24
months

saved during permitting

70%

reduction in
monitoring costs

$100m’s

in asset value
safeguarding

Ongoing insights to inform major infrastructure, from roads & rail to water utilities

Species Evidence that Holds up to Scrutiny

• Meet Protected Species Requirements. Detect priority, protected, and invasive species using validated, regulator-accepted methodologies.
• Stand Up to Challenge. Use transparent, real-world data, not black-box models, when facing consultation, objection, or legal review.
• Support Confident Consenting. Reduce the risk of stop-work orders or redesign caused by missed ecological constraints.

~3,000

Species detected across bacteria, fungi, and soil fauna

10x

More soil fauna identified than traditional survey methods

Client Challenge

Jacobs supported Transport Scotland on a major road widening project that required compensatory woodland creation. Traditional soil surveys could not provide the depth or consistency needed to compare habitats or prove long-term restoration success.

Solution

NatureMetrics’ soil eDNA analysis delivered comprehensive biodiversity data across four habitats from a single survey. The approach enabled direct comparison between woodland and grassland soils and informed soil translocation decisions with high confidence.

Results

Distinct soil communities were identified between habitats, defining the ecological gap mitigation must address. The dataset now provides a robust baseline to monitor woodland creation over time and demonstrate ecological equivalence.