Waitrose working to encourage sustainable food production
A passion for sustainable supply chains and the desire to do something useful, brought Becky Swinn to Lancaster University. Now her research project comparing the carbon footprint of British, Dutch and Kenyan cut flowers has won the prize for the Best Collaborative Project at the Lancaster Environment Centre. But, like many others, she wasn’t sure […]
Lancaster University is to strengthen its international links with strategic partners in Argentina through a new fellowship programme The university is to receive support through the new UUKi Rutherford Fund Strategic Partner Grant scheme, which is funded by the UK Department for Business Energy and international Strategy through the £118 million Rutherford Fund, which aims to attract global talent […]
The highest daily rainfall in 50 years didn’t stop members of the Lancaster Environment Centre’s new Sustainability Group putting their principles into practice The launch of the Group, which aims to support staff and students at the Lancaster Environment Centre to put sustainability into action, started indoors with presentations about the environmental and social impact […]
Researchers have quantified for the first time the long term threat to global drinking water posed by agricultural pollution trapped in the rocks beneath our feet. In a paper published in Nature Communications, researchers from the British Geological Survey (BGS) and Lancaster University show that vast quantities of nitrate are stored in the rocky layer between our soils and […]
A new study finds that even low levels of logging in the Amazon rainforest may lead to great losses in biodiversity. More than 403 million hectares of tropical forests worldwide have been earmarked for timber concessions with selective logging a common economic activity. The Brazilian Amazon alone holds around 4.5 billion m³ of commercial timber volume, […]
Honey bees love the invasive plant Himalayan balsam and eat it like ‘fast food’ but, like humans, they thrive better on a varied diet. A study of honey bee bread in Lancashire and Cumbria bee hives showed that in some samples nearly 90% of the pollen came from the invasive plant Himalayan balsam. Bee bread […]
A non-renewable resource, phosphorus (P) is essential for crop and food production. However, due to inefficient use and limited global reserves, inorganic P fertilisers will become less economically viable and there are concerns about future supplies and the environmental consequences of mismanagement. Without action, this situation could undermine agricultural productivity and sustainability.
Major changes in agricultural practices will be required to offset increases in nutrient losses due to climate change, according to research published by a scientific consortium including the James Hutton Institute.
Lancaster University leads a ground-breaking project working with African researchers and entrepreneurs to address the urgent need for safe, sustainable water use in Africa The £6.8M project, part of the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund, aims to build capacity within Africa to carry out and translate high quality research into the new products, processes and […]
Most businesses are unaware that their bottom lines depend on soil, let alone of the huge risks they face from its degradation, sustainability expert Dr Jessica Davies from Lancaster University writes in a comment piece in the latest edition of Nature (published Thursday 16 March 2017).
©2019 LANCASTER UNIVERSITY