1m LiDAR DEM. Monte Carlo simulation is applied to produce a range of realisations of the DSM and DEM within their vertical error margins, from which a range of catchment areas are calculated. The variability of the watershed boundaries of each catchment is evaluated in the context of local gradient, difference from mean elevation and extent of gullying, to determine the relationship between terrain characteristics and variability in catchment delineation. Findings will have implications for the generation of catchment areas in peatland hydrology.

Many upland headwaters of the UK drain areas of blanket peat, much of which has been degraded through atmospheric deposition of pollutants, vegetation change, peat extraction, artificial drainage and erosion. These areas are increasingly the focus of interventions to restore some of the multiple-benefits lost through degradation. Understanding their runoff generation processes underpins analysis of their wider benefits including their potential to mitigate downstream flooding.Using a series of multivariate analysis techniques we examine controls on storm runoff in ten blanket peat catchments of 0.2-3.9 hectares all within 5 km of one another. We find that: 1) rainfall intensity is the dominant hydro-meteorological driver for both magnitude and timing of peak discharge for all ten catchments, with antecedent rainfall only relevant in small storms; 2) most of the inter-catchment variability in discharge predictability from rainfall can be explained by catchment characteristics, particularly catchment area; 3) runoff responses, particularly in small storms, are sensitive to scale even in an apparently homogenous and saturation-excess overland flow dominated peatland landscape; 4) peak discharge in large storms is strongly controlled by attenuation processes associated with the travel time distribution, and thus drainage network geometry; 5) peak discharge in smaller storms underlines the importance of hydrological connectivity at scales Together these results suggest a switching in rainfall-runoff behavior within these catchments where peak discharge is controlled by: catchment storage, connectivity and antecedent conditions in small storms; but runoff attenuation, travel time and thus and network structure and scale in larger storms. In the context of Natural Flood Management, our findings suggest that enhancing depression storage by creating distributed shallow peatland pools in addition to existing restoration methods could raise the threshold storm size below which catchment storage, antecedent conditions and connectivity remain important. However, changes in surface roughness and other measures that target runoff velocities are likely to be more effective in the largest (and thus most flood relevant) storms.

Many degraded UK blanket peatland sites have been subjected to restoration using dams in eroded gully systems to trap sediment, slow the flow of water and promote revegetation of bare peat surfaces. There are few studies on how gully blocks evolve with time, what this means for changing ecosystem functions, and the natural flood management benefits of restoration. This study focuses on gully block evolution on the Kinder Scout Plateau, where the blanket peatland was restored in 2011/12 and >2500 gully blocks installed. We took a random sample of 500 small stone and timber dams 8-9 years following restoration, representing c.20% of the total number of blocks. We measured sediment accumulation behind the dams, vegetation cover and abundance and their propensity to continue to store water with respect to gully morphology. Principal component analysis suggested dam dimensions, channel, and wall slope are associated with sedimentation and change in water storage behind the dams, while other gully attributes were more associated with the change in vegetation cover. Dams installed in gullies with steeper walls and channel slopes typically accumulated more sediment. There was more variability in the evolution of stone dams, typically installed in wider, deeper gullies with shallower peat substrates and larger contributing areas than timber dams. 72% of surveyed dams were actively pooling water, and only two had visibly collapsed. On average, gully floors had 93% vegetation cover, whereas gully walls and dam tops had 90% and 45% vegetation cover, respectively. Sediment accumulation was not significantly different between the stone and timber dams at the 95% confidence interval. A random sub-sample of 26 gullies found no significant difference in sediment depths between subsequent dams in the same gullies (p = 0.255). Comparisons with an earlier survey suggest most sediment accumulation happens in the first year, rapidly reaching an equilibrium. As such, dams may exhibit similar properties regardless of the materials used and gully attributes. Dam top vegetation cover was positively correlated with gully dimensions, and 21% of dams were completely covered by vegetation. However, on average, 58% of the storage available after installation remained behind dams. Therefore, remaining storage combined with additional channel surface roughness may provide more favourable conditions for attenuating runoff 8-9 years after installation than the first year after restoration. We conclude that despite the differences between stone and timber dams, the gully blocking outcomes are very similar 8-9 years after restoration. Perhaps the most striking outcome was the high vegetation cover in channel floors and gully walls which will likely benefit peatland ecosystem functioning and natural flood management.

