Biodiversity and conservation at Glen Lochay
Ripa Gar Foundation – James Hutton Institute partnership
The James Hutton Institute is the UK’s largest environmental research institute, globally recognised for delivering fundamental and applied ecosystem science to drive sustainable use of land and natural resources. Since April 2024, the James Hutton Institute has been working in partnership with the Ripa Gar Foundation to undertake independent research in the Glen Lochay estate. As a partner, the James Hutton Institute brings a wide range of research expertise, covering ecological science, soil science, bioinformatics, and geoinformation science.
Research within the project is co-designed between James Hutton Institute and Ripa Gar Foundation. Many research projects address land management and land transformation questions on the estate. Yet, these questions sit within a wider national and international context, for example, reforesting ecosystems for biodiversity and climate mitigation.
Building on James Hutton Institute’s expertise, we are establishing long-term experiments and monitoring programmes needed to understand ecological responses to drivers of ecosystem change and on a time scale relevant to land managers. At this early stage of our partnership, several of our projects are collecting baseline data so Glen Lochay may act as a platform for future collaborative studies and multidisciplinary research.
Current research activities
Tree pollen analysis: historical forests of Glen Lochay
Pine tree stumps in the exposed peat hags of Glen Lochay serve as a visible reminder of ancient forests. To trace back Glen Lochay’s wooded history, we are analysing pollen found in peat samples collected from Glen Lochay and radiocarbon dating the peat to understand the history of woodlands in the glen.
Tree planting and symbiotic soil fungi
Tree planting is visibly transforming the Glen Lochay landscape and species diversity aboveground. Belowground, and often invisible to the human eye, tree planting contributes to soil fungal and microbial diversity. We are surveying these soil fungal and microbial communities using DNA techniques and trialling inoculating trees with symbiotic fungi to increase tree survival, growth and vigour. Fungal pellets we use have been provided by Rhizocore.
Montane woodland conservation and restoration
Conservation actions have been shown to help endangered mountain trees and shrubs to come back from near extinction in Scotland. We have updated the census of montane willows in the glen with help from collaborators at Catkin Ecology, expanding records of willows ten-fold. We are collecting willow cuttings to propagate trees in our on-site nursery that will produce seed for further restoration of montane woodlands.
Soil carbon storage following tree planting and ground preparation
Whilst carbon credits can be gained by planting trees, organic rich soils such as those in Glen Lochay function as significant carbon stores. As a baseline we have assessed soil properties and quantified soil carbon stocks prior to planting, with the long-term aim of monitoring these again in decades to come. In the shorter term, we are monitoring changes in carbon flows following different soil preparation treatments commonly used prior to tree planting.
For further information about research projects, or to discuss research opportunities at Glen Lochay, please contact Dr Stuart Smith, the James Hutton Institute: stuart.smith@hutton.ac.uk