Edward Maltby
University of Liverpool, School of Environmental Sciences, Faculty Member
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Wetlands occupy an estimated 6 per cent of the world’s land surface. Detailed inventories of types and location, however, are substantially incomplete and information on functions, values and status is extremely limited at the global scale.
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Soil cores from river marginal wetlands from the Torridge and Severn catchments in the UK were collected to study rates of soil denitrification at different sites and at two stations (levee and backplain depression) at the river margin.... more
Soil cores from river marginal wetlands from the Torridge and Severn catchments in the UK were collected to study rates of soil denitrification at different sites and at two stations (levee and backplain depression) at the river margin. Half the cores were sterilized prior to flooding to destroy the denitrifying bacteria. After flooding and equilibration, monitoring the concentration of amended nitrate in the supernatant of the sterile cores over a period of 7 days provided a simple procedure for the estimation of the diffusion coefficient of the nitrate ion in the flooded soils. An expression was developed that permitted this diffusion coefficient to be extracted from the slope of a plot of supernatant concentration versus (time)1/2. The values obtained, at 15 °C, varied from 2·4 to 6·8 × 10−10m2s−1. Sterile cores are usually treated as controls in denitrification experiments; this work develops a procedure whereby they may yield useful soil process information. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Research Interests: Geography and Mesopotamia
Peat mines may accumulate up to 2.25 t C per hectare per year. Peatlands cover about 397 m ha. Peatlands may well contain 329-528 billion tonnes of carbon. However alteration of peatlands for agriculture and forestry is probably expanding... more
Peat mines may accumulate up to 2.25 t C per hectare per year. Peatlands cover about 397 m ha. Peatlands may well contain 329-528 billion tonnes of carbon. However alteration of peatlands for agriculture and forestry is probably expanding at an annual rate of 550,000 ha. The CO[sub 2] source resulting, added to the lost sink, totals 426-730 mt CO[sub 2] per year. Exploitation of both mines and peatlands will result in the rapid release of a carbon store which has accumulated over millenia. 200 refs., 19 figs., 45 tabs.
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Wetland ecosystems perform functions which give rise to goods and services for direct and indirect human use, environmental quality and biodiversity. Yet policies for wetland protection and management, especially in Europe and the... more
Wetland ecosystems perform functions which give rise to goods and services for direct and indirect human use, environmental quality and biodiversity. Yet policies for wetland protection and management, especially in Europe and the developing world, have been based primarily on wildlife criteria and traditional nature conservation approaches. This chapter examines the wider functional significance of wetlands with particular reference to water quality benefits and the case for new policies to capture greater societal advantages from their protection. Examples are given at various scales of the effort to reduce the gap between scientific knowledge of how wetlands work and the new methods emerging to improve decision making and ensure stronger linkage to policies.
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An important element of all peatland restoration projects is a programme of monitoring to check results and progress. Several peat project workshops identified a demand for technical guidance on monitoring techniques. So Natural England... more
An important element of all peatland restoration projects is a programme of monitoring to check results and progress. Several peat project workshops identified a demand for technical guidance on monitoring techniques. So Natural England commissioned this study to: -Review the range of peatland restoration monitoring techniques available. -Identify those that were consistent, informative and easily applicable for peatland restoration projects at a range of scales and budgets. Tables to identify appropriate monitoring techniques for specific projects are published in the Technical Information Note TIN097 - Guidelines for monitoring peatland restoration. Further information on these techniques is provided in this report. The findings of this study have been used to: -Inform the JNCC project to design a research programme on UK Peatland Green House Gas and Carbon Flux. -Develop thinking on monitoring peatlands in the IUCN UK Peatland Programme. -Inform hydrological monitoring ...
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ABSTRACT The nature and rate of soil and peat development is of particular importance in the context of upland palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. They are also relevant in the evaluation of the contemporary status of the soils and... more
ABSTRACT The nature and rate of soil and peat development is of particular importance in the context of upland palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. They are also relevant in the evaluation of the contemporary status of the soils and organic deposits. For a part of Exmoor, a study was made of organic matter accumulation on mineral spoil thrown up in the course of excavation in the nineteenth century and of peat development on peaty-gley podzols and blanket bog on adjacent areas. A mathematical model is applied to the development of the organic soil horizon on the mineral spoil. Determinations of the rates of accumulation of organic matter in discrete form are made using a combination of radiocarbon dates, recent historical events, peat stratigraphy and palynological evidence. Mathematical simulation emphasizes the speed of pedogenesis in an upland environment. Particular attention is focused on the apparent recent increase in peat accumulation for which various explanations are offered.
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Introduction D. Whigman, D. Dykyjova, S. Hejny. 1. Wetlands of Africa: Introduction P. Denny. Eastern Africa P. Denny. Western Africa D.M. John, C. Leveque, L.E. Newton. South Africa C.M. Breen, J. Heeg, M. Seaman. Summary P. Denny. 2.... more
Introduction D. Whigman, D. Dykyjova, S. Hejny. 1. Wetlands of Africa: Introduction P. Denny. Eastern Africa P. Denny. Western Africa D.M. John, C. Leveque, L.E. Newton. South Africa C.M. Breen, J. Heeg, M. Seaman. Summary P. Denny. 2. Wetlands of Southern Europe and North Africa: Mediterranean Wetlands R.H. Britton, A.J. Crivelli. 3. Wetlands of Australia: Northern (Tropical) Australia C.M. Finlayson, I. von Oertzen. Southern (Temperate) Australia S.W.L. Jacobs, M.A. Brock. 4. Wetlands of Papua New Guinea P.L. Osborne. 5. Wetlands of South Asia B. Gopal, K. Krishnamurthy. 6. Wetlands of Canada and Greenland W.A. Glooschenko, C. Tarnocai, S. Zoltai, V. Glooschenko. 7. Wetlands of the United States B.O. Wilen, R.W. Tiner. 8. Wetlands of Mexico I. Olmsted. 9. Wetlands of Tropical South America W.J. Junk. Index.
