Impact Assessment

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CV – The CV assessment I felt was a very important component in this module. It gave the opportunity to learn and understand what creates an efficient well-constructed CV. Giving advice and aided direction on how to grab the employer’s attention, by the professional layout, design and originality. Tailoring it to the specific job you are applying for each time you sent it off. I feel very self-assured with my CV now, I had one previous to this module, but had greatly improved with the lecturers guide. This has given me the confidence to tackle the job market after university.

Assessment Centre – Having to sit in front on people whom you don’t know and be asked questions isn’t ideal for anyone, but it is an incredibly vital that you are able to do this. The Assessment centre allowed practice at this, anyone who is looking for a job needs to have good social skills, this workshop helped to strengthen these skills, with quick thinking, relative questions and structured feedback in an interview fashion. Interviews are a part of the employment process, it gives you a chance to represent yourself further from your CV, and this workshop has enabled me to do this.

Career’s Café – Upon entering there was a display of leaflets, booklets and books available for us to take, the ones I have taken and read I felt were very useful to me, it had insights into job opportunities and advice. The panel of professionals had a variety of jobs, allowing a look into different aspects of work based environments. I personally took an interest in Ross’s talk, as a zoologist I found the talk very motivating, hearing first hand talks from professionals is very useful and privileged information. It gave me the encouragement to look for work in my field and how to approach it.

Dragon’s Den – This was workshop that I felt focused on your social and communication skills. Socially, you were a part of a team and had to work together on a topic, combining ideas and opinions. This is useful as typically in a job you will be a part of a team. The exercise also meant pitching your idea, this works your communication skills having to present your ideas in front of a large audience, being clear, concise and in control. Good contact with people customers/colleagues is a necessity, bettering social and communication skills was definitely achieved in this workshop.

Business Plan Essay – This gave the knowledge tools needed to open up your own business, this can be useful as the science industry is constantly under change and improvement, new research, technology etc. This sparks initiative, showing that you don’t necessarily have to fit into the job market you can create a job for yourself. How you would need to go about it, advice and explanation was very thorough, even if you don’t want your own business it is always useful to have business knowledge as you can apply this throughout life. 

How Seminars have influenced my career plans – attending seminars is something I really enjoyed doing, it opens your eyes and ears to things you never necessarily knew before, it gives a compelling outlook on topics that you could not even be interested but can appreciate the work and research taken out. I mainly attended zoology seminars, as I take interest in it, but a few I went to I knew nothing about, but all are very well presented. There was a lot of conservation projects/work around the UK, and I quickly realised this was something I’d loved to get involved in, which got me thinking about further education, but I knew that conservation was something I’d love to be a part of now, I’ve currently been applying to the national trust for when I finish University, the position consists of various conservation work, and I have seminars to thank for putting me in this direction.

Landscape scale grey squirrel control: lessons from the UK

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Landscape scale grey squirrel control: lessons from the UK

Craig Shuttleworth

Grey squirrels were first introduced in 1876 from North America, by 1945 Red squirrels were the dominant species, by 2010, grey squirrel species dominated. Grey squirrels are larger in size, and body mass. They occupy territories and extinguish red squirrels because of the complete dietary overlap. Red squirrels have been known to flee to spruce dominated forests because this habitat offers medium term refuge, in this habitat the greys have less of an advantage, smaller seeds are here, no good for the grey squirrels as they need more energy consumption from bigger seeds. The biggest threat to red squirrels is that grey squirrels being a carrier of the squirrel pox virus- which is deadly. The virus causes liaisons on the face, anus and lips, it affects their mobility and their ability to see. The time period from infection to death is around 3 weeks. They are also a problem for us- they can chew into roof, and overhead wires- causing fires. They also have a significant impact on the natural environment and birds. There is compelling research showing reduction by 15% in songbirds where grey squirrels are present alongside bark stripping and nest predation.

Grey squirrels are therefore proving to be a problematic species. Both in the natural and urban areas. Because of this 69% of people agreed to grey Squirrels being controlled to preserve red squirrel population. Scotland is home to ¾ of red squirrels in the UK with a 15x more decline when the virus is present. There are numerous red squirrel projects ongoing throughout the UK. This talk focused more on the work of European Squirrel Initiative on Anglesey.

