48 - Trent and Belvoir Vales : Natural Capital and Key Ecosystem Services

Introduction

The Trent and Belvoir Vales NCA provides a wide range of benefits to society. Each is derived from the attributes and processes (both natural and cultural features) within the area. These benefits are known collectively as ‘ecosystem services’. The predominant services are summarised below. Further information on ecosystem services provided in the Trent and Belvoir Vales NCA is contained in the ‘Analysis’ section of this website.

What is Natural Capital?

Natural capital means “the elements of nature that directly or indirectly produce value to people, including ecosystems, species, freshwater, land, minerals, the air and oceans, as well as natural processes and functions” (Natural Capital Committee, 2017).

It is helpful to consider natural capital in the form of a logic chain that represents the links between ecosystem assets, services, benefits and value to people. The figure below displays that logic chain. The quantity and quality of ecosystem assets (woodland, bogs, etc) support different types of ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration or water filtration. These ecosystem services then provide different benefits to society, providing value for people. The figure also shows how management interventions, as well as pressures and drivers of change, influence this chain. Other capital inputs are also often needed for people to obtain the benefits from ecosystem services (a simple example is the processing of trees to produce wood products).

As an example, an area of woodland (ecosystem asset) may reduce air pollution created by traffic on a nearby road. This woodland is therefore improving air quality (ecosystem service) in the local area which results in cleaner air and improved health in the adjacent residential street (benefit). This cleaner air has a value because we know it impacts the health and wellbeing of communities.

Sometimes for ease of understanding, economic framing is used to give these benefits a monetary value. The figure below shows how natural capital assets support the provision of ecosystem services, benefits and value. The roots of the tree show how aspects of asset quality are critical to the provision of ecosystem services. The roots also show that geodiversity underpins the ecosystem assets and therefore the ecosystem services and benefits they can provide. It is important to remember that this diagram, and natural capital frameworks more generally, are a simplification of how nature works in practice.

Natural Capital within this NCA

In 2018, Natural England published ‘Natural Capital Indicators: for defining and measuring change in natural capital’ (Lusardi et al., 2018). This report identified key properties of the natural environment vital for the long-term sustainability of benefits, which can act as indicators of change.

These indicators are designed to inform our understanding of the state of our natural assets. The indicators highlight the importance of our natural assets for delivering which ecosystem service and the benefits they provide for society. The indicators and datasets identified in Natural England’s Natural Capital Indicators Project provide the foundation for the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles.

Natural England’s Natural Capital Atlas Profiles provide an “off the shelf” natural capital evidence base for each county or city region. They have a wide variety of uses with more information in the How to Start Using Your Natural Capital Atlas.

The Natural Capital indicators are presented on the map below by broad asset theme, displaying the natural capital within the NCA.

It is noted that not all indicators listed within the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles are included within the map as data is not yet available to measure them. Refer to the “Indicator Gaps and Limitations” of the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles for further information.

Natural Capital Atlas Profiles

The following Natural Capital Atlas Profiles cover counties within this NCA:
 

• 22: Leicestershire and Rutland
• 23: Lincolnshire
• 30: Nottinghamshire

Provisioning services (food, fibre and water supply)

Food provision: The area’s generally fertile and versatile soils and agricultural land have supported a diversity of farming over a long period of time. Most farmland is used for arable production with crops of autumn-sown wheat, winter and spring barley as well as break crops of oilseed rape, field beans and grass leys. Root crops, in particular sugar beet, peas and potatoes, are grown on lighter soils. Land for grazing is still significant in places, though the long-term trend has been for conversion to arable use. The Vale of Belvoir has a long-established reputation for the production of high-quality milk and cheese, in particular Stilton. Sugar beet is processed at Newark in the only British Sugar factory left in the East Midlands. Newark is also the home of one of the main livestock markets in the country.

Water availability: The rivers of the NCA provide water for industrial and agricultural use. The River Trent supplies large amounts of water to industry – particularly for cooling purposes in the power stations. It also supplies water via the Fossdyke Navigation to the River Witham catchment, which includes the rivers Till and Brant, to support abstractions there, mostly for agricultural spraying. Water in the Witham catchment is available for abstraction at high and medium flows, and restricted at medium/low flows, but no water is available for abstraction at low flows. Abstractions are usually possible for only 61 per cent of the year. Within the Trent catchment, the rivers Devon and Trent have water available for consumptive abstraction subject to flow restriction conditions, whereas there is no water available for abstraction from the Dover Beck or the River Greet. The Trent, the Fossdyke Navigation and the extensive network of waterbodies created from flooded sand and gravel extraction sites provide a large recreational water resource used extensively for boating, fishing and wildlife watching. For information regarding the current state of water availability within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Abstraction Licensing Strategy).

Regulating services (water purification, air quality maintenance and climate regulation)

Regulating soil quality: Some 78 per cent of the area’s soils are Grade 3 quality (good to moderate quality agricultural land) and 14 per cent are Grade 2 (very good quality agricultural land). It is this inherent quality that underpins the agricultural productivity of the NCA. Quality is regulated by the geology of the area and the geomorphological processes at work, including the deposition of sediments in active flood plains. Quality is also regulated by organic matter content which is higher under non-cultivated land such as permanent pasture and semi-natural habitats. Management measures that increase organic matter levels in an arable farming system include the sowing of grass leys as part of a crop rotation.

