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Research Title
Bringing back the burbot via hydrological rewilding
- More about聽Reagan
- PG Cert. Conservation 鈥� University College London
- BSc Geography 鈥� King鈥檚 College London
Past Projects
- 鈥淒o-it-yourself鈥�: evaluating the potential of Arduino technology in monitoring water quality (BSc Dissertation)
- Publications
- Pearce, R.H., Chadwick, M.A. and Francis, R., 2022. Experiential learning in physical geography using arduino low-cost environmental sensors.聽Journal of Geography in Higher Education, pp.1-20.
- Chan, K.,聽Schillereff, D.N., Baas, A.C., Chadwick, M.A., Main, B., Mulligan, M., O鈥橲hea, F.T., Pearce, R., Smith, T.E., Van聽Soesbergen, A. and聽Tebbs, E., 2021. Low-cost electronic sensors for environmental research: pitfalls and opportunities.聽Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment,聽45(3), pp.305-338.
- Research Interests
The burbot (Lota lota)聽is a freshwater cod that was generally accepted to have gone extinct in the UK in the early 1970s due to river modification and pollution. The burbot requires聽good water quality and a mixture of slow flowing, deep water, backchannel, and floodplain habitat. Essentially,聽a laterally and longitudinally connected, complex river system.聽
This kind of river habitat聽would聽not only have the benefit of supporting聽burbot, but聽would聽support a wider diversity of taxa (i.e., macroinvertebrates, macrophytes, fish) as this connectivity will produce a more heterogenous aquatic ecosystem. The project aims to assess whether the River Wissey, Norfolk, UK is suitable for a potential future reintroduction of the burbot and if not, analyse how best the river can be restored聽to聽support a wider diversity of aquatic species, including the burbot.
Specifically,聽the research will seek to establish baseline ecological, hydrological, hydro-chemical, and climatological data聽in order to聽launch a successful reintroduction scheme聽and聽assess whether the burbot could survive in this system or what could be improved.
Methodology
The聽methodologies can be divided into four components: ecology, water chemistry, hydrology, and river habitat.聽The river hydrology will be studied using hydrological modelling聽and water-level data collection聽to understand temporal and spatial variations in floodplain inundation.
聽As well as for water level, low-cost, opensource environmental sensors will be established in a local monitoring network for temperature聽to聽understand the temporal and spatial variations in thermal regime, to validate the habitat鈥檚 suitability. Walkover surveys will also be used to map聽meso- and microhabitats in the river system.聽
Finally, fish surveys will be undertaken聽using聽electric fishing, fyke netting, and eDNA sampling to determine, to a high accuracy, the existing fish population and how the burbot would interact聽with聽the existing ecology.
Impact
The results will provide a comprehensive study of the potential reintroduction site, key for the success of any聽species reintroduction,聽and to help prioritise future restoration activities.聽The methods themselves will validate suitable means for post-reintroduction monitoring of a burbot population, while the practice of using a beneficial, lost species to guide river conservation will add to the聽published聽evidence of the benefits of nature-led conservation strategies.
Moreover, the project will help to聽solidify聽relations with local stakeholder groups聽by聽disseminating information, which will benefit a possible reintroduction at some point in the future.
- Research Funding
- CASE partnership with
