1. Impacts and feedback of mitigation and adaptation measures
Dr. Pam Berry and James Paterson, Environmental Change Institute, U. of Oxford
and MACIS partners

2. Review of the impacts of mitigation and adaptation measures on biodiversity.
Agriculture
Forestry
Energy
Built environment
River and coastal flooding
Tourism and leisure
Health
Conservation

3. Breed cultivars that improve N use efficiency Mitigation measure: Increase productivity by the use of crop genotypes that are better able to utilise nitrogen under low nitrogen conditions. Results in lower N2O emissions. Adaptation measure: Not applicable. Impact on biodiversity: Positive - if lower nitrogen fertiliser rates are used the likelihood of eutrophication issues are reduced (Heathwaite et al., 1998; Haygarth, 2005; Withers and Haygarth, 2007).

4. Summary of impacts Ñ  
Precision farming 
No-till
Soil compaction
Water management
Cover crops
Plan ts
Inv erte brat es
Fis h
Am phi bia ns/ Rep tile s
Bir ds
Ma mm als
Agri cultu ral, horti cultu ral and dom estic habit ats
Unv eget ated or spar sely vege tated habit ats
Woo dlan d and othe r woo ded area s
Heath land, scrub and tundr a
Grassla nds and tall forb habitats
Mires , bogs and fens
Inlan d surfac e water s
Coast al
Marin e
Impact under best
practice
Impact under worst practice
Taxa affected
Habitats affected
Biodiversity Impact
Crop Production Mitigation or Adaptation Strategy
 Highly beneficial for biodiversity,  Moderately beneficial for biodiversity,
↔ No known effect on biodiversity, ↘ Moderately detrimental for biodiversity,
↓ Highly detrimental for biodiversity,

5. Impacts of coastal hard defence structures* ↑
Medium to long
Regional
Habitat fragmentation ↓
Dispersal barriers **
Non-native species
***
Short to medium
Local
Ephemeral and nuisance species ↑↓
Long
Fish and mobile fauna
Hard-bottom species richness
Soft-bottom species richness
Predictability
Direction of change
Temporal scale
Spatial scale
Factor
Both direction of change (↑=increase, ↓=decrease) and estimates of the current ability to make
predictions (*=low, **=moderate, ***=good). Modified from Airoldi et al., 2005.
Airoldi et al., 2005

6. Long Eau Washlands, (Lincolnshire): Washland recreation
(Morris, 2004)
(Morris, 2004)

7. Benefits Adaptation to flooding 18, 500 m3 flood storage
increased flood protection to dwellings downstream to 1 in 30 year floods
low cost
Benefit to biodiversity
re-creation of wetlands
increased fish and aquatic invertebrates
increased waders e.g. redshank (60+ pairs), curlew and dabbling ducks

8. What about adaptation and mitigation for rivers and coastal flood management ?
Mitigation Adaptation
Berry et al., (2008). MACIS report to EC
Berry et al., 2008

9. Effect on biodiversity
Known and potential relationships between mitigation and adaptation measures and their impacts on biodiversity
Green rooftops
Urban tree planting
Increased farmland irrigation
Forest pest control
Sea wall defence
New desalination plants
Large dams
Wind turbines
Low-till cultivation
Afforestation
Biofuels
Improved building insulation
Ex-situ conservation
Win-Win-Win
Lose-Win-Win
Win-Lose-Win
Flood control infrastructure
Species translocation
Win-Lose-Lose
Lose-Win-Lose
Win-Win-Lose
Positive
Forest conservation
Negative
Adaptation
Mitigation
Effect on biodiversity
Paterson et al., (2008) Conservation Biology

10. Risk assessment for a selection of measures in the built environment

11. Conclusions

12. Thank you!