Regulating water flow (flooding): The River Trent has a long history of flooding, and its channel and flood plain are important resources for storing and regulating flood flows. Development and land use in the Trent catchment upstream of the NCA will have a significant impact on water flows into the NCA. The Environment Agency flood risk map indicates a high risk of flooding along the river and in and around Lincoln. Major embankments protect the larger settlements while minor ones protect arable farmland from frequent flooding. Engineered solutions to flooding have meant that, in many places, the flood plain is no longer active for most of the time and much riverside pasture has been ploughed for arable use.

Cultural services (inspiration, education and wellbeing)

Sense of place/inspiration: Higher ground defines the edges of the NCA from where there are extensive views across the vales. The powerful River Trent and its flood plain is a major feature running through the landscape. Villages are unified by the dominant rural vernacular style of red brick and pantile. The main settlements have strong associations with the area. Distinctive landmarks include Lincoln Cathedral, Belvoir Castle, Bottesford and Newark church spires and the power stations on the Trent. Southwell is an attractive small town with a highly distinctive Minster and is also the home of the original Bramley apple tree which still grows there and from which all Bramleys descend. Gainsborough is the most inland port in the area and its Ashcroft Mill inspired George Eliot’s novel The Mill on the Floss. The Vale of Belvoir is the home of Stilton cheese. The rolling farmland in the west of the NCA is closely associated with the broad belt of Triassic Mercia Mudstone, the impermeable nature of which has led to the land becoming heavily dissected by numerous streams in well-defined valleys. In places these streams have created ravines up to 10 m deep, locally known as dumbles and becks, which often harbour narrow remnants of ancient woodland. Greater tree cover along with the more undulating landform gives this part of the NCA a more intimate character.

Sense of history The gravel terraces along the Trent have been the focus of human activity for many thousands of years. Traces of the Bronze and Iron Ages as well as Roman influence remain in the landscape. The medieval settlement pattern of small compact villages and larger market towns remains broadly intact. Medieval ridge-and-furrow cultivation features can still be seen on land uncultivated since. At Laxton the medieval open field system of farming has been retained to the present day. Enclosure and reorganisation of the landscape in the 18th and 19th centuries is seen in the regular shaped fields bounded by hawthorn hedgerows and the red brick and pantile building style of farmsteads and villages. Lincoln Cathedral, Belvoir Castle, Bottesford and Newark church spires are prominent historical landmarks in the landscape. The Nottingham Lace Market site of the original Saxon settlement of Snottingaham and the prominent medieval church of St Mary’s lie just within the NCA. Southwell has a strong sense of history with its highly distinctive Minster and many old buildings. Newark contains Civil War remains, a prominent castle and an historic town centre. The marks of the Industrial Revolution are found in the main settlements, including terraces of brick and slate housing, Nottingham’s Lace Market factory buildings and the Grantham Canal. St Ann’s Allotments in Nottingham is the oldest and largest area of Victorian detached town gardens in the country.

Tranquillity: The landscape has a strong rural character, with wide areas retaining a sense of tranquillity and self-containment. The NCA has 44 per cent of land classified as undisturbed, a fall from over 70 per cent since the 1960s but nevertheless still a significant amount. Tranquillity is associated with the areas of farmland and winding lanes away from the major towns, the industrialised sections of the Trent corridor and the major roads.

Recreation: Recreation is provided by numerous small country lanes and public rights of way, especially along the Trent corridor, including the Trent Valley Way. It is also provided by country parks such as Cotgrave and Hartsholme. The disused Grantham Canal is a key green infrastructure link in the area. The restoration of the numerous disused sand and gravel extraction sites to wetlands, along with the River Trent and the Fossdyke Navigation, provide a wide range of recreational opportunities for boating, water sports, fishing, walking and experiencing wildlife, for example Holme Pierrepont and Whisby Nature Park. Landscape-scale projects such as the Trent Vale Landscape Partnership and the Witham Valley Country Park initiative aim to link communities with the landscape and offer increased recreation and educational opportunities within the NCA.

Geodiversity: The ancient River Trent eroded a course through the limestone to create the Lincoln Gap. It also deposited huge amounts of sand and gravel, the quarrying of which provides continual geological exposures. Colwick Cutting Site of Special Scientific Interest displays a section of the Triassic Mercia Mudstone Group overlaying the Sherwood Sandstone Group. Streams flowing on these impermeable mudstones have cut into the bedrock to create the distinctive incised dumbles and becks. Stone hewn from harder courses within the mudstones feature in many local buildings, especially the churches, as does Sherwood Sandstone and Lincolnshire Limestone. The Trent flood plain displays meanders, relict channels and cut off meander lakes; however, the rivers of the NCA have been artificially manipulated to such an extent that natural geomorphological processes are severely impaired.