The combination of climate and land-use change poses increasing threats to natural values. LandPress studies how climate and land-use change affects biodiversity and natural resources in Norwegian coastal heathlands.
Cessation or reduction of agricultural land-use leads to overgrowth and loss of habitats, biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services. Such changes affect a variety of habitats, many of which are now classified as threatened across Norway and Europe. When overgrowth occurs in combination with climate change, problems accentuate. Extreme weather, in the form of droughts, in combination with overgrowth increases landscape fire risk. Uncontrolled wildfires constitute a societal cost, both in terms of firefighting, replacement of lost values, and security. Active agriculture can therefore have social value, beyond food production, through producing ecosystem services such as reduced wildfire risk.
In 2014 an intense winter drought led to massive heather death along the Norwegian coast. LandPress uses this "natural experiment" in observational studies and field experiments to test whether heather burning is an effective measure to prevent drought damage and restore damaged moorland. In a broader context, we will look at how agricultural produce ecosystem services for the benefit of society, with particular emphasis on reduced wildfire risk. LandPress will provide new knowledge-based land-use advice, which in turn will help reduce the likelihood of uncontrolled fires in the coastal landscape under changing climate. LandPress includes international collaboration to put our findings into a wider geographic and habitat context.
The project is led by the University of Bergen in cooperation with Møreforsking, Norwegian Institute for Bio-Economy, Statistics Norway, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, University of Copenhagen and Ohio State University. The project reference group consists of government, industry and research representatives.