Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Multifunctional Landscapes
A consortium of 23 researchers with different but related backgrounds.
Chrysoperla carnea, a predators feedings on aphid and small insects. Green lacewing are used for biological control of insect pest in crops.
Grasslands play an important role in carbon cycling.
A consortium of 23 researchers with different but related backgrounds.
Wessex BESS
The Wessex BESS project -Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Multifunctional Landscapes- is a six-year (2011-2017) programme aimed at understanding how biodiversity underpins the ecosystem functions and services that landscapes provide. Through this understanding, policy makers and land managers should be better informed to make decisions to ensure a healthy environment and a sustainable future.
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Wessex BESS is one of the four consortia are funded under the BESS programme focussing on different landscape types. For urban landscapes see urbanBESS; for upland rivers see DURESS; for coastal habitats see CBESS.
Wessex BESS focuses on multifunctional lowland landscapes. These regions deliver a number of important ecosystem services (e.g. food production, water quality, cultural services) but are increasingly subject to rapid change from a number of environmental drivers such as climate change, urbanisation, and market-driven land use change. Hence, there is a pressing need to close knowledge gaps about biodiversity-ecosystem services linkages in order actively manage trade-offs and synergies to promote long-term societal well being.
To all of you who have contributed to our Cultural Ecosystem Services Survey - A big thank you!
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Discover our Land Use scenarios workshop and learn about the work packages