Towards a process of translational palaeoecology: a practical guide to research co-production

Jessica Gauld; William Fletcher; Emma Shuttleworth; Jane Akerman; Morag Angus; Conrad Barrowclough; Helen Bennion; Antony Blundell; Dave Bromwich; Althea Davies; Gregory Dietl; Francisco Ezquerra; Michelle Farrell; Karl Flessa; Cynthia Froyd; Ralph Fyfe; Martin Gillard; Robin Gledhill; Helen Harper; Joanna Higgins; Mike Longden; Celia Martin-Puertas; César Morales-Molino; Gautier Nicoli; Melanie Riedinger-Whitmore; Ben Siggery; Emily Stewart-Rayner; Rob Stoneman; Beth Thomas; Nathan Thomas; Philip Wright

doi:10.1002/2688-8319.70111

Towards a process of translational palaeoecology: a practical guide to research co-production

Jessica Gauld
, William Fletcher
, Emma Shuttleworth
, Jane Akerman
, Morag Angus
, Conrad Barrowclough
, Helen Bennion
, Antony Blundell
, Dave Bromwich
, Althea Davies
, Gregory Dietl
, Francisco Ezquerra
, Michelle Farrell
, Karl Flessa
, Cynthia Froyd
, Ralph Fyfe
, Martin Gillard
, Robin Gledhill
, Helen Harper
, Joanna Higgins

Mike Longden, Celia Martin-Puertas, César Morales-Molino, Gautier Nicoli, Melanie Riedinger-Whitmore, Ben Siggery, Emily Stewart-Rayner, Rob Stoneman, Beth Thomas, Nathan Thomas, Philip Wright

Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience

University of Manchester
International Union for Conservation of Nature
South West Peatland Partnership
University College London
University of Leeds
Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust
University of St Andrews
Cornell University
Junta de Castilla y León
University of Arizona
Swansea University
Plymouth University
Dartmoor National Park Authority
Liverpool John Moores University
Royal Holloway, University of London
Alcalá University
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
University of South Florida
University of Surrey
Surrey Wildlife Trust
Cumbria Wildlife Trust
The Wildlife Trusts
Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

29 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

1. Palaeoecology has the potential to support practical conservation, offering a long-term perspective to issues such as biodiversity loss, environmental restoration and peatland carbon storage. However, achieving a widespread and effective application of palaeoecology within conservation practice requires greater and more efficient collaboration between academics, practitioners and policymakers.
2. Translational palaeoecology offers a methodological approach to achieve collaboration between academia and conservation and produce palaeoecological research that can support and inform conservation action.
3. This paper reports the results of a workshop involving academics undertaking palaeoenvironmental research and conservation practitioners concerning the barriers and practical recommendations for effective research-practice collaboration. The experiences of the participants highlight the benefits of a collaborative approach for producing palaeoecological research that is enriched with experiential and contextual knowledge. Key themes emerging from the workshop include the importance of mutual learning and knowledge exchange, and supporting practitioners to be co-researchers.
4. Practical implication. The workshop outcomes are presented as a framework of practical guidelines for implementing translational palaeoecology. Key recommendations for academics include engaging with practitioner activities as relationship-building opportunities, utilising field visits for knowledge exchange, adopting a knowledge facilitation role or involving a facilitator to support practitioner understanding, using workshops to explore the practical relevance of palaeoecological data and enabling practitioners to communicate palaeo-research findings in their sphere. Key recommendations for practitioners include inviting academics to practitioner meetings, providing tacit and experiential knowledge throughout the process, exploring practitioner- or land-owner-led funding opportunities for translational research and partaking in communication roles for wider dissemination of research

Original language	English
Article number	e70111
Number of pages	14
Journal	Ecological Solutions and Evidence
Volume	6
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.70111
Publication status	Published - 27 Aug 2025

Bibliographical note

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium,provided the original work is properly cited

Funding

This research was conducted as part of Jessica Gauld's PhD at the University of Manchester with financial support from the University of Manchester's President's Doctoral Scholar award. The preliminary findings of this manuscript were presented at the IUCN UK Peatland Programme conference 2024 with financial support from the British Ecological Society and Manchester Geographical Society.

Funders
University of Manchester
British Ecological Society

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 15 Life on Land

Keywords

collaborative research
knowledge co-production
palaeoecology
, translational palaeoecology

Themes

Biodiversity, Ecology and Society

Access to Document

10.1002/2688-8319.70111

Farrell2025VORFinal published version, 1.18 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Gauld, J., Fletcher, W., Shuttleworth, E., Akerman, J., Angus, M., Barrowclough, C., Bennion, H., Blundell, A., Bromwich, D., Davies, A., Dietl, G., Ezquerra, F., Farrell, M., Flessa, K., Froyd, C., Fyfe, R., Gillard, M., Gledhill, R., Harper, H., ... Wright, P. (2025). Towards a process of translational palaeoecology: a practical guide to research co-production. Ecological Solutions and Evidence, 6(3), Article e70111. https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.70111

Gauld, J, Fletcher, W, Shuttleworth, E, Akerman, J, Angus, M, Barrowclough, C, Bennion, H, Blundell, A, Bromwich, D, Davies, A, Dietl, G, Ezquerra, F, Farrell, M, Flessa, K, Froyd, C, Fyfe, R, Gillard, M, Gledhill, R, Harper, H, Higgins, J, Longden, M, Martin-Puertas, C, Morales-Molino, C, Nicoli, G, Riedinger-Whitmore, M, Siggery, B, Stewart-Rayner, E, Stoneman, R, Thomas, B, Thomas, N & Wright, P 2025, 'Towards a process of translational palaeoecology: a practical guide to research co-production', Ecological Solutions and Evidence, vol. 6, no. 3, e70111. https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.70111

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abstract = "1. Palaeoecology has the potential to support practical conservation, offering a long-term perspective to issues such as biodiversity loss, environmental restoration and peatland carbon storage. However, achieving a widespread and effective application of palaeoecology within conservation practice requires greater and more efficient collaboration between academics, practitioners and policymakers. 2. Translational palaeoecology offers a methodological approach to achieve collaboration between academia and conservation and produce palaeoecological research that can support and inform conservation action. 3. This paper reports the results of a workshop involving academics undertaking palaeoenvironmental research and conservation practitioners concerning the barriers and practical recommendations for effective research-practice collaboration. The experiences of the participants highlight the benefits of a collaborative approach for producing palaeoecological research that is enriched with experiential and contextual knowledge. Key themes emerging from the workshop include the importance of mutual learning and knowledge exchange, and supporting practitioners to be co-researchers. 4. Practical implication. The workshop outcomes are presented as a framework of practical guidelines for implementing translational palaeoecology. Key recommendations for academics include engaging with practitioner activities as relationship-building opportunities, utilising field visits for knowledge exchange, adopting a knowledge facilitation role or involving a facilitator to support practitioner understanding, using workshops to explore the practical relevance of palaeoecological data and enabling practitioners to communicate palaeo-research findings in their sphere. Key recommendations for practitioners include inviting academics to practitioner meetings, providing tacit and experiential knowledge throughout the process, exploring practitioner- or land-owner-led funding opportunities for translational research and partaking in communication roles for wider dissemination of research ",

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Towards a process of translational palaeoecology: a practical guide to research co-production

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Themes

Access to Document

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Cite this