Steve Moreby’s career with the GWCT has spanned more than 40 years. During this time he has studied the diet of grey partridges and red grouse, and looked at agricultural management and its effects on insects. Along the way he has trained up a legion of young ecologists in insect identification, sharing his skills with several generations.
“In 1983 I started work looking at insect samples from the Sussex Study, a job I am still doing today. This is the longest-running monitoring project in the world measuring the impact of changes in farming on the fauna and flora of arable land. It started in 1968, looking into the causes of the decline in numbers of the grey partridge.
“The ground-breaking Cereal and Gamebirds Project had a great team including Nick Sotherton and the late Dick Potts. It developed selectively sprayed field margins known as conservation headlands, and mid-field tussocky grass strips known as beetle banks, which are still popular agrienvironment options today. Farm-scale experimentation demonstrated the efficacy of such management in restoring invertebrate abundance and improving partridge chick survival, while agronomic studies evaluated practical farming issues.
“I run the long-term insect monitoring studies which include the Sussex Study (1970- ongoing), Allerton Project (1992- ongoing) and three other studies on large estates. We sample the insects during June to early July, the period when insects are most important to the young of gamebirds and many other farmland birds. We sample crops and noncrop habitat, collecting more than 1,000 samples. Together, with my small team, we then identify and count the insects, which provides valuable insight into how changes in farming practices (including pesticide use) affect invertebrate abundance.
“The GWCT's long-term monitoring studies have never been more important. Most monitoring projects are only funded for three to seven years. Our long-term projects (now 30 to 50-plus years) help put in perspective the effects of both the ongoing changes in farming practices (within crops and in environmental options) and changes in weather on insects.