Updates on our research, collaborations and exciting contributions from the scientists and experts at The James Hutton Institute.
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Did April feel cold to you? It did to many people, but apparently it wasn’t all that cold. Our weather data from Invergowrie showed that April was the joint 17th warmest month on our records, which date back to 1954, held jointly with 1959.
Cover crops are one way to increase diversity on farm and potentially have multiple benefits both above and below ground. These benefits include adding carbon and nitrogen to the soil, improving soil structure, capturing nutrients and passing them to the next crop, and reducing weed burden, depending on the specific cover crop species or mixture grown.
Scotland’s rural land and its managers have been at the forefront of the transition to using renewable energy systems. Over the 20 years up to 2023, they’ve played a significant role in increasing the generation of renewable electricity in Scotland from 3.3GW installed capacity 14.2GW.
The US has joined a growing number of countries waking up to the risks posed by the presence of PFAS, more commonly known as forever chemicals, in our environment, drinking water and food.
How can we repopulate and keep communities strong on Scotland’s islands, how can we make sure there is adequate access to housing in rural areas and could remote working be the boost needed to create rural resilience?
Our graduate research assistant programme makes the transition much easier. We’ve been running it in our social, economic and geographic sciences (SEGS) department since 2020. The latest tranche just completed their six-month placements on the programme – and some have been lucky enough to have their contacts extended while others are looking forward to the next steps in their career.
The winter months, December to February 2024, were the second warmest winter on our records at Invergowrie, with a daily mean air temperature of 5.3°C. This beats only 1998, which saw a daily air mean of 5.8°C, according to our records, which date back to 1954. It was also a relatively wet winter, with 251 mm of rainfall recorded, making it the tenth wettest winter on our records.
The James Hutton Institute is a partner on a newly funded pilot project, led by Fife Coast & Countryside Trust (FCCT), aiming to blend public, philanthropic and private financing to restore a catchment area in Fife.
Here at the Hutton, environmental DNA (eDNA for short) is in a board range of projects, and we’re launching a series of blogs profiling some of the Hutton researchers and their collaborators who are using this transformative technology.
Major flood events cause significant and long-lasting disruption to lives. Our research suggests we’re going to experience the impacts of such extreme events more often, as we share increasingly busy spaces with the natural world. But there are some measures we can take to soften those impacts. It starts with understanding what causes flooding.
