Research and Innovation

Helping ash trees survive ash dieback 

Queen Mary researchers have spent more than a decade studying how genetics could help Britain’s ash trees survive ash dieback. 

Ash trees are an important part of British woodlands and support hundreds of other wildlife species. Queen Mary researchers, including Professors Richard Buggs and Richard Nichols, have sequenced DNA from more than 1,250 ash trees to understand why some trees are more resistant to the disease than others. 

The research showed that resistance is linked to many genetic variants rather than a single resistance gene. Further work found that younger generations of ash trees carry resistance-associated variants more frequently, providing evidence that natural selection is already helping British ash populations respond to the disease. 

The findings have informed Defra’s Ash Tree Research Strategy and approaches used by organisations including Natural England, the Forestry Commission and the Tree Council. The work supports practical measures including retaining healthy trees, encouraging natural regeneration and selectively breeding resistant trees. 

Measuring the impact of rewilding 

Queen Mary researchers have worked with Knepp Wildland in West Sussex to understand how landscapes change following rewilding. 

Using LiDAR and other spatial techniques, researchers measured changes in vegetation across Knepp’s Southern Block and found that woodland and scrub had increased from around 13% to 42% of the site, creating more than 1.3 million square metres of new woody habitat. 

The work provides a way of measuring ecological change across an entire landscape rather than relying only on observations of individual species. 

Queen Mary researchers have also contributed to research examining carbon stored in rewilded landscapes, helping build the evidence needed by conservation organisations and land managers when considering restoration and nature-recovery approaches. 

Protecting native pollinators 

Queen Mary research has helped change how commercially reared non-native bumblebees are managed in the UK. 

Researchers led by Professor Lars Chittka examined the risks associated with importing non-native bumblebee colonies for crop pollination, including competition with native bees, hybridisation and the possible spread of parasites and disease. 

At the time, around 40,000 to 50,000 commercially reared foreign bumblebee colonies were being imported into the UK each year. The research contributed to a review of government policy. Natural England subsequently introduced mandatory licensing for non-native pollinators, while major suppliers moved towards supplying the native British subspecies Bombus terrestris audax. 

This is an example of Queen Mary ecological research contributing to changes designed to protect native biodiversity.