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Pond Restoration Research Group

The UCL Pond Restoration Research Group uses scientific research to underpin practical pond conservation and restoration action, especially in agricultural landscapes.

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Background

Background

Currently the group aims are to understand: the chemical and ecological changes that accompany pond terrestrialisation; the influence of pond restoration and management on landscape scale biodiversity, including aquatic and terrestrial species; the influence of fish on landscape-scale aquatic diversity; the causes of decline of lesser studied pond fishes and amphibians; the culture history of ponds.

The Team

The UCL Pond Restoration Research Group is comprised of a diverse group of staff, researchers and research students each providing their own unique contribution.

Professor Carl Sayer

Team leader, Professor Carl Sayer has a lifelong love of ponds and pond species and is especially passionate on the need to recognise the conservation value of ponds in aquatic landscapes. He has expertise in the ecology and palaeoecology of algae, aquatic plants and pond fishes, especially the crucian carp and European eel. Carl co-founded the Norfolk Ponds Project with Helen Greaves.

Carl Sayer

Ian Patmore

Fieldwork technician Ian specialises in the Crucian Carp project, but provides valuable assistance on all field visits, bringing 20 years of fieldwork and practical thinking to the team. This ranges from ‘on the spot’ inventions, to designing and fabricating specialised equipment such as the Big Ben piston corer.

Ian Patmore

Professor Jan Axmacher

The conservation of biodiversity in agricultural and forested landscapes has been the main focus of Jan’s research for more than 15 years. He is particularly interested in the ecology and diversity of insects and provides specialist expertise on aquatic-terrestrial linkages and biodiversity statistics.

Jan Axmacher

Ewan Shilland

Ewan has over 20 years of experience working within the ECRC at UCL performing ecological research and consultancy. He is a passionate natural historian, with specialist expertise in the fields of amphibian and aquatic plant survey and conservation. He has undertaken aquatic plant surveys all over the UK and is also a licensed Great Crested Newt surveyor.

Ewan Shilland

Dr Dave Emson

Dave Emson is an Honorary Fellow in UCL Geography and is currently researching pond palaeoecology, as well as crucian carp and European eel conservation in ponds. He recently completed a PhD at UCL exploring the ecological engineering effects of duckweed (Lemna spp.). His interests include diatom ecology, plant and animal macrofossil analyses, crucian carp population ecology and conservation and marl pit restoration ecology.

Dr Dave Emson

Helen Greaves

Helen is currently working on the EU Ponderful project looking at the influence of pond quality on greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity. She is also completing her PhD research which aims to assess the value of pond management for biodiversity conservation. Helen acts as strategic lead for the Norfolk Ponds Project (NPP) and is a founder member of the NPP too. Helen is also the current secretary of the European Pond Conservation Network.

Helen Greaves

Reagan Pearce

Reagan is undertaking a London NERC DTP PhD project focusing on the re-introduction of the Burbot Lota lota, a freshwater fish that is currently extinct in the UK. Her project is looking at water temperature, habitat and river-floodplain connectivity in the upper River Wissey, Norfolk in relation to other European countries where this fish is doing well. The Burbot uses stillwater on floodplains, including ponds for spawning and such habitats are also important for juvenile fishes.

Reagan Pearce

Dr Richard Walton

Richard's background is in Plant Biology (BSc) and Environmental Science (MSc). He recently finished a PhD project focused on implications of pond terrestrialisation for pond ecology, especially plant pollinators. He has also undertaken some important pond palaeoecological work.

Dr Richard Walton

Dr Alice Walker

Alice recently gained her PhD from the University of Liverpool. She is currently working on the EU Ponderful project on how pond morphology and hydrology affect pollinator communities at ponds, focusing in the main on several restored farmland ponds in Norfolk.

Alice Walker

David Downes

David joined the team after recently completing the MSc in Aquatic Conservation, Ecology and Restoration at UCL. His PhD involves a study of pond landscapes before and after restoration, focusing especially on macrophyte and aquatic invertebrate communities. He is also studying the consequences of pond restoration for bats at farmland ponds.

David Downes

Steve Brooks

Steve Brooks is an Honorary Fellow at UCL. His research focusses on environmental change and the ecology, palaeoecology and taxonomy of freshwater insects, especially midges and dragonflies. He is currently chair and a founder of the Riverfly Partnership.