Before-after monitoring of small-scale restoration activities in blanket peatlands, e.g., revegetation and gully blocking, suggests they can also deliver significant Natural Flood Management (NFM) benefits (reduce and delay floodpeaks). However, we still lack a clear understanding of the underlying processes driving NFM effects; and doubts remain about whether interventions will retain their impact when implemented at scales large enough to reduce flooding in downstream communities. We examine the impact of the two interventions at a range of scales from the 1 hectare micro-catchment scale at which a Before-After-Control-Intervention (BACI) study has been undertaken, to the 40 km2 scale (at which flooding begins to affect residential properties). We calibrate the Generalised Multistep Dynamic (GMD) TOPMODEL rainfall-runoff model to different BACI experimental catchments each representing an intervention scenario. Through numerical experimentation with the calibrated parameters, we estimate the impact-magnitude of different process drivers. Our findings confirm the NFM benefits of these restoration-focused interventions at the micro-catchment scale. In both interventions and in our largest storms, floodpeak attenuation is primarily due to roughness reducing the floodwave speed and thus thickening the overland flow (kinematic storage). More conventional, static storage (i.e. interception + ponding + evapotranspiration), becomes important only in smaller storms. Finally, we use the parameter-sets identified by calibrating to the BACI catchments to extend our findings to the 40 km2 Glossop catchment. Glossop has experienced several damaging floods in the last 50 years and has received appreciable recent restoration activity. Here we use GMD-TOPMODEL in a second set of modelling experiments to estimate downstream impact of existing interventions and to examine the impact of alternative scenarios of spatially distributed intervention configurations.

Flooding is costly and disruptive in the UK and worldwide. Leaky barriers (LBs), small-scale blockages to streamflow, provide multiple environmental benefits. Depending on design, and if installed in sufficient numbers, they could also play an important role in reducing downstream flooding. Leaky barrier installation is proceeding at pace, thousands of cobble dams have been installed in peat gullies across the South Pennines (UK). However, the hydraulics of LBs in general and these cobble barriers in particular is poorly understood. Here we develop a simple model coupling two classical engineering flux estimates: Darcy/Casagrande equations for matrix flow and Colebrook equation for pipe flow (where drains are installed). We test this model against observed stage and discharge measurements for four study features with and without drains to: identify stage-discharge relationships; evaluate model performance for individual features; and apply it to model chains of features of varying design (i.e., LB density, matrix permeability, and pipe diameter). We find that: 1) stage-discharge relationships for cobble dams are concave up and are generally well captured by our simple model; 2) current designs offer relatively little attenuation because they are too permeable; 3) instead, optimal designs have low matrix permeability with pass-forward pipes at their base of a diameter tuned to design flow. Based on these results we hypothesise that LBs will perform best where they are designed to have negative permeability-depth relationships (and thus convex up stage-discharge relationships) and where the form and magnitude of the relationship is optimised to accommodate peak flood discharges.

The UK supports 15% of the world’s blanket peat cover but much of this vital resource is significantly degraded. Damaged peatlands lose their hydrological integrity, depressing water tables and exacerbating downstream flooding as water is quickly evacuated from hillslopes across bare peat surfaces and through erosional gullies. The restoration of damaged peatlands is a major conservation concern, and landscape-scale restoration by revegetation and damming of gullies is extensive in areas of upland Britain. There is increasing evidence that the restoration techniques can raise water tables and significantly slow the flow of water in addition to providing other ecosystem service benefits. More recently, focus has shifted from stabilising eroding surfaces to reintroducing Sphagnum moss as part of multi-benefit restoration initiatives, but to date there is limited empirical data to evidence its impacts.This paper reports the results of long-term post-restoration monitoring on the Kinder Plateau in the southern Pennines, UK. Two sites were revegetated using lime-seed-fertiliser-mulch in 2011 and one of these sites was also gully blocked in 2012 and had a further phase of restoration in the form of intensive Sphagnum planting in 2015. A third unrestored control site was also monitored. We present post-intervention trajectories spanning 10 years showing the long-term recovery of vegetation, water tables, runoff generation, water quality, and sediment production.The trajectories of recovery for different functions differ in form and rate. At both treatment sites, vegetation cover and diversity increased rapidly then expansion slowed as full cover was approached. Sediment production was quickly reduced to levels comparable to intact peatlands within two years and bare peat cover became negligible after ~7 years. Key runoff metrics (e.g. peak discharge and lag time) showed similar immediate step changes as a result of increased surface roughness from the rapid vegetation expansion, followed by more gradual improvements as species richness developed through time. The addition of gully blocking enhanced the short-term impacts of re-vegetation, amplifying the step change, but on longer timescales there were no additional benefits relative to the revegetation only site. Water tables recovered gradually at a constant rate and there is no sign of this slowing after 10 years. Water quality (DOC and colour) was highly variable throughout the study period and the long-term impact of restoration is inconclusive. The introduction of Sphagnum provided additional hydrological benefits, most notably through further increases in lag times and attenuation of runoff. There is also preliminary evidence that the Sphagnum provides resilience to surface drying.This study provides the first evidence that the reintroduction of Sphagnum in degraded headwater peatlands can provide additional natural flood management (NFM) benefits compared to standard restoration techniques aimed at stabilising eroding surfaces. We also show that water table recovery does not counteract the benefits of flow attenuation. We emphasise the critical importance of control in assessing the impact of restoration interventions and the need for investment in longer-term (>10 year) monitoring to better understand the hydrological recovery of restored peatlands.

