School of Geography - Faculty of Environment

PROJECTS & WORK IN PROGRESS

Current Projects

EMBER: Effects of Moorland Burning on the Ecohydrology of River Basins

I am the principle investigator on this 38 month NERC standard grant. This project will provide new scientific information to inform policy relevant to the practice of rotational heather/grass burning in the UK uplands. Four work packages will examine: (i) soil hydrology, physical properties and water chemistry (led by co-investigator  Joseph Holden); (ii) stream hydrology and water quality (led by co-investigator Sheila Palmer); (iii) stream macroinvertebrate communities, and; (iv) the response of stream invertebrates and algae to controlled experimental manipulations of sediment concentration and water quality. The project has two postdoctoral research assistants: Dr Kerrylyn Johnston and Dr Catherine Wearing.

The project complements a 36 month NERC CASE studentship (with Natural England) looking at biodiversity and ecosystem function in moorland streams (led by PhD student Katie Aspray).

Streams in cold environments

The majority of my published work to date relates to work undertaken during my NERC funded PhD in the Taillon Glacier basin, French Pyrénées in collaboration with David Hannah and Sandy Milner (both Birmingham). Using hydrochemical sampling and end member mixing modelling techniques we have successfully quantified diurnal and inter-annual variability in water source contributions to different streams (Brown et al., 2006 in Water Resources Research). Further research has shown how water source contributions influence the physicochemical habitat characteristics of these streams, with results indicating possibilities for linking catchment water sources with habitat variability at the reach scale (Brown et al., 2007 and 2009 in Freshwater Biology).

A further strand of this alpine stream research showed how ecological community dynamics (and potentially species extinctions) can be predicted once the water source-physicochemical habitat-biological community cascade is understood (Brown et al., 2007 in Global Change Biology and Brown et al., 2007 in Freshwater Biology). We have also made significant progress understanding how alpine stream thermal dynamics are linked to landscape characteristics and hydrometeorological conditions (Brown et al., 2005 in Hydrological Processes; Brown et al., 2006 in Journal of Hydrology; Brown & Hannah, 2007 in Journal of Hydrometeorology; Brown & Hannah, 2008 in Hydrological Processes). My studies of Pyrenean endemic aquatic macroinvertebrate distributions continued through a collaboration with Régis Céréghino [Toulouse] (Brown et al., 2009 in Biological Conservation).

Further work is continuing with Birmingham on glacier-fed stream ecology  funded under the EUFP7 ACQWA project.

In addition, studies by Neil Dickson (co-supervised by Jon Carrivick, Steve Carver [both Leeds] and Leopold Füreder [Innsbruck]) were undertaken in the Odenwinkelkees Glacier basin, Austrian Alps from 2007-2009. This work was funded by NERC, the Royal Society, EUFAR and the University of Leeds. A major aim is to better understand the role of floodplain expansion/contraction cycles for influencing alpine stream ecosystems year-round. As part of this work we have been examining the geomorphological dynamics of the Odenwinkelkees river floodplain using Terrestrial Laser Scanning techniques (collaboration with Jeff Warburton, Durham [funded by Royal Geographical Society and Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors]), to identify zones of erosion and deposition across the braided proglacial floodplain, at timescales from hourly to seasonal and annual. Work is also ongoing in collaboration with Ursula Eisendle (Salzburg) to examine the spatiotemporal dynamics of meiofauna in alpine glacier-fed rivers.

Alongside departmental colleagues (Jon Carrivick, Katherine Arrell) and the University of Birmingham (David Hannah, Sandy Milner) I am also conducting studies at Abisko, Swedish Lappland (funded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science and RGS-IBG) to expand our alpine stream research (above) into an Arctic context (See Carrivick et al. in press). Other studies have been undertaken in the Matukituki River basin, New Zealand (see Cadbury et al., 2008 in River Research and Applications).

I have also recently been working in Alaska on a NERC funded project examining the effects of flood disturbance (est. 1 in 100 year event) on primary succession in river ecosystems. Work was undertaken in Glacier Bay in collaboration with Sandy Milner (Birmingham) and Anne Robertson (Roehampton). The effects of the flood are being examined in the context of a unique 30+ year pre-flood disturbance record, which includes information on meiofauna, macroinvertebrates and fish following glacier retreat. Early indications suggest that the flood has shifted the biological composition of some streams back to an earlier successional state. We have also compared the successional dynamics between different streams (see Milner et al. 2011 in Ecology) Other work in Alaska has examined spatial and temporal variability of ecological communities in streams of Denali National Park, Alaska (Milner et al., 2006 in Freshwater Biology)

