Projects
KMBRC has used species records and habitat data to model the distribution and dispersal capabilities of rare bumblebees in support of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust's Making a Buzz for the Coast. This analysis of habitat data, coupled with agri-environment information, produced a targeted approach to landowner engagement by the project's officers and supported a successful funding bid to The National Lottery.
KMBRC was heavily involved with Kent Wildlife Trust's Vole Reversal project. This project sought to: discover where Water Voles were to be found in the North Kent Marshes, monitor for American Mink and deliver habitat improvement to aid dispersal and increased connection for Water Vole populations. Mapping and modelling work supported a successful funding bid to SITA Trust, where KMBRC data was able to dramatically show the impact that the spread of American Mink has had on Kent's Water Vole populations in our river valleys. Kent's water voles are now almost entirely restricted to coastal marshland. Furthermore, by modelling the connectivity of water courses on Ham Marshes and the Teynham Levels KMBRC's work was able to precisely inform where habitat improvement work would have the most impact in joining up separated metapopulations within the two marshes.
KMBRC's data underpinned a number of chapters within the 2022 published State of Nature in Kent report. KMBRC maintains a small number of mainly invertebrate datasets on the NBN Atlas which have been disseminated to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. This makes KMBRC records available to researchers in global biodiversity. So far, our data have been used in 140 scientific works.
KMBRC recently worked collaboratively with Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent, University College London and Natural Values Consultancy to assess the population of Kent's access to greenspace and whether this could explain the prevalence of inactivity in some areas of the county. The full report and executive summaries can be found on the Kent Nature Partnership Website or by clicking here.
Other projects supported by our data and expertise include:
Red-billled Chough re-introduction feasibility study.
The impacts of European Bison re-introduction in the Blean.
Kent's Local Nature Recovery Strategy and mapping.
Biodiversity Net Gain in Kent.
Kentish Milkwort monitoring.
Adonis Blue butterfly distribution modelling.
Habitat management effects on specialist wetland beetle assemblages at Dungeness RSPB.
Vegetated shingle restoration.
Habitat niche modelling to target surveying for Bechtein's Bat.