Across the world restoration of degraded peatlands involves manipulation of peatland hydrology. Often this includes blocking of drainage and changing of land cover types. These landscape scale interventions in the peatland system have the potential to significantly modify runoff from peatland systems and so to be incorporated into schemes of natural flood management. In this paper we report on results from the 4 year PROTECT project which aims to optimise peatland restoration to support NFM benefits in the degraded peatlands of upland Britain. Field experiments based on a BACI analysis of over 20 peatland microcatchments along with hydrological and hydraulic modelling approaches have underpinned a series of key findings including: reductions in peak discharge and longer lag times for runoff from re-vegetated peatlands particularly associated with sphagnum growth; Reductions in peak discharge associated with optimised peat dams which allow partial drawdown between storm events; continued delivery of NFM benefit from restoration at timescales in excess of 10 years; and identification of a key role for dam permeability in optimising NFM benefits from drainage line blocking.Taken together these data support the potential role of peatland restoration in NFM schemes and suggest that with careful optimisation synergies between the needs of peatland restoration and flood protection in headwater communities can be realised.

Upland blanket peat is widespread in the headwaters of UK catchments, but much of it has been degraded through atmospheric pollution, vegetation change and erosion. Runoff generation in these headwaters is an important element of downstream flood risk and these areas are increasingly the focus of interventions to restore the peat ecosystem and to potentially mitigate downstream flooding. Here we use a series of multivariate analysis techniques to examine controls on storm runoff behavior within and between ten blanket peat catchments all within 5 km of one another and ranging in size from 0.2-3.9 hectares. We find that: 1) for all 10 catchments, rainfall intensity is the dominant driver for both magnitude and timing of peak discharge, and that total and antecedent rainfall is important for peak discharge only in small storms; 2) there is considerable inter-catchment variability in: runoff coefficient, lag time, peak runoff, and their predictability from rainfall; however, 3) a significant fraction of the inter-catchment variability can be explained by catchment characteristics, particularly catchment area; and 4) catchment controls on peak discharge and runoff coefficient for small storms highlight the importance of storage and connectivity while those for large events suggest that surface flow attenuation dominates. Together these results suggest a switching rainfall-runoff behavior where catchment storage, connectivity and antecedent conditions control small discharge peaks but become increasingly irrelevant for larger storms. Our results suggest that, in the context of Natural Flood Management potential, expanding depression storage (e.g. distributed shallow water pools) in addition to existing restoration methods could increase the range of storms within which connectivity and storage remain important and that for larger storms measures which target surface runoff velocities are likely to be important.

There is growing concern in Higher Education around job security, work-life balance and inequalities, and early career academics must make difficult trade-offs and life choices. Ample literature confirms that women navigating academia face additional challenges. Few studies have sought to connect contractual circumstances, employment priorities and their impacts on the life choices of individual academics. We report results from a survey exploring the experiences of 48 Early Career Researchers traversing the academic ladder in geomorphology and earth/environmental science and contextualise these findings by drawing on personal experiences and wider literature. Overall, we find evidence of multi-directional pressures that have materially negative effects on life choices, including concern amongst men and women that academic employment is a barrier to living where and with whom one may want to. The scale of precarity amongst survey respondents is stark in terms of years on fixed-term contracts (maximum 10), individual contracts held (maximum 14) and number of different institutions (maximum 6). Overall, women respondents opted to spend fewer years on precarious contracts, which will amplify the leaky pipeline and gender gaps at more senior levels. We also find that women put somewhat more emphasis on job security when applying for academic posts. Perceived institutional prestige was a low priority for the majority of respondents. We also find notable divergences between career advice given by more senior colleagues and the priorities of those seeking guidance. Our results furthermore infer that men were generally more satisfied by financial aspects of university employment. Drawing on input from survey respondents, we put forward a set of recommendations under four themes: improving policies on parental leave and flexible working; formalising and improving mentorship; transparency on pay and promotion; more considerate recruitment procedures. We believe these recommendations are within the scope of action by departments, laboratories and research groups.