Peatland management effects on stream ecosystems

Peatland covers around 500 million hectares of global land surface, storing up to half the world's soil carbon. Poor management of these environments can result in vast environmental changes. Widespread management of UK peatlands, including artificial drainage and heather/grass burning, has resulted in significant changes in flow regimes, hydrochemistry and sediment fluxes of streams and rivers but effects on stream biological communities remain largely unknown. A new 38 month project funded by NERC began in June 2009 to examine the effects of moorland burning on the ecohydrology of river basins. Work by Sorain Ramchunder funded by NERC, Yorkshire Water, Natural England and the North Pennines AONB Peatscapes Partnership has begun to address these research gaps (see Ramchunder et al., 2009 in Progress in Physical Geography; Ramchunder et al. 2011 in Ecohydrology; Ramchunder et al., 2012 in Journal of Applied Ecology).

Fieldwork is being undertaken in the Pennines west of Barnsley, at Upper Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales, and at Moor House National Nature Reserve, Upper Teesdale. A second PhD student (Katie Aspray; co-supervised by Joe Holden, Mark Ledger [Birmingham] and Chris Mainstone [Natural England]) is examining relationships between freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem function in these moorland stream environments.

Aquatic food webs

A major ongoing piece of work is examining the effects of flow disturbance on freshwater food webs (collaboration with Mark Ledger and Sandy Milner [Birmingham], Francois Edwards [CEH Dorset] and Guy Woodward [Queen Mary London]). We have shown how mesocosms are able to support replicable and biocomplex food webs (Brown et al., 2011 in Journal of Animal Ecology) Results suggest that food web structure may be highly resilient to low flow disturbance despite significant decreases in diversity, abundance and secondary production (Ledger et al., 2011 in Global Change Biology). This work has also led to wider comparisons of aquatic food webs with other ecological networks (Ings et al., 2009 in Journal of Animal Ecology; Woodward et al. 2009 in Advances in Ecological Research; Woodward et al. 2010 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B).

