Tagged / biodiversity

Postdoc Appreciation Week: Dr Aralisa Shedden

BU research, Featured, Featured academics, PG research, Postgraduate Research, Research communication, research staff

This week is UK Postdoc Appreciation Week and we are celebrating and showcasing the achievements of our postdoctoral researchers and their important contribution to research at BU. 

Today’s post is by Dr Aralisa Shedden, who writes about her experiences as a postdoctoral researcher… 

I am a terrestrial ecologist who aims to understand the emerging challenges for biodiversity conservation in a changing world. I obtained my BSc and my MSc at the University of Veracruz, Mexico. My MSc thesis investigated sustainable use of tropical forest fragments to enhance biodiversity conservation and how endangered species adapted to changes in their environment. I also worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Neuroethology, where I supported research development and management.

I was then invited to join the Center for Tropical Research at the University of Veracruz, where I worked as a Scientific Associate until 2012, when I began my PhD at Bournemouth University. I completed my PhD in 2016 and my thesis combined environmental, ecological and social data to rank the suitability of areas for conservation in a multi-user and multi-use landscape in Mexico. I explored using primates as flagship species to establish these conservation sites and also aimed to support decision making and planning in response to threats including agriculture and hunting.

After a five year break in my career due to full-time care responsibilities, I re-joined academia and began a Post Doctoral position at Bournemouth University working on a EU Horizon 2020 project called RESONATE that investigates how past and current site factors and management affect forest system resilience in different forest types and management systems across Europe.

I also continue to collaborate with colleagues from universities in Mexico and the U.S.A. on topics related to interactions between wildlife (e.g. jaguar and puma predation on primates), the effects of landscape transformation on animal health (e.g. increase in parasitism in animals living in human impacted forests) and enhancing our knowledge on how to tackle conservation issues in the tropics.

Through my applied research, I am driven to understand the intricate relationships between the need for economic growth in rural communities and the necessity for environmental conservation. I am interested in how species respond to changes in their ecosystems, ongoing climatic events and human pressures. With this knowledge, I aim to provide practical solutions for conservation under varying scenarios.

For me, the best part about being a post-doc has been learning new skills and being exposed to topics/concepts that I had not been involved with in my previous research. And worst thing about being a post-doc is it can be somewhat isolating and the learning curve can be steeper than expected, which can be