Over the last century, under the modern hydraulic model, waterways across the world have been heavily canalized and culverted, driven into underground pipes, drains and sewers. This hydraulic approach has hardwired an isolated water network into the urban fabric, fragmenting erstwhile patterns and dynamics of life, both human and nonhuman. Ecologically, it has been hugely damaging, reducing water quality and biotic diversity, but also socially, disconnecting citizens from the waterways that service and characterize the city. Consequently, since the 1990s, waterway restoration has become widespread as a design solution to degraded rivers and streams, reinstating compromised hydrological, geomorphological and ecological processes. Deculverting or ‘daylighting’, the focus of this paper, is a radical form of restoration, opening up subterranean, culverted waterways often forgotten by communities above ground. Yet, as this paper emphasizes, waterway restoration has tended to privilege ecological over social objectives, while public engagement in project conceptualization has been limited, conducted ‘downstream’ subsequent to planning and design stages. Restoration schemes have therefore tended to reflect the concerns of professionals rather than communities, overlooking their potential for social renewal and change. Drawing on workshop data collected through participatory mapping exercises, this paper explores the case for daylighting a culverted brook in Urmston, Greater Manchester, focusing in particular on the preferences, concerns and knowledge of local residents. The paper compares professional and community perspectives on the preferred scheme design and potential benefits of daylighting, drawing out differences and tensions between them, temporarily ‘unblackboxing’ the brook. It is ventured that daylighting can unleash the social ‘stickiness’ of water, its proclivity to draw and bind together, to revitalize the park, enhancing connection to wildness, attachment to place and sense of community. This is particularly crucial in the face of decreased local authority funding and related crises in park management.

Peatlands provide a range of ecosystem services but are sensitive to changes in climate and land-use, and many peatlands globally are degraded. We analyse a large-scale, unique and diverse dataset, collected over 15 years, as part of major landscape scale blanket peat restoration projects in the south Pennines, UK. Trajectories of ecosystem change after restoration were assessed by measuring key ecosystem responses including: vegetation cover and indicator species; water table, runoff, and water quality.The reactions of these metrics vary in their behaviour, both in the timing of first response and the rate of change towards a new stable state. Re-establishment of vegetation is a key driver in rapidly reducing particulate carbon loss and attenuating stormflow, while over time biodiversity is improved by the return of native species, and water tables gradually rise. The phasing of these ecosystem service responses indicates that there are different characteristic timescales for the improvement of peatland functions, driven by both surface and subsurface processes. The rapid establishment of vegetation cover over two years, and its importance in improving a broad range of functions, signify it as a key milestone for reporting project success within typical funding timeframes.This study supports the adoption of Lime-Fertiliser-Seed-Mulch restoration on eroding blanket peatlands globally. The trajectories developed are important to help guide practitioners of ecological restoration. Better understanding of the dynamics underpinning the slower response times of subsurface hydrological and biogeochemical function is identified as a key knowledge gap. An understanding of the limits of ecosystems recovery is important when target setting for restoration projects, especially where attaining pristine conditions is unachievable.

Restoration of eroded blanket peatlands through revegetation and gully blocking is observed to also deliver significant natural flood management (NFM) benefits (reduce and delay floodpeaks). But there is a lack of clear understanding regarding how different catchment processes interact/counteract under each intervention scenario. We seek to provide more insight by rigorously calibrating TOPMODEL rainfall-runoff model to different experimental catchments each representing an intervention scenario. Through numerical experimentation with the calibrated parameters, we estimate the impact-magnitude of different processes. Our findings confirm the NFM benefits of these restoration-focused interventions. In both interventions and in our largest storms, both the delay and reduced floodpeaks are primarily due to surface roughness reducing the floodwave speed thus thickening the overland flow; we conceptualize this as an increase in a “kinematic storage.” Impact of gully blocking in increasing kinematic storage is very significant and comparable to that of revegetation alone. Interventions' impact on “static storage” (interception + ponding + evapotranspiration) becomes important for smaller storms. Although interventions always increase lag times, they can be less effective in reducing peak magnitude when maximum rainfall intensity is sustained for durations longer than mean catchment delay. We propose two approaches to further increase catchment's static and kinematic storage. Finally, while our field-scale numerical study contributes to the evidence-base for NFM's effectiveness, it also provides a basis for modeling these interventions in the future. Such catchment-scale numerical studies are necessary to extend our findings to spatial scales where flooding can cause socioeconomic damage, and to provide a tool for optimizing the distributed configuration of these interventions.

