A Lancaster University Professor has won an award for her research into limestone pavements around a quarrying site in the Yorkshire Dales

Professor Carly Stevens of the Lancaster Environment Centre was winner of the national division of Heidelberg Material’s 6^th Quarry Life Award for her work on limestone pavement habitats near to their Horton-in-Ribblesdale quarry site.

The Quarry Life Awards – which has run every three years since 2011 – is Heidelberg Material’s nature-based competition which aims to raise the awareness of the ecological importance of quarrying sites. Open to students, researchers, NGOs and local communities, the awards encourage participants to submit biodiversity projects to be carried out at one of the company's quarry sites. The competition runs at both a national and international level, with six applicants from each country being selected to receive funding to run their project and compete for the national and international grand prizes simultaneously.

Professor of Plant Ecology Carly Stevens’ project is a series of grazing experiments on the limestone pavements located above the Horton-in-Ribblesdale quarry in the Yorkshire Dales, with the aim to see how managed grazing in the area could help boost the diversity of the native flora, and if certain times of year were better for grazing in terms of maintaining biodiversity within the vegetation. For the past few months, Professor Stevens has been rotating the grazing locations of sheep through the use of metal “exclosures” (small plots of land fenced off to prevent grazing), and measuring how the plant communities change over time. She has been capturing her progress through a series of blog posts, culminating in a podcast recorded on-site in Horton with funds provided by Philip Welch. Her experiment will continue to run on the site for several years, providing valuable insights into how best to manage limestone pavements.

Professor Stevens was announced as the winner of the research stream of the competition at an awards ceremony held at Heidlberg’s head office in Maidenhead on Tuesday 4^th November, and received £4000 of prize money towards continuing her research. She and her fellow competitors will now advance to the international stage of the company's competition.

“It has been a great experience working with Heidelberg Materials.” said Professor Stevens. “The partnership has enabled me to establish an experiment that is really important to my research into optimal management for limestone pavements, a rare and important habitat. Working in the quarry, within land that they have set aside for conservation, has been a fantastic opportunity and I am looking forward to working with them to keep the experiment running over the next few years.”

Marian Garfield, Sustainability Director at Heidelberg Materials UK said: “We have been really impressed by all the entries this year. The range of projects all explore ways to enhance biodiversity at extraction sites and engage local people to learn more about nature and habitats.”