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UCL Division of Biosciences

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CBER Seminar - Dr Henry Ferguson-Gow, UCL

07 February 2022, 1:00 pm–2:00 pm

Title: 'Potential for Positive Biodiversity Outcomes Under Diet-Driven Land Use Change in Great Britain'

Event Information

Open to

UCL staff | UCL students | UCL alumni

Availability

Yes

Organiser

Amy Godfrey

Location

Zoom
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Abstract: A shift toward diets that include more fruit and vegetables and less meat is a potential pathway to improve public health and reduce food system-related greenhouse gas emissions. Associated changes in land use could include conversion of grazing land into horticulture, which makes more efficient use of land per unit of dietary energy and frees up land for other uses. Here we use Great Britain as a case study to estimate potential impacts on biodiversity from converting grazing land to a mixture of horticulture and natural land covers. Across several land use scenarios that consider the current ratio of domestic fruit and vegetable production to imports, our statistical models suggest a potential for gains to biodiversity, including a tendency for more species to gain habitable area than to lose habitable area. Moreover, the models suggest that climate change impacts on biodiversity could be mitigated to a degree by land use changes associated with dietary shifts. Our analysis demonstrates that options exist for changing agricultural land uses in a way that can generate win-win-win outcomes for biodiversity, adaptation to climate change and public health.

About the Speaker

Dr Henry Ferguson-Gow

Postdoc, Research Associate at UCL, CBER

I am a postdoc working on the SHEFS project - an interdisciplinary project aiming to provide new research into the development of sustainable, healthy and accessible food systems. My work focuses on the use of species distribution models to understand how biodiversity might respond to land use change driven by changes in diet and patterns of consumption.