Large herbivores as geomorphic agents in landscape rewilding

As a bid to restore damaged ecosystems and increase biodiversity, rewilding schemes have increased throughout the UK and Europe. A key approach to rewilding involves the protection or reintroduction of animal species. The Quaternary extinction event resulted in a huge loss of large megafauna and many rewilding proposals today aim to emulate the lost ecological roles of these animals.

Consequently, ungulates are often targeted species for rewilding projects. Due to their feeding habits (e.g. grazing/ browsing vegetation, rootling soil) and movements (e.g. trampling, wallowing), these 'ecosystem engineer' species drive natural processes and shape landforms and landscapes. Yet understanding of these interactions in rewilded environments is sparse, and geomorphological and hydrological impacts in particular remain under-explored.

This PhD aims to resolve this by (1) conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis to establish the state of the knowledge of the geomorphic impacts of ungulates in different environments (2) investigate geomorphic disturbance by ungulates at two rewilding sites using remote sensing (3) conduct a more in-depth field survey of the cascade effect areas of pig disturbance and pig wallows have on the ecosystem and (4) use species distribution modelling to assess the resilience and sustainability of current rewilding strategies.