Sir David Attenborough learns about butterfly conservation from Reading PhD student

Monday, 29 March 2010

University of Reading PhD student, Robin Blake talks to Sir David Attenborough

Robin is researching into the way grassland buffer strips are maintained could have a significant impact on improving biodiversity on farms. Over a two-year period, Robin managed to almost double the number of butterflies on existing grass buffer strips by finding an effective way of encouraging wildflower growth. This was of great interest to Sir David who has an enormous interest in natural history and diversification of species.

Buffer strips are small areas of vegetation around the edges of fields, designed to enhance biodiversity and reduce the impact of agricultural operations on nearby habitats. They were introduced as part of a suite of agri-environmental measures to help reverse declines in farmland biodiversity caused by modern farming methods. Loss and degradation of habitat such as wildflower meadows has been implicated in a 23% decline in farmland butterflies between 1990 and 2007.

Robin's project found that wildflowers could be successfully introduced into existing grass buffer strips and when managed, produced a higher abundance and diversity of butterflies compared to existing conventionally managed grass buffer strips.

Robin, who is conducting his research in the University's School of Agriculture, Policy and Development said: "Over the past two years we monitored the numbers of wildflowers and butterflies on buffer strips on two farms in Southern England. The results are encouraging as our managed buffer strips have really increased butterfly numbers. Further assessments over the next two years will determine if the wildflowers we introduced to the buffer strips can persist and continue to enhance butterfly populations. We hope that this work could signal a new approach for agri-environmental policy, and eventually lead to increased biodiversity on farms in the UK."

Robin's project is supervised at the University by Dr Simon Potts and Dr Duncan Westbury, and by Peter Sutton from Syngenta. The BBSRC and Syngenta each fund 50% of the project.