Steve Brooks

Professor Helen Bennion

Professor Helen Bennion is an aquatic ecologist and palaeoecologist with a particular focus on freshwater diatoms and macrophytes. She has co-supervised a number of pond projects in the group. Her work uses palaeoecology to examine the impacts of eutrophication on lakes and ponds over a range of time scales to assess environmental change and inform restoration targets.

Professor Helen Bennion

Eftesum Eftesum

Eftesum has recently joined the team as a PhD student after completing her MSc in Conservation in UCL Geography. Her research focuses on the biological response of European Farmland ponds to agricultural impacts by use of palaeoecological methods. Her project will also assess the extent of ecological recovery for ponds subject to restoration.

Eftesum Eftesum

Jorge Salgado

Jorge is a freshwater ecologist and paleolimnologist whose work focuses on contemporary and long-term environmental change in aquatic systems. He is interested in reconstructing the impact that water pollution, invasive species, and climate change have had on freshwater landscapes over the last centuries. Jorge focusses his work on tropical America, southeast Asia and Europe.

Jorge Salgado

Helene Burningham

Helene works on the ghost pingos project and specialises in the mapping of current and lost ancient pingo ponds and on the sediment stratigraphies and hydrology of ghost pingos.

Helene Burningham
Projects

Crucian Carp Conservation

Crucian Carp Conservation

The crucian carp (Carassius carassius) is a small greeny-gold, beautiful little cyprinid fish that is in a steep decline across large tracts of Europe. Its stronghold in the UK is eastern England, especially Norfolk, where in the past it was widespread in farmland ponds. Since 2008, inspired by an Environment Agency announcement, that the species was “thought to be virtually extinct in Norfolk”, we have been searching for the crucian carp and concerned with its conservation. To this effect, the crucian carp was established as a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) species in Norfolk in 2010 (Copp & Sayer, 2010), its first formal conservation designation in the UK.

Responding to the crucian carp’s decline and with a view to recovering the species, the Norfolk Crucian Carp Project was established in 2009. With much support from Cefas (Gordon Copp) and Bedwell Fisheries (Keith Wesley), we have now undertaken fyke-net surveys of 90+ Norfolk farmland ponds, many of which are known to have contained the species in the 1970s-1980s. This work shows an approximate 75% decline in the species over the last 30-40 years (Sayer et al. 2011). Currently, we know of 24 wild populations of crucian carp in Norfolk, although many of these populations are either dwindling (consisting of a few old individuals), or contaminated by crucian carp hybrids with goldfish and/or common carp. We believe the major cause of crucian carp decline to be pond terrestrialisation, which prevents them from recruiting.

To help fulfil the requirements of the Norfolk crucian carp BAP, we have enacted a programme of pond restoration and crucian carp re-introduction, using the few remaining healthy wild crucian populations as donors. To date, the Norfolk Crucian Carp Project has undertaken 8 pond restorations and crucian carp re-introductions to 11 ponds, many of which are known to have been successful.  Recently our work was covered in an article by angling author John Bailey in the Anglers Mail and has helped to inspire a National Crucian Conservation Project run by the EA and the Angling Trust (Carl Sayer & Dave Emson are project members).

Farmland Pond Restoration

Farmland Pond Restoration

Norfolk holds more ponds than any other English county with over 23,000 currently present. Most of these ponds are located in farmland and have their origins as marl or clay pits and in some cases livestock-watering ponds dug in the 17th to 19th centuries. Ponds can provide vital clean freshwater environments in farmland and can be wonderful habitats for aquatic biodiversity covering plants, invertebrates, amphibians, fishes, and mammals. Nonetheless, despite all of this, farmland ponds are severely threatened by land reclamation, inappropriate encroachment of trees (especially over the last 30-40 years), nutrient enrichment and invasive species.

Using a combination of before and after studies and comparisons of managed, open canopy and non-managed overgrown ponds, our research is investigating the response of pond ecosystems to restoration involving scrub and sediment removal. In addition, we have examined the influences of native fish (e.g. crucian carp, tench, 9-spine stickleback) and pond terrestrialisation on biodiversity in pond landscapes. This work alludes to the importance of a mosaic approach to pond conservation with a landscape containing ponds at different stages of succession (a continuum from open to overgrown ponds) and native fish, enhancing aquatic biodiversity (Sayer et al. 2012; 2013).

