资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

22 September 2020

A NERC COVID-19 public engagement funded project has produced infographics to show changes in the movement of people, air and noise pollution, and wildlife sightings in the UK during lockdown.

The Natural History Museum has collaborated with data visualisation company Beyond Words to illustrate some of the environmental changes wrought by lockdown.

The graphics, drawing on a variety of open source data and scientific databases, including data from NERC-supported centers - UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and the British Geological Survey (BGS), document the dramatic drop in driving and public transport use, the resulting reduction in air pollution and noise levels and the changes to sightings of both animals and birds.

The release of these graphics is part of ‘Nature in Lockdown’ a Natural History Museum public engagement initiative which is seeking to crowdsource research ideas and discover the environmental impacts of Covid-19 which people are most interested in.

The project culminates in a live interactive virtual ‘Lates’ event on Friday 25^th September at 7.30pm in which audiences can pose questions to young and emerging researchers about those topics.

The Natural History Museum’s Executive Director of Engagement Clare Matterson says: “These fascinating visualisations, the result of a collaboration between scientists, our digital teams and Beyond Words, bring to life some of the astonishing impacts lockdown has had on our environments and how we noticed and experienced nature in a new and different way. ”

Animal sightings

In the first 100 days of lockdown, there were nearly half a million wildlife sightings submitted to wildlife spotting website iRecord, an increase of 54% compared to the same period last year.

Bat sightings soared the most, with 2.4 times as many bats seen in lockdown as the same time last year.

The most popular lockdown animals were butterflies (129,000 sightings) and moths (90,000 sightings).

'We saw a clear increase in wildlife sightings during the lockdown period, as people enjoyed the sunny weather and had more time to notice wildlife and connect with nature,' says David Roy, Head of UKCEH's Biological Records Centre.

'This data is incredibly valuable for researchers to better understand how animal and plant species are faring across the UK.'

Bird sightings

Like animal sightings, those of birds were linked to an increase in time spent in gardens and parks versus nature reserves, many of which were shut.

Sightings of our favourite garden birds, the humble house sparrow, starling and collared dove increased whilst sightings of birds that thrive in wetlands such as avocets and marsh harriers plummeted.

Cleaner air

Lockdown and the dramatic decline in journeys in London meant everyone could breathe easier. The graphic below depicts the average CO2 emissions measured from the capital’s BT Tower in 2020 versus a 2011-2019 baseline.

The sky-high observatory on top of the iconic BT tower in central London found that carbon dioxide emissions dropped by 60% during lockdown.

'Lockdown measures in the UK and around the globe have demonstrated that air quality can improve rapidly,' says Dr Carole Helfter, environmental physicist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.

'It's important to recognise that greenhouse gases are long-lived, but the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic can help shape future emission mitigation strategies.'

Noise reductions

Seismologists measuring the UK’s vibrations to monitor sound levels detected up to a 50% drop in the first three weeks of lockdown. The image below maps the higher number of sensor locations which became quieter versus those which became noisier. As animals of all kinds are acutely sensitive to noise pollution – affecting behaviour, stress and even growth, the decrease has been good news for the natural world.

For humans, it led to a rediscovery for many of the joys of hearing birdsong. People in cities across the world felt as though the birds were singing louder. In fact, with competing urban noise down by five decibels (60% quieter)^[1], the birds were probably actually singing quieter^[2].