Anglesey, 720km2 area, woodland covering 4-5%. Back in 1998 there were 40 red squirrels with 3,000-4,000 grey squirrels. Grey squirrels killed annually was 1100 in comparison to 20 in 2010. The virus carried by the grey squirrels declined to nothing from 80% in 2003.

Attempts at red squirrel Re-introduction took place in Newborough, with a diverse group of red squirrels from Scotland and Europe. The Thetford translocation 1991-1997 design meant that the red squirrels could not escape into the wild, however grey squirrels from the outside could get in, spreading the virus causing death. A second attempt was hopeful, except shortly 92% of all captive red squirrels died, and 88% of deaths in the Welsh Mountain Zoo, with vet pathology reports giving no explanation. This was the cause of Adenovirus- difficult to screen, found in mice as well as red and grey squirrels. After perseverance, red squirrels have successfully recolonised. Anglesey is home to red squirrels with no grey population or virus. The future problems facing this is that Anglesey is a peninsula not an island. With reds able to cross over to Bangor and back they could contract the virus passing it back, and with squirrels able to swim lengthy distances is a cause for concern. However, there is potentially a vaccine, this produces liasions, but nowhere near as bad and could have immunity by this route.

There is a promising future for red squirrels as there is more people on board now than ever. But why is this? In my opinion there is a considerable amount of factors to take into account when it comes to public persuasion on any matter. They culling of grey squirrels is allowed and promoted. I can’t see how majority people would agree with the culling of grey squirrels but yet so many against badger and fox culling. What makes it acceptable for grey squirrels? Could it be because they are killing off our native species of red squirrel? Being the moral thing to eradicate grey squirrels to have it like it once was- dominated by red squirrels before they are all gone. The other issue is that trapping and culling is funded by public money. Claimed to be the most cost effective way, but it can be argued public money should be spend on more pressing urgent matters. So I can see that persuading the general public will be challenging. As a zoologist, I see the benefit and need for control of grey squirrels, red squirrels will not be able to re-colonise with the presence of greys. If red squirrels are to survive, all grey squirrels need to be killed. I think there’s long road ahead trying to get that message across and accepted by the public.

Microbial Life and Death of the Glaciers.

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This talk was given by Arwyn Edwards of Aberystwyth University.

Glaciers are ecosystems that currently occupy 11% of the worlds surface, with 80% of our biosphere being permanently cold.

There are two sides to glaciers-

Dark Side – Below the Glacier, rock eating microbes (influencing erosion and creates Methane) The deep underlying part of the Glacier.

Light side –  This is the top side of the Glacier. It has 2 metre thick layer of porous ice, absorbing sunlight deposited nutrients (influencing mass balance and carbon).

The light side also contains a microbial ‘goldilocks zone’ containing sunlight and liquid water. It was calculated 1 x 1021 x 1 x 1026 microbes live in the goldilocks zone- This explains how even in possibly the coldest, harshest conditions on the planet such as a glacier can support lifeforms including viruses, bacteria, algae in the ice, snow and streams and cryoconite holes.

Cryoconite is dust containing soot, microbes and small rock particles. Made up from particles all over the world is blown across the surface of the glacier, builds up and darkens, it decreases the ice’s albedo. This is due to soot, it increases heat absorption, creating melting. Forming a cryoconite hole.

crycoCryoconite Holes

Cryoconite communities are distinct from soils and moraines, different glaciers make for different cryoconite bacterial communities. Despite being sat on glaciers they have a high metabolic rate making cryoconite a global phenomenon.

Edwards studied that Greenland is changing fast. The ice sheet was 80x the size of wales and 3km deep. People thought the rapid melting was soot from factories, Greenland’s albedo is falling each year, turns out it is cryoconite abdunance that is the cause as Greenland is predominantly microbial.

The Petermann glacier in NW Greenland typically drops icebergs 4x the size of Manhattan losing most of its mass with increasing warmer waters underneath and more melting on the surface is why what is currently happening is not fully understood because it constantly goes under rapid change.

He collected cryoconite from 4 sites at Petermann, showing that metabolisms drive variance in Petermann, and that 97% of the surface of Greenland has experienced some level of melting. It has since then been thought to stop melting to look at metabolism and microbial interactions.

