‘Water management for nature conservation: conflicts and synergies’

Management of freshwater in the soils and rocks is key to many aspects of habitat conservation. This talk will address questions about the requirements of different species and habitats re soil water

Freshwater conjures up images of lakes, rivers and ponds, but most of our freshwater resource is actually in soils and rocks, where it is stored and through which it flows. The lecture will focus on this unseen body of water and how it interacts with vegetation. The management of soil water is key to many aspects of habitat conservation, especially in floodplains, where all aspects of hydrology are impacted by human regulation of the water cycle. David’s talk will address questions around what are the requirements of different species and different habitats in terms of soil water. To what extent can soil water be managed and, when it is, what conflicts may arise. The focus will be on vegetation response to management, but the implications for other taxa (such as birds and soil invertebrates) will also be discussed.

David Gowing is Professor of Botany at the Open University and Director of the Floodplain Meadows Partnership. He studied Botany at Cambridge and started his research career as a plant physiologist in Lancaster, investigating how plants consume water and respond to deficits. He became interested in how species compete for resources and moved to Cranfield University to work with a team of hydrologists and soil physicists to understand how soil water controls vegetation.
He has become involved in the emerging discipline of Ecohydrology and has applied ecological principles to the management of water in soils for nature conservation objectives, advising a range of nature conservation bodies on site management issues. For the past 8 years, he has worked for the Open University, contributing material to their distance-learning modules in Ecology, Environmental Science and Ecosystems. He has built a research group there looking at vegetation ecology in relation to water and nutrient management. His primary research focus for the past 15 years has been the species-rich plant communities of floodplain meadows and their conservation requirements. In 2007, he helped found the Floodplain Meadows Partnership, which is a forum for all agencies involved in their conservation.

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