Research within this theme considers hydrological and ecological processes and interactions within and between terrestrial and aquatic environments. The following examples provide an overview of our research interests which are focussed on: plant physiological processes at the population and community level; and the response of lakes and rivers, along with the organisms that inhabit them, to environmental variability and change.

Jonathon Millett is a plant ecologist with particular interest in the cycling of nitrogen within plants, and between plants and other organisms. He works on trees in forest ecosystems and on carnivorous plants in bog ecosystems using stable isotopes to quantify the exchange of nitrogen within and between organisms. He also investigates the impact of herbivory by large mammals and competition from associated vegetation on morphology and internal nitrogen cycling in Betula pubescens. This work shows that the remobilisation of stored nitrogen in the spring is affected by competition and that this impact is dependent on the identity of the competing plants. Other work has examined the impact of elevated atmospheric CO2 on N-fixation by Alnus glutinosa in the BangorFACE study (http://www.bangor.ac.uk/~afsa0e/). Stable isotopes have also been used to calculate the relative contribution of prey and root derived nitrogen to the carnivorous plant Drosera rotundifolia (Roundleaved sundew). This research shows that on average 50% of their nitrogen is derived from insect prey.

Dave Ryves researches crater lakes in West Africa to examine connections between human impact, climate, and environmental change over long-term timescales. Biological and physical environmental proxies preserved within lake sediments provide key information on processes and environments in the past that can provide clues to future ecosystem responses to change. NERC-funded research has also explored links between environment and health over the last century through the incidence of vector-borne diseases in Uganda (such as malaria, relapsing fever and sleeping sickness). Other work examining the long-term development and response of aquatic environments to both natural and cultural impacts on inland and coastal systems has been undertaken in East Africa, West Greenland, Denmark, North America and Siberia (Lake Baikal).

Paul Wood researches environmental controls on instream communities. This interdisciplinary work encompasses aspects of freshwater ecology, hydrology geomorphology and the conservation and management of freshwater ecosystems. Research on groundwater-dominated ecosystems examines natural and anthropogenic stresses on caves, springs and the hyporheic and benthic zone of rivers. NERC-funded research has examined the impact of supra-seasonal drought on macroinvertebrates within the hyporheic and benthic zone of chalk streams. This work highlights the importance of the hyporheic zone as a refugium for benthic invertebrates during periods of hydrological stress. Other research addresses the response of instream communities to river flow regime variability over a range of spatial and temporal scales, as well as mechanisms by which river hydromorphology may alter this response in contemporary and palaeoecological settings.