Peatlands are wetland ecosystems with great significance as natural habitats and as major global carbon stores. They have been subject to widespread exploitation and degradation with resulting losses in characteristic biota and ecosystem functions such as climate regulation. More recently, large-scale programmes have been established to restore peatland ecosystems and the various services they provide to society. Despite significant progress in peatland science and restoration practice, we lack a process-based understanding of how soil microbiota influence peatland functioning and mediate the resilience and recovery of ecosystem services, to perturbations associated with land use and climate change.\ud \ud We argue that there is a need to: in the short-term, characterise peatland microbial communities across a range of spatial and temporal scales and develop an improved understanding of the links between peatland habitat, ecological functions and microbial processes; in the medium term, define what a successfully restored ’target’ peatland microbiome looks like for key carbon cycle related ecosystem services and develop microbial-based monitoring tools for assessing restoration needs; and in the longer term, to use this knowledge to influence restoration practices and assess progress on the trajectory towards ‘intact’ peatland status.\ud \ud Rapid advances in genetic characterisation of the structure and functions of microbial communities offer the potential for transformative progress in these areas, but the scale and speed of methodological and conceptual advances in studying ecosystem functions is a challenge for peatland scientists. Advances in this area require multidisciplinary collaborations between peatland scientists, data scientists and microbiologists and ultimately, collaboration with the modelling community.\ud \ud Developing a process-based understanding of the resilience and recovery of peatlands to perturbations, such as climate extremes, fires, and drainage, will be key to meeting climate targets and delivering ecosystem services cost effectively.

Understanding the spatial variability of gaseous carbon flux at a landscape scale requires intensive monitoring campaigns necessitating significant and perhaps prohibitive financial investment. Commercially available CO2 sensors may only partially fulfil the requirements of the researcher, thereby generating inadequate data. In this context we present the fully replicable designs for a low-cost, microcontroller-based gaseous CO2 concentration data logger suitable for field deployment at scale. It demonstrates a post-calibration accuracy of 96-99% and large onboard data storage for data collected at user-defined intervals. The sensor can be powered via USB or batteries, assembled by novice users, and produced for approximately £155. Post-calibration it was used to measure CO2 evasion from a peatland stream, environments known to be spatially and temporally variable CO2 sources, although potential applications are much wider in scope. The proliferation of low-cost, open-source, and user-made sensors in physical sciences could allow researchers to answer questions previously unanswerable due to the limitations of existing proprietary equipment. We encourage other research teams to use and adapt this design for a range of purposes and research questions beyond carbon processing in peatlands.

The restoration of damaged UK peatlands is a major conservation concern, and landscape-scale restoration is extensive in areas of upland Britain. Peatland headwater catchments are important areas of hillslope runoff production, and over the last decade there has been increasing focus on how restoration schemes can reduce downstream flood risk through natural flood management (NFM). Stormflow in degraded catchments can be incredibly flashy, as water is quickly evacuated from hillslopes across bare peat surfaces and through erosional gullies, but there is increasing evidence that restoration by revegetation and damming of channels can significantly slow the flow of water.Recent major peatland wildfires in the UK have focused attention on the effects of wildfire and post-wildfire restoration on the hydrology of peatland catchments, but to date, relatively little is known about the effects of wildfire on peatland flood hydrology. Current understanding is largely drawn from process studies, with evidence suggesting that severely burnt peatlands will have flashier hydrograph responses to rainfall events, with higher peak flows relative to unburnt peatlands. This assumption is based on three key factors which promote rapid overland flow: (i) the development of hydrophobic crusts due to high intensity fires, (ii) the clogging of peat pores by ash, and (iii) removal of vegetation cover reducing surface roughness. Further influences on runoff production could result from changes in water table or post-fire peat shrinkage and cracking.This paper details stormflow characteristics from nine gullies in an area of peatland affected by the high-severity Saddleworth wildfire which burned over 1000 hectares of UK peatland in June and July 2018. This field area is upstream of the community of Stalybridge, which the Environment Agency had highlighted as a priority community at risk of flooding. We compare this behaviour to catchments that were unaffected by the fire. Preliminary findings suggest that the fire affected gullies produce highly variable stormflow behaviour, with some sites producing discharges similar to bare peat sites, while others are more similar to relatively intact catchments. The planned restoration of this area has great potential to provide NFM benefits.