Our research shows rapid and dramatic increases in biodiversity following pond restoration, with ponds colonised by several aquatic plant and invertebrate species within less than 6 months. In addition, recent studies show open-canopy managed ponds to be important for populations of farmland birds, likely through enhanced provision of insects (emerging adults) and plant seed food.

Our work informs pond biodiversity conservation strategies in farmland and underpins the work of the Norfolk Ponds Project.

Ghost Ponds Project

Ghost Ponds Project

The Ghost Ponds Project is exploring a completely novel approach to pond conservation; the re-excavation of ponds filled in (especially since the 1950s) for agricultural land reclamation. These lost ponds are what we have called “Ghost Ponds”.

It is often difficult to completely erase a pond from the landscape.  Even after a pond has been in-filled, a damp depression or circular crop mark often remains, a lingering 'ghost' of the former habitat. These ghost ponds are abundant and easy to identify in certain areas of the UK, including Norfolk, where we have thus far undertaken most of our research. Ghost ponds hold exciting potential; buried within these sites are the historic sediments from the former pond and within these sediments the seed bank of past pond plants. We are investigating the viability of these historic seedbanks, and exploring how re-exposing them contributes to the re-colonisation of aquatic plants. A combination of pond ‘resurrections’ and restorations, field mesocosms, and greenhouse germination trials have been used to uncover the role the historic seedbank could play in pond conservation.  Remarkable, we have found that excavated ghost ponds, even those which have been buried for over a century, re-colonise rapidly with aquatic plants, due to a still viable seedbank covering various pondweeds (Potamogetonaceae) and stoneworts (Characeae).

For more information on the Ghost Ponds Project see some recent coverage in New Scientist and The Conversation.

Key PRRG Papers
Get Involved

Events and Workshops

Events and Workshops

Each year the Pond Restoration Research Group aims to reach out to local community groups, farmers and conservation organisations. For example, in June 2019 the group ran a practical pond restoration work for CIEEM.

Each year the group also attends the Royal Norfolk Show to promote the Norfolk Ponds Project

Conferences

In 2019 Helen Greaves co-organised the first UK Pond science gathering at Huddersfield

In 2021 UCL hosted the 9th European Pond Conservation Network meeting (online) as well as a series of follow-up seminars

Talks

Our research group is keen to share our research with other organisations, environmental volunteer groups and other sectors of society. Whenever possible, members of the Pond Restoration Research Group are willing to provide short talks about our work. Please contact us for more information.

Learn more - MSc Aquatic Conservation, Ecology and Restoration

Team leader, Carl Sayer, convenes UCL's MSc Aquatic Conservation, Ecology and Restoration course.

The MSc Aquatic Conservation, Ecology and Restoration provides an ideal foundation for PhD research, or for employment within environmental protection and conservation agencies, the water industry and environmental consultancies.

Norfolk Ponds Project

The Norfolk Ponds Project (NPP) was launched in June 2014 at the Royal Norfolk Show and involves several conservation partners:

  • University College London
  • Norfolk Wildlife Trust
  • Natural England
  • Norfolk Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG)
  • Norfolk Biodiversity Information Service (NBIS)
  • Norfolk Rivers Trust
  • Norfolk Non-native Species Initiative
  • Norfolk Biodiversity Partnership
  • Norfolk County Council
  • Upper Wensum Cluster Farm Group
  • Waveney Farming Cluster

The NPP aims to reverse the decline of Norfolk’s ponds so that agricultural landscapes contain a mosaic of clean water ponds with fewer ponds overgrown by trees and bushes. The project was conceived by Carl Sayer and Helen Greaves and inspired by the wonderful pond conservation work undertaken at Manor Farm, Briston (Norfolk) by the late and wonderful Richard Waddingham. Through many years of careful management, Richard created a network of 40 high-quality ponds which are full of species and afford exemplary high diversity clean water pond habitats. The Manor Farm ponds show that pond conservation and intensive agriculture can happily co-exist – a key message of the NPP. 

See also the Norfolk Ponds Project Guide to Pond Restoration (.pdf).

Research Blog

As a team, we are continuously learning more and more about ponds, pond restoration and the conservation of pond flora and fauna. You can keep up to date with our most recent research and field visits on our Pond Restoration Research Group Blog.

Previous Blog Posts

Contact Us

General Enquiries 

Email: c.sayer@ucl.ac.uk

  • 020 7679 0500

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