Grants and Prizes

• Palmer, S., Holden, J. & Brown, L.E. Impacts of wildfire on water quality; the Marsden moor case study. Yorkshire Water. October 2011-2013.
• Brown, L.E., Holden, J., Armstrong, A. & Bates, A.J. The biodiversity of natural and artificial upland blanket peat bog pools. Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Apr. 2011-Sept. 2012
• Holden, J., Palmer, S. & Brown, L.E., Grayson, R. & Wearing, C. Monitoring water quality in Chellow raw waters - Woo Gill experimental catchment manipulation. Yorkshire Water and ARUP. Jan. 2011-Apr. 2013
• Brown, L.E. Macroinvertebrate community structure and functional development in reedswamp habitat. Part funded (50%) PhD studentship. Freshwater Biological Association. Oct. 2010-2013
• Johnson, K.L. & Brown, L.E. Catchment management influences on moorland stream biodiversity. MRF0610. Mar. 2010
• Kay, P., Brown, L.E. & Hughes, S. Impacts of pharmaceuticals and personal care products on UK river ecosystems. NERC quota studentship fieldwork and exceptional consumables funding. Oct. 2009
• Slack, R. & Brown, L.E. Developing the top 100 research questions with relevance to UK water policy. University of Leeds Enterprise and Knowledge Transfer Fund. September 2009.
• Brown, L.E., Holden, J. & Palmer, S. EMBER – Effects of Moorland Burning on the Ecohydrology of River basins. NERC standard grant NE/G00224X/1. April 2009-June 2012
• Ramchunder, S. & Brown, L.E. Benthic macroinvertebrate communities of Pinminnoch Burn, Pinminnoch Farm. Centre for Research into Environmental Health (CREH). April 2009.
• Brown, L.E. Royal Society Overseas Travel Grant (R2008/R3) to attend the 2009 American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) conference in Nice, France. January 2009
• Hannah, D.M., Milner, A.M. & Brown, L.E. Hydroecological response of Svalbard river systems to climate change: integrated comparison of responses across a number of high latitude basins. European Centre for Arctic Environmental Research (ARCFAC-V: ARCFAC-026129-2008-72).
• Carrivick, J.L., Brown, L.E., Arrell, K.E., Carver, S. & Evans, A. Modelling meltwater production, hydrogeomorphology and ecological processes in an alpine proglacial river system. European Fleet for Airborne Research (EUFAR). June 2008.
• Carrivick, J.L., Arrell, K., Brown, L.E. & Carver, S. Integrated modelling of Arctic glacier runoff and floodplain dynamics. Quaternary Research Association. June 2008 
• Brown, L.E. Detritus subsidies, biodiversity and ecosystem function in UK moorland streams. British Ecological Society small ecological project grant 1922 / 2273. June 2008
• Brown, L.E., Ledger, M.E., Holden, J. & Mainstone, C. Patch-scale mesocosms for applied aquatic ecology research: An assessment of replicability, realism and issues for upscaling. UKPopNet pump priming call for early career researchers. May 2008. 
• Brown, L.E., Carrivick, J.L., Arrell, K. Warburton, J. & Füreder, L. Hydrogeomorphological response of alpine glacier-fed rivers to meltwater flood-pulses. Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG) Geographical Fieldwork Grant [GFG39/08] with Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Mar. 2007 
• Carrivick, J.L., Brown, L.E. & Arrell, K.E. Integrating research and teaching through online, on-demand access to telemetry-enabled field dataloggers. University of Leeds Academic Development Fund for Learning and Teaching. February 2008 – March 2009. 
• Brown, L.E., Holden, J., Ledger, M.E. & Mainstone, C. Biodiversity and ecosystem function in changing moorland landscapes. NERC open CASE studentship with support from Natural England (NE/F/013663/1). October 2008 - October 2011. 
• Brown, L.E., Carrivick, J.L. & Dickson, N. NERC quota studentship fieldwork and exceptional consumables funding (NE/F008619/1) Oct. 2007 
• Brown, L.E. The effects of elevated organic matter loads on the invertebrates of upland streams. Natural England SAE03-02-051 
• Brown, L.E. & Holden, J. Understanding moorland aquatic insect ecology to inform biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management. Peatscapes. 
• Carrivick, J.L., Brown, L.E. & Arrell, K.E. Modelling Arctic glacier runoff and floodplain dynamics. Royal Geographical Society - Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG) geographical fieldwork grant. Award number: GFG 08/07 H.R. Mill Trust Fund. Mar. 2007. 
• Carrivick, J.L., Brown, L.E. & Arrell, K.E. Quantitative modelling of a volcanically-influenced proglacial system - Kverkjokull, Iceland. Airborne Research and Survey Facility (ARSF) LiDAR flight. NERC award number IPY07/01. March 2007. 
• Brown, L.E. Alpine river ecosystem response to shrinking glaciers and snowpacks. Royal Society overseas short visit grant to develop collaboration with Dr. Leopold Füreder, University of Innsbruck. Feb. 2007. 
• Carrivick, J.L., Brown, L.E. & Arrell, K.E. Modelling Arctic glacier runoff and floodplain dynamics. Application for the Transnational Access Programme (ATANS) - Award number: FP6 506004. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Feb. 2007. 
• Brown, L.E. & Heppenstall, A. Podcasting/vodcasting for Geographers and Environmental Scientists. Faculty of Environment Learning and Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund. Jan. 2007. 
• Carrivick, J.L., Brown, L.E. & Arrell, K.E. Virtual field course linked to Level 3 student research module, New Zealand. Faculty of Environment Learning and Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund. Jan. 2007. 
• Brown, L.E. European Geophysical Union (EGU) award to attend the April 2007 EGU conference in Vienna, Austria, based on submitted abstract. Dec. 2006. 
• Holden, J., Brown, L.E. & Ramchunder, S. NERC CASE studentship fieldwork and exceptional consumables funding (NER/S/A/2006/14151) Sept. 2006 
• Holden, J., Brown, L.E. & Ramchunder, S. Yorkshire Water CASE studentship fieldwork funding. Sept. 2006. 
• Milner, A.M., Brown, L.E. & Robertson, A. The influence of major FLOOD disturbance on River EcoSystem Evolution Trajectories (FLOODRESET) in recently deglaciated terrain. NERC urgency award number NE/E003729/1. August 2006. 
• Brown, L.E. Impact of reservoir releases on river ecology. Yorkshire Water. July 2006. 
• Brown, L.E. Royal Society Conference Grant (R2006/R1) - to attend the 2006 North American Benthological Society (NABS) Conference in Anchorage, Alaska. May 2006 
• Brown, L.E. British Hydrological Society (BHS) travel award - to attend the 2006 NABS Conference in Anchorage, Alaska. April 2006. 
• Brown, L.E. NABS President's Award - to attend the 2004 NABS Conference in Vancouver, Canada, based on an extended abstract. April 2004. 
• Brown, L.E. British Hydrological Society (BHS) travel award - to attend the 2004 NABS Conference in Vancouver, Canada. April 2004. 
• Brown, L.E. BHS travel award - to attend the 2004 BHS International conference in London. April 2004. 
• Milner, A.M., Hannah, D.M. & Brown, L.E. NERC Studentship overseas fieldwork funding. NERC Award number NER/S/A/2001/05984. October 2001. 
• Brown, L.E. The David Kay Award for highest mark in Level 3 individual research project, School of the Environment, University of Leeds, 2001: Benthic macroinvertebrate community recovery following mine drainage remediation. June 2001.