International audience; A recent paper by Miszczak et al. (2020) examines metal contamination of mires in Poland and Norway. The authors conclude that lead (Pb) records in ombrotrophic peatlands cannot be used to reconstruct the chronological history of anthropogenic activities due to post-depositional mobility of the metal. We contest this general conclusion which stands in contrast with a significant body of literature demonstrating that Pb is largely immobile in the vast majority of ombrotrophic peatlands. Our aim is to reaffirm the crucial contribution that peat records have Science of the Total Environment xxx (xxxx) xxx ⁎ Corresponding author at: Instituto Franco-Argentino para el Estudio del Clima y sus Impactos (j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s e v i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / s c i t o t e n v made to our knowledge of atmospheric Pb contamination. In addition, we reiterate the necessity of following established protocols to produce reliable records of anthropogenic Pb contamination in environmental archives.

Concern amongst geomorphologists that the discipline’s visibility and impact are becoming suppressed are reflected in a series of recent Earth Surface Exchanges (ESEX) commentaries (e.g., Tooth et al., 2016). This paper from the British Society for Geomorphology (BSG) Communicating Geomorphology Fixed-Term Working Group (FTWG) reports initial findings from an online survey of BSG members alongside an empirical assessment of the term’s prominence in academic output: international peer-reviewed journals, undergraduate Geoscience degrees in world-leading institutions and the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) impact statements. Our observations indicate the scientific standing of the discipline has been retained but the term itself is less widely utilised and we offer a series of suggestions actionable by the geomorphology community.

PurposeDespite substantial research into Pb storage in peatlands, formal description of the mechanisms of contaminated sediment mobilisation is limited. This study explores the controlling factors of contaminated sediment dynamics in an eroding peatland in the Peak District National Park, UK.Materials and methodsThis study uses the Pb contamination stored near the peat’s surface as a fingerprint to trace contaminated sediment dynamics in three severely degraded headwater catchments. A field portable XRF analyser was used across a range of catchment surfaces to examine patterns of contaminant storage and release.Results and discussionLead concentrations varied greatly over a small spatial scale. Erosion is exposing high concentrations of Pb on interfluve surfaces (up to 1660 μg g−1), and substantial amounts of reworked contaminated material (up to 1010 μg g−1) are stored on other catchment surfaces (gully walls and floors). A variety of factors have been shown to significantly control Pb release and storage in this environment, including wind action, aspect, and gully depth. Vegetation also plays an important role in retaining sediment-bound heavy metals within contaminated peat catchments.ConclusionsThis study provides the first comprehensive overview of the mechanisms controlling Pb release and storage in degraded peatlands. Previous assessments of Pb fluxes may have underestimated contaminant export from severely degraded systems. Wind has also been identified as an as yet unaccounted for vector for heavy metal transport in peatland environments.

Over the past 15 years there has been a proliferation of projects aiming to restore the structure and function of UK upland blanket mires, primarily by revegetation of bare peat and the blocking of erosion gullies. These restoration measures have potential to alter stormflow responses and contribute to Natural Flood Management, but their impacts on storm hydrographs are poorly quantified. This paper reports a before-after-control-intervention (BACI) study from three experimental headwater micro-catchments in the South Pennines (UK) representing the first rigorous experimental assessment of the impact of blanket peat restoration on catchment runoff. We evaluate the hydrological impacts of two standard restoration interventions; revegetation of bare peat, and revegetation of bare peat with additional gully blocking. Following revegetation there was a significant decrease in depth to water table and an increase in the prevalence of hillslope overland flow production. There were no significant changes in storm runoff coefficient following either restoration treatment. Storm hydrographs following revegetation had significantly longer lag times (106% increase relative to the control), reduced peak flows (27% decrease relative to the control), and attenuated hydrograph shapes. With the addition of gully blocking the effect is almost doubled. Lag times increased by a further 94% and peak flows reduced by an additional 24% relative to the control. We argue that the primary process controlling the observed changes in storm hydrograph behaviour is retardation of overland stormflow due to increased surface roughness. The significant changes to lag times and peak flow provide evidence that the restoration of degraded headwater peatlands can contribute to Natural Flood Management and the reduction of downstream flood risk, subject to wider catchment scale effects and sub-catchment storm hydrograph synchronicity. Keywords: Flood risk management, Natural flood management, Re-vegetation, Gully blocking, Water tables, Peatland hydrology

