Insect project wins biodiversity prize

A biodiversity research project carried out at Needingworth sand and gravel quarry in Cambridgeshire won the UK section of the Quarry Life Award 2014. The project by a team from Anglia Ruskin University looked at insect biodiversity in grasslands and was awarded a trophy and the £4,000 first prize. The study was led by Dr Alvin Helden from the university’s Department of Life Sciences. It analysed invertebrate species richness in restored grassland. The team collected more than 26,000 insects and concluded that setting aside ungrazed areas was a valuable means of enhancing invertebrate biodiversity.

“We showed that, on average, insect populations are 15 per cent higher in ungrazed areas,” said Dr Helden. “The discovery of several very rare species of leafhoppers and planthoppers reveals that the site has an incredible biodiversity, and not just for the wetland species for which it was primarily created and is rightly renowned.” 

Second prize went to Bath Spa University for a project looking at the feasibility of biodiversity enhancements in woodland ground flora around Whatley quarry in Somerset. An investigation into the potential of new lakes at Barton quarry in Staffordshire as aquatic biodiversity hotspots, carried out by Loughborough University and University College, London was third.

UK Quarry Life Award co-ordinator Martin Crow said: “The award was launched by HeidelbergCement in 2012 to raise the understanding of the biological value of its mining sites, both during and after extraction and is run every two years.

“The 2014 competition created strong interest from students and researchers and over 900 proposals from 22 countries on four continents were put forward. The top five were selected from each operating country and field research took place over the summer months.”

The next round of the award starts in 2015 for project implementation in 2016. For more information visit the Quarry Life Award website: www.quarrylifeaward.com