“Our work supports the broad supposition that greenspace and mental health are positively related, and adds further support for the need to understand a populations’ relationship with greenspaces, to ensure urban greening achieves the highest gains for communities.” While urban greenspace is often associated with improved mental health, new research has found these benefits are dependent on the characteristics of the population using the space, and their proximity to it. Researchers at the James Hutton Institute and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) looked at the link between greenspace and
"The data collected will feed into UK-wide research on understanding the net losses from peatlands in a degraded condition" An all-female team of scientists from the James Hutton Institute travelled to Shetland to install the most northerly micrometeorological station in the UK to monitor greenhouse gas emissions from eroded peatland. The station, set up on a site near Girlsta, will gather extremely high-frequency data for wind speed/direction, carbon dioxide and methane emissions from the peatland, as well as a large suite of weather and other data, including solar radiation, precipitation
"Dr Artz’s contribution to this evidence session is an excellent example of research feeding directly into the policy process, and reflects the very high standard of work that Dr Artz and her team undertake on this critical topic" Dr Rebekka Artz, a senior research scientist within the James Hutton Institute’s Ecological Sciences department, has contributed evidence to an inquiry by the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Lords into the role of nature-based solutions in mitigating climate change. More information from: Bernardo Rodriguez-Salcedo, Media Manager, James Hutton