In this paper, we discuss the potential role of immersive interactive games in public engagement with environmental science, in this case flood risk management. Recent high magnitude storm events in the UK have fuelled great public interest in flooding. However, there remains an apparent mismatch between the scientific voice of flooding research and the wider public discourse, which we argue games may be able to address. Downpour! is a street game that casts players as flood risk advisers in a fictional flooding scenario. Players work in teams to respond to an immediate crisis and make longer-term decisions about mitigation through a series of encounters with actors, films, puzzles and treasure hunts. The game was created by a street game designer in collaboration with film-makers, environmental scientists and public institutions, with performances at the Manchester Science Festival and the Festival of Social Science 2016. Based on observations and responses from these events, we discuss how the game fostered understanding of, and engagement with, decision-making in flood risk management. Games offer people the agency to experiment with decisions in a safe space. As a result, we found that players begin to independently interrogate both scientific and political dimensions of flood management. The immersive nature of a street game further creates an emotional connection with the issues, which has the potential for triggering active involvement in flood-related efforts. We conclude by reflecting on the process behind the game creation, commenting on the strengths and difficulties of innovative collaborations between environmental scientists and creative practitioners.

Palynology is a crucial proxy for understanding Quaternary environmental change. A range of laboratory preparation techniques has been developed to deal with the extraction of pollen in different sedimentary contexts. Here, we present a comparison of the conventional hydrofluoric acid method and the dense-media separation method using sodium polytungstate. We examine pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs) and microcharcoal by undertaking parallel preparation and counting of 30 paired samples from three sites in the Middle Atlas Mountains, Morocco, with contrasting environmental and sedimentary conditions. Differences between microfossil counts are assessed visually and statistically, using ANOVA and linear regression. We observe that the typical offset between counts for the five most common pollen and NPPs produced by the two methods (µ = 1.6%, SD = 0.9%) is considerably smaller than the 95% uncertainty associated with the standard counting procedure (µ = 6.8%, SD = 2.7%). There is no statistically significant difference associated with the preparation methods, and no significant deviation from a linear relationship between the results obtained by the two methods. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods in terms of preparation time and visual characteristics. This study confirms that results for pollen, NPPs and microcharcoal obtained by either preparation method can be directly compared.

Peatlands are an important store of soil carbon, and play a vital role in global carbon cycling, and when located in close proximity to urban and industrial areas, can also act as sinks of atmospherically deposited heavy metals. Large areas of the UK's blanket peat are significantly degraded and actively eroding which negatively impacts carbon and pollutant storage. The restoration of eroding UK peatlands is a major conservation concern, and over the last decade measures have been taken to try to control erosion and restore large areas of degraded peat. This study utilizes a sediment source fingerprinting approach to assess the effect of restoration practices on sediment production, and carbon and pollutant export in the Peak District National Park, southern Pennines (UK). Suspended sediment was collected using time integrated mass flux samplers (TIMS), deployed across three field areas which represent the surface conditions exhibited through an erosion-restoration cycle: (i) intact; (ii) actively eroding; and (iii) recently re-vegetated. Anthropogenic pollutants stored near the peat's surface have allowed material mobilized by sheet erosion to be distinguished from sediment eroded from gully walls. Re-vegetation of eroding gully systems is most effective at stabilizing interfluve surfaces, switching the locus of sediment production from contaminated surface peat to relatively ‘clean’ gully walls. The stabilization of eroding surfaces reduces particulate organic carbon (POC) and lead (Pb) fluxes by two orders of magnitude, to levels comparable with those of an intact peatland, thus maintaining this important carbon and pollutant store. The re-vegetation of gully floors also plays a key role in decoupling eroding surfaces from the fluvial system, and further reducing the flux of material. These findings indicate that the restoration practices have been effective over a relatively short timescale, and will help target and refine future restoration initiatives.