Over the past year, UKCEH has shown its customary vision, innovation and remarkable resilience and agility. We have made the necessary decisions to ensure a sustainable future and engaged our entire team in developing a forward-thinking strategy to 2030. In a more turbulent world, as biodiversity and climate change risks intensify, we have remained focused on delivering worldclass, high-impact science where it matters most.
In December 2024, I was both honoured and excited to take over the role as chair of UKCEH from Lord Cameron of Dillington. On behalf of the entire team, I want to sincerely thank him for his commitment, enthusiasm, and pride in UKCEH and its vital work. As we report on this final year of our 2025 strategy, it offers a valuable opportunity to pause and reflect. It has been a challenging yet productive year, and I am grateful to the leadership team for navigating difficult decisions to secure our future while keeping our science impactful and relevant.
Download a PDF version of our Annual Report and Accounts 2024
30
We carried out projects in over 30 countries worldwide
181
We won 181 bids worth more than £27.9 million
250+
We jointly supervised over 250 postgraduate researchers
400+
Our scientists published 400+ peer-reviewed journal papers
UKCEH delivers impartial environmental data that benefits and enables the UK research community, governments, businesses, and society. Our large-scale research infrastructure and National Capability programmes generate high-quality scientific evidence, enabling and inspiring the academic community, and putting the environment at the heart of critical policy and business decisions. For example:
UKCEH was awarded £29.9 million to deliver integrated monitoring, modelling, and data for the UK environment over a five-year programme empowering researchers, governments, and businesses to tackle major environmental challenges. It aims to enhance national long-term environmental science capabilities, supporting large-scale observations, modelling, and research through innovations in platforms, sensors, and data science to deliver an integrated and adaptable environmental monitoring network.
Home to hundreds of plant species, nesting birds, small mammals and insects, hedgerows capture and store carbon. Integral to our rural landscape since the Bronze Age, hedgerows traditionally mark boundaries and keep livestock in a contained space. Our scientists created a new map using aerial laser scanning to provide precise data on the quantity, length, and – for the first time - height of hedgerows across England. UKCEH Land Cover Plus Hedgerows 2016-2021 (England)
Used by government departments, consultancies, academics and environmental charities, our land cover maps can be combined with other data to assess the impact of land cover on carbon, biodiversity and hydrology, guiding decisions on land management. The maps show grasslands, arable, water, woodlands, urban and suburban areas across the length and breadth of the UK. The latest products in our time series, which starts in 1990, extend the time series to include 2022 and 2023.
We lead efforts to tackle global challenges through our work with UN agencies and programmes, including IPBES, UNEP, UNESCO and the WMO. In 2024, we continued to provide scientific evidence and tools to underpin effective responses to global challenges. Examples of our work include:
Our new office in Accra will foster world-leading partnerships between UK and West African scientists to develop new solutions for our environment. The office was officially opened by Hon. Ophelia Mensah Hayford, Ghana’s Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, with over 100 academics, researchers, and representatives from key environmental institutes attending the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Working with British Embassies and Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) we attended United Nations Conference of Parties (COPs) on Biodiversity, Climate Change and Convention to Combat Desertification. Our attendance at three COPs enabled us to build on existing international partnerships, explore opportunities for new collaborations and help to strengthen our position as a leading environmental research institute.
UKCEH scientists showed that levels of reactive nitrogen released into the environment are directly linked to land management practices. The levels of harmful reactive nitrogen compounds like ammonia, nitrous and nitric oxides (NO) are on the rise.
Millions of people in the UK are affected by floods and droughts, with impacts on residents, farmers, businesses, transport, and wildlife. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
UKRI-Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) confirmed this year, £38million funding for an ambitious programme jointly lead by UKCEH, British Geological Survey, Imperial College London and the University of Bristol.
The programme, Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI), comprises fixed and mobile measuring equipment which will monitor the entire water environment - on a much bigger scale than previously – and integrate data on evaporation, soil moisture, weather, groundwater, and rivers flows for the first time.
Taking advantage of cutting-edge technologies such as advanced computer modelling, artificial intelligence and drone footage, it will deliver near real-time data and improve our understanding of floods and droughts.
Beneath their leafy canopies, forests across the globe are key ecosystems in storing carbon and their protection is vital if we are to meet global climate targets. The escalation in extreme weather conditions which cause wildfires is accelerating the carbon loss from these important ecosystems.
As part of a pioneering Brazil-UK collaboration between UKCEH, the Met Office and Brazilian partners, local collaborators in the Amazon used advanced global and land climate models to explore how fires affect the forests’ ability to store carbon. They examined both historical data and future scenarios to identify critical temperature thresholds where wildfires cause significant shifts in tree cover and carbon storage.
Alarmingly, the latest temperature at which, globally, these impacts become more pronounced is 1.34°C - close to current levels of warming. As an outcome of this research, we need to rethink the relationship between mitigation and adaptation. These have been seen as two separate approaches; mitigation reducing emissions, and adaptation helping us to cope with the impacts that have already happened.
Reducing emissions can lower future fire risks, while adapting fire management strategies is crucial for helping forests remain resilient amid changing fire regimes and preserve forest cover.
A comprehensive study reveals that wisely handling nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium together can reap multiple benefits which prevent pollution, boost crop yields and minimise nutrient loss in our soils leading to better farming outcomes. Globally 20% of agricultural soil face severe potassium deficiency.
Our research indicated that potassium deficiency in agricultural soils is a largely unrecognised but potentially significant threat to global food security if not addressed. The lack of this key nutrient can inhibit plant growth and reduce crop yields.
UKCEH, the University of Edinburgh, University College London and the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research in Spain found in many regions of the world, more potassium is being removed from agricultural soils through leaching or when crops are being harvested.
Even in the busiest cities, green spaces offer a vital escape and a chance to reconnect with nature. They can also do more to keep cities cool during heatwaves.
A global study, of 30 scientists from five countries, reviewed evidence of the cooling effect of natural features in more than 100 cities and towns worldwide. We found that botanical gardens can cool the air by around 5°C during heatwaves. Parks, wetlands, green spaces, and waterways can reduce temperatures in cities by shading due to water vapour given off by plants or from water bodies cooling the air by evaporation.
In reducing temperatures in urban areas, green and blue infrastructure projects can also store carbon, improve air quality, and reduce flooding.
Creating green spaces can also benefit residents’ physical and mental wellbeing. It has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety and depression. It encourages physical activity, social interaction and helps with social cohesion in highly populated urban areas.
This research highlights the importance of decision-making for cities being made at local or regional levels to enhance the social and physical features of those environments.
A new landmark report provides the most comprehensive assessment to date of the complex interconnections between biodiversity, food security, water availability and quality, health risks and climate change – and outlines solutions that would deliver multiple benefits.
The three-year international study, co-chaired by Professor Paula Harrison of UKCEH, involved 165 international experts from a range of disciplines and was carried out for the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). At its launch over 200 media outlets attended the report launch, resulting in 1,527 hits across 996 different news sites, translated into 36 languages in 101 countries with 5.7 billion potential impressions.
It is crucial that decisions and actions move ‘beyond single issue silos’ and need to consider indirect drivers and their impact on interactions between the different challenges. Many institutions are working in isolation, often resulting in conflicting objectives, inefficiencies, and negative incentives, leading to unintended consequences.
The study set out a roadmap for action from national to community level to sustainably manage biodiversity, water, food, health, and climate change, many of which are also low cost. Over 70 response options are available for decision-makers to help synergise the approaches to create multiple benefits with eight deliberate steps to help identify problems and shared values to work towards holistic solutions.
Monitoring insects is vital for guiding conservation efforts addressing biodiversity loss and climate change. UKCEH, The Cyprus Institute, and INIBIOMA in Argentina highlight how citizen science and digital technologies are advancing insect monitoring.
Large-scale, long-term citizen science datasets are essential for tracking global insect declines, driven by climate change, land-use change, invasive species, pollution, and resource overuse. These losses threaten vital ecosystem services as insects play many important roles including pollination and decomposition.
Accurate data is crucial to measure trends, identify causes, and assess conservation actions — yet global, openly available datasets, especially from the most species-rich regions of the world, remain limited due to gaps in the data.
In the past decade, new technologies have expanded insect monitoring possibilities. Smartphone apps, online tools, and AI-assisted species identification are enhancing citizen science, while improved computing powers species maps and biodiversity models to inform policy and conservation decision-making.
Flower-Insect Timed Counts (FIT Counts) are an accessible scalable method already implemented across Europe, the Caribbean, and South America through partnerships with local groups.
Globally, interest in citizen science for monitoring insect abundance, biodiversity, and distribution is growing. These efforts provide valuable data for policy and research, while offering those participating meaningful opportunities to engage with nature and support biodiversity conservation.
In May 2024, Edinburgh no stranger to an occasional haze, experienced an unprecedented atmospheric event unlike any seen for years when sulphur dioxide (SO2) levels hit an historic high. In response, UKCEH researchers investigated if this haze could be attributed to a volcanic plume crossing the UK following an eruption in Iceland.
The series of eruptions near the Icelandic town of Grindavik on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula were initially deemed a local concern due to its non-explosive nature, with the impact on the UK’s air quality thought to be minimal. However, SO2 in Scotland increased to levels not witnessed since the 1970s.
Using a combination of observations and modelling data, our scientists were able to pinpoint the high SO2 levels, showing that it was highly likely the spike could be attributed to the Icelandic volcano.
Whilst SO2 can be damaging to ecosystems and contribute to the formation of particulate matter (PM2.5) which is harmful to human health, measurement and model results indicated that due to the short-lived plume of SO2, the PM2.5 concentrations were not at a concerning level. This event will give us valuable insights into how well we can predict the impacts of volcanic eruptions on human health and our environment.
