Poor health scores for England's rivers mask biodiversity improvements, experts tell Defra
Reports and Proceedings
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 2-Jan-2026 09:11 ET (2-Jan-2026 14:11 GMT/UTC)
The system for assessing the health of England’s rivers states just 14% are in good ecological health but an independent report for Defra says this masks improvements in freshwater biodiversity – and has proposed an alternative monitoring standard.
A team of scientists, led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), carried out a review of the ecological status assessments of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), and criticised its ‘one out, all out’ approach.
New research into the economic impact of Post-traumatic stress disorder has found that average annual costs exceed £14780 per person, which at current prevalence rates equates to £40 billion.
Many soil microbes play a vital role in ecosystems, as they help plants access nutrients and water and assist in stress tolerance such as during drought and to defend against pathogens. One such group of soil microbes are arbuscular mycorrhizal, aka AM, fungi, which are associated with the roots of approximately 70% of plant species on land. new Dartmouth-led study reports on how global climate conditions affect AM fungal spore traits and the species biogeographic patterns. The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.