JNCC Nature News Autumn-Winter 2020

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Nature NatureNews/ News/Autumn-Winter Autumn-Winter2020 2020

2020 - a year of air In the Summer 2020 edition of Nature News we explored how engagement with our air pollution work has increased, and how global understanding about air pollution and its effects on people and nature is growing. Restrictions due to lockdowns put many things on hold, but the work we’ve undertaken with our partners this year to tackle the effects of air pollution on ecosystems has blossomed. Perhaps it's because this is a time of increased awareness of the importance of nature, air quality and social change. New evidence is emerging to quantify the changes in air quality in response to shutdown of major cities at global scale. In the UK a 55% reduction in nitrogen oxides was observed around UK roads when compared with 2019 (Higham et al 2020). This has helped more people realise the scale of change required to improve air quality to levels that will achieve goals for human health and function of UK ecosystems. The devolved administrations across the UK are making commitments not only to prevent degradation of our habitats, but also to restore and invigorate them. We see this through individual country clean air strategies, the International Nitrogen Initiative, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature and in the enhanced provision for UK joint working through JNCC and the Inter-agency Air Pollution Group (IAPG). Reducing air pollution is an important part of ensuring habitat restoration can happen. There is some good news as reported in the UK Biodiversity Indicators, which show a long term decrease in the area of sensitive habitat vulnerable to nitrogen deposition. However, over 57% of UK habitat area still receives damaging amounts of nitrogen (Rowe et al 2020). So, despite the national improvement, there is still more work to do and we need to ensure these interventions matter (see Nitrogen Futures article). Our collaboration with the IAPG, devolved administrations and partners is important for a range of activities including:

• securing national emission reductions that maximise benefit for ecosystems; • raising awareness of the vulnerability of nature to air pollution; • understanding interactions with climate change and global ambitions, as well as • supporting local actions required to protect and enhance our protected areas. Air pollution advice is a broad work area, crossing country boundaries and requiring a wide range of partners (Figure 1 below). Researchers, policymakers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) contribute data and evidence, as well as helping to deliver interventions on the ground. This not only allows us to understand issues with air pollution but also its impact on habitats. Partnerships mean the work is used by decision-makers, advisers and practitioners to design and implement solutions for the future. To truly implement strategic approaches to air pollution we have engaged with experts from a variety of disciplines — dispersion modellers, statisticians, GIS specialists, local planners, ecologists, economists, social scientists and even software architects!

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