Shooting Times & Country – 21 August 2019

The EMBER project,lookingat effectsofburning,is

said to have several important methodological flaws

ALAMY / TAYLORMADE

PHOTOGRAPHY

TheinfluentialEMBERstudy,which

hasbeenwidelyusedtocriticise

grousemoormanagement,

hasbeenquestionedina newly

publishedscientificpaper.The

articlepublishedintheJournalof

AppliedEcologylooksattheway

thescientistsbehindtheEMBER

studyreachedtheirconclusions.

TheEMBER(Effectsof

MoorlandBurningonthe

EcohydrologyofRiverbasins)

studyclaimedthat“heather

burningonmoorland,which

is practisedpredominantlyto

supportredgrousepopulations

forgunsports,hassignificant

negativeimpactsonpeat

hydrology,peatchemistryand

physicalproperties,riverwater

chemistryandriverecology”.

Theauthorscametothe

conclusionthatburninghada

severenegativeeffectonpeat,

drying it by lowering the water

tableandreleasingpollutantsthat

aretrappedinit.Amongtheeffects

theyclaimedweredamagetothe

land’sabilitytoformsphagnum

moss,whichformspeat and is a

keycarbonsink.

TheEMBERstudyhasbeen

repeatedlycitedbycriticsof

grouseshooting.However,thenew

study,whichwasundertakenby

scientistsfromtheUniversities

ofYorkandLancaster(po.st/

EMBERstudy),haspointedout

“severalsignificantbutoverlooked

methodologicalflaws”init.

Theirmaincriticismwasthat

thestudycomparedsiteswhich

wereverydifferentfromeach

other.Insteadofcomparing

burnedareaswithunburned

areasnearby,EMBERcompared

burnedsiteswithunburned

sitesthatwerefaraway.The

scientistsalsopointedout

that the sites compared by the

EMBERteamhadimportant

differencesintheirheightabove

sealevel,temperature,rainfall,

theirslope,thedirectionthey

facedandthetypesofdominant

vegetation.Thesedifferences

werenotproperlyfactoredinto

theEMBERteam’sstatistical

analysis.Thescientistssaidthat

thesedifferenceswereimportant

enough“thattheresultsreported

bytheEMBERprojectcannot

robustlybeattributedto

burningmanagement.”

Inconclusionthescientists

wrotetheEMBERstudy“islikely

tohavehada stronginfluence

onenvironmentalpolicyand

landmanagementdecisions.

However,wehavedemonstrated

thattheresultsoftheEMBER

projectshouldbetreatedwith

considerablecautionduetoa

seriesofstatisticalinadequacies

andwhatappeartobeseveral

importantmethodologicalflaws.”

Anotherstudyexaminingthe

effectsofburningacrossseveral

sites is to be publishedsoon.

Matt Cross

Muirburn study

is turned to ash

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BisleyatBraidwood,

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Thenewstudyroundlycriticisesthe

EMBER project on heather burning

“TheEMBERproject...hasa

series of statistical inadequacies”

8 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

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