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possible lessons for decision making of seeking to take into account consequences which were difficult to quantify and predict and hence were awkward to set against public preferences for the benefits of water development. So the basic... more
possible lessons for decision making of seeking to take into account consequences which were difficult to quantify and predict and hence were awkward to set against public preferences for the benefits of water development. So the basic purpose of the book was not met. I am not at all sure the water engineers and planners present were any more enlightened and I cannot see how many readers would be intellectually stimulated. Nevertheless there are some good chapters on risk assessment, especially the contribution by Bill Rowe and one good piece on the US National Flood Insurance Program showing how its aims have been emasculated by politics. Basically, as always, people want their cake and also eat it. The flood hazard maps will be provided but they will not determine planning of settlement and business on the flood plain nor will they control whether public money assists such development or not. They should, if competently done, but they were not competently done. Geographers should take note. There is a lot of money in good flood hazard mapping consultancies in the US (or at least there was in 1981).
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Peat mines may accumulate up to 2.25 t C per hectare per year. Peatlands cover about 397 m ha. Peatlands may well contain 329-528 billion tonnes of carbon. However alteration of peatlands for agriculture and forestry is probably expanding... more
Peat mines may accumulate up to 2.25 t C per hectare per year. Peatlands cover about 397 m ha. Peatlands may well contain 329-528 billion tonnes of carbon. However alteration of peatlands for agriculture and forestry is probably expanding at an annual rate of 550,000 ha. The CO[sub 2] source resulting, added to the lost sink, totals 426-730 mt CO[sub 2] per year. Exploitation of both mines and peatlands will result in the rapid release of a carbon store which has accumulated over millenia. 200 refs., 19 figs., 45 tabs.
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This paper reviews some of the key influences that wetlands have had on the development of human society together with the history of wetland use, conservation and management in the context of changing human interactions from prehistoric... more
This paper reviews some of the key influences that wetlands have had on the development of human society together with the history of wetland use, conservation and management in the context of changing human interactions from prehistoric to modern times. It documents the origins of the Ramsar Convention and the changes in the criteria for defining wetlands of international importance from an emphasis on migratory birds to those of wider functional importance contributing to community well-being. This led to a significant increase in the number of signatories from developing countries The change in scientific emphasis from ecology to ecosystems (and ecosystem services) is identified as a key element of the wetland paradigm shift, which has occurred in the last half century and renewed the recognition of the importance of the natural capital of wetlands. It represents a change in research agenda from what wetlands are to what wetlands do. Modification of the Ramsar wise use concept is...
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Available from Centro de Informacion y Documentacion Cientifica CINDOC. Joaquin Costa, 22. 28002 Madrid. SPAIN / CINDOC - Centro de Informaciòn y Documentaciòn CientìficaSIGLEESSpai
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Linking biophysical aspects of ecosystems with human benefits through the notion of ecosystem services is essential to assess the trade-offs (ecological, socio-cultural, economic and monetary) involved in the loss of ecosystems and... more
Linking biophysical aspects of ecosystems with human benefits through the notion of ecosystem services is essential to assess the trade-offs (ecological, socio-cultural, economic and monetary) involved in the loss of ecosystems and biodiversity in a clear and consistent manner. Any ecosystem assessment should be spatially and temporally explicit at scales meaningful for policy formation or interventions, inherently acknowledging that both ecological functioning and economic values are context, space and time specific. Any ecosystem assessment should first aim to determine the service delivery in biophysical terms, to provide solid ecological underpinning to the economic valuation or measurement with alternative metrics. Clearly delineating between functions, services and benefits is important to make ecosystem assessments more accessible to economic valuation, although no consensus has yet been reached on the classification. Ecosystem assessments should be set within the context of contrasting scenarios - recognising that both the values of ecosystem services and the costs of actions can be best measured as a function of changes between alternative options. In assessing trade-offs between alternative uses of ecosystems, the total bundle of ecosystem services provided by different conversion and management states should be included. Any valuation study should be fully aware of the „cost‟ side of the equation, as focus on benefits only ignores important societal costs like missed opportunities of alternative uses; this also allows for a more extensive range of societal values to be considered. Ecosystem assessments should integrate an analysis of risks and uncertainties, acknowledging the limitations of knowledge on the impacts of human actions on ecosystems and their services and on their importance to human well-being. In order to improve incentive structures and institutions, the different stakeholders - i.e. the beneficiaries of ecosystem services, those who are providing the services, those involved in or affected by the use, and the actors involved at different levels of decision-making - should be clearly identified, and decision making processes need to be transparent
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Research Interests: Medicine and Floodplain
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This work forms part of a preparatory phase leading to a handbook providing guidelines for the sustainable utlization and integrated management of tropical peatlands. The papers cover the resource and its conservation; social cultural and... more
This work forms part of a preparatory phase leading to a handbook providing guidelines for the sustainable utlization and integrated management of tropical peatlands. The papers cover the resource and its conservation; social cultural and economic factors affecting utlization; forestry management approaches; case studies; and concludes with a summary of the workshop sessions focusing on future directions.