These glaciers are home to diverse active microbial ecosystems- the largest freshwater habitat on earth. The microbes on glaciers can drive interactions between glaciers and global cycles. It is these interactions that will assume increasing significance during our century.

Welsh Beaver Re-introduction

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Eurasian Beavers  (Castor fiber) were a widespread species across Wales, pushed to extinction by being hunted for pelts, meat and castoreum. They were easy targets as their active period is around the same time at dusk and dawn regularly. A Pelt was sold to the equivalent of £10,000 today. Their glands were used for medicine as a kind of medieval form of aspirin as beavers ate large amounts of willow. Because of this extensive hunting beavers in Wales were scarce around the end of the middle ages around the 1400’s. They were predicted to be hunted to extinction in the 1100’s.

You could say why re-introduce beavers? Everything seems to work fine without them. We don’t know the implications. This species was lost through human activity “playing god” Surely it would just be the morally right thing to do? 

Well, beavers build dams and lodges in rivers because the river just isn’t deep. Sounds ordinary. But it isn’t. Beavers are a ‘keystone’ species. By doing this they are creating a habitat which benefits all aspects of the river. Examples would be deep water enabling movement under ice, the surrounding wetland absorbing water by the reduced water flow, and deadwood a product of beavers being vital for fungi and invertebrates. These factors will increase biodiversity.

Image SJC Illustration

This also increases the number of fish species. The debris provides shelter, and cover from predation. There was an accusation that beaver dams prevent salmon migration- but here is no evidence to support this. However, there is evidence that shows a dam built in Germany in 1995 – 2002 in 7 years fish abundance doubled! 

With positives there is always drawbacks, beavers must cause some problems?

  • There can be crop damage, easily solvable by beaver traps and mild electric fences. But this will come at a cost for the farmer.
  • Falling trees- which don’t tend to be a hazard but could fall on roads power lines and farmer equipment. By placing wire around the tree base, this will prevent gnawing. 
  • Burrowing under fields in the wrong place could cause localised flooding blocking water courses.

However, beaver dams can always be removed if these problems occur (may require permission) but the beavers will just relocate. These drawbacks seem rather minor compared to the benefits. As Oxford Wildlife Department weighed out the benefits to costs at 20 – 1. With this in mind there has also been 90 re-introductions in 24 countries in 40 years. 

The Welsh Beaver Project will take place in Spring/Summer 2014 with around 15-20 pairs of Eurasian Beavers. Starting at River Rheidol. This also has socio-economic benefits for Wales, bringing in great tourism. It’s definitely something that I feel will have a long list of benefits for Wales and anticipate their return.

 

Murky Waters: phosphorous mitigation to control fresh water eutrophication.

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Phosphorous (P) is the key limiting nutrient in freshwater, a part of plant and animal remains, by-products and life. When phosphorus is the limiting nutrient, there is a direct relationship between the algae growing in the lake and the amount of phosphorus in a lake. As phosphorus levels increase, the amount of algae increases too. Phosphorous levels in the lake can be natural and man-made. Excess phosphorous causes Eutrophication, combined with low flows; pressure & Abstraction, reducing base flows and climate change, this massively increases algal growth.

There are different types of P Sources:

  • Diffuse – Land agriculture flow dependant sources washes from the soil.
  • Point – Waste water effluent flow independent.

How can these P Sources be controlled? Point Source Mitigation has had a great success in reducing P Concentration. With Agricultural Mitigation succeeding in reducing P in edge-of-field run off. Despite this success in lowering P levels, P mitigation over decades has not yet delivered expected long lasting ecological improvements. This is because there are also P legacy stores to take into account; this is stored in flood plains, soil/hill slope, riparian buffer and wetlands. Lag time can occur before Legacy P is delivered. In a free flowing river it may not have so much legacy P lag time but in a typical lake there can be 5 – 30 years of legacy P lag time, meaning a continued release of P from legacy stores may mean a long wait for downstream water quality improvements. Therefore lake recovery phases and processes take longer to internally recycle.

On the other hand, lakes are unique, and phosphorous can support diversity in a lake environment. It is said lowered phosphorous levels improves water quality, but for who? It is good for drinking water and industrial use for humans, what about the lake’s inhabitants? When Phosphorous levels are lowered too much it can cause top down controls. Changing flow velocity, temperature and shading leading to change in the natural habitat.