Exploring the eco-hydrological and predator movement effects of floating roads in the context of forest to bog restoration in the Flow Country

Résumé

The global network of linear infrastructure is expanding worldwide as demand for resources increases. Yet the effects of linear infrastructure on the components of ecosystems is poorly understood. Even less is known about if and how these effects could be reversed through removal of roads for habitat restoration. Further, much of our foundational data on ecosystem condition is based on traditional and legacy monitoring methods that are easy and cheap to gather at the management scale. On the other hand, modern high throughput monitoring technologies may be able to elucidate these effects and provide faster and more reliable monitoring of intact and restored landscapes and landscape features. This thesis explores how unpaved floating roads affect peatland health, through the lenses of eco-hydrology and animal behaviour in the Flow Country UNESCO World Heritage site in Northern Scotland. I used a mixture of traditional and emerging methodologies including scat counts, camera trapping, DNA metabarcoding, in-situ water table depth, and remote sensing (INSAR/APSIS), to evaluate their usefulness for monitoring a wide range of ecosystem effects associated with floating roads, and comment on the scope for road-to-bog restoration in the Flow Country and peatlands in general. I found that there is serious potential for error in ecological conclusions derived from camera traps and scat counts, when relying on older, cheaper models, human identification or correlative data. In contrast, the introduction of newer, higher quality camera models, DNA-based predator and prey identification can provide more detailed and complex results that run against existing assumptions of how mesopredators interact with the landscape and prey, and that the combination of monitoring methods can Exploring the eco-hydrological and predator movement effects of floating roads in
the context of forest to bog restoration in the Flow Country reveal information about predator activity that could not be known relying on a single method. Finding that will facilitate diversion conservation resources to where they are most needed. Furthermore, I found that while in situ methods of peatland condition modelling can give high quality data at the fine scale, use of INSAR APSIS remote sensing techniques can enable broad scale classification of peatland condition, identifying areas of conservation concern and restoration priority, once again facilitating efficient use of conservation resources in the landscape. I apply these findings to the current view of roads in the peatland landscape and discuss what these roads can provide in a future restored, protected, net zero, and living peatland landscape.

la date de réponse	26 janv. 2026
langue originale	English
Sponsors	RSPB & Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE)
Superviseur	Roxane Andersen (Supervisor)