Soil Science: belowground biodiversity and global soil fungi biodiversity
Papers in Science and Nature:
Papers in Science and Nature:
The UK House of Commons Energy and Climate Change committee has produced a report on its inquiry on the IPCC 5th Assessment WG1 contribution (physical science).
The inquiry concluded that WG1's message - that greenhouse gas release from deforestation and fossil fuel use has caused much of the climate change of the late 20th Century and will continue to drive warming if unabated - was "the best available summary of the prevailing scientific opinion on climate change currently available to policy-makers. Its conclusions have been reached with high statistical confidence by a working group made up of many of the world’s leading climate scientists drawing on areas of well-understood science. The overall thrust and conclusions of the report are widely supported in the scientific community and its summaries are presented in a way that is persuasive to the lay reader. As in all areas of science that involve highly complex dynamic systems, there are uncertainties. But these uncertainties do not blur the overwhelmingly clear picture of a climate system changing as a result of human influence."
The inquiry said that IPCC had responded well to criticism and had tightened its review processes to make AR5 "the most exhaustive and heavily scrutinised Assessment Report to date". However, the committee suggested an increase in the level of transparency by involving non-climate scientists as observers through the whole process. The committee said that "the thousands of peer-reviewed academic papers ...together form a clear and unambiguous picture of a climate that is being dangerously destabilised".
The UK National Ecosystem Assessment was published in 2011 and now a Follow-on report has been produced. The main emphasis is on tools to aid decision makers in developing policy tools and strategy: natural capital; an updated land use change model that included biodiversity; valuation of cultural ecosystem services; forward scenarios; embedding knowledge for policy; and adaptive management principles.
The UK House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has reported on its inquiry on Food Security. The Inquiry makes a range of recommendations relating to better planning for crises as a result of weather or other events; planning for increasing global food demand; climate change impacts; organic food; genetically modified crops and other issues. The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is seen as having a key role.
Government response was published in October 2014 - gives breakdown figures for research expenditure on food science.
FAO has published State of the World's Forests 2014 with a particular emphasis on socioeconomic issues - sustainable development, forest economy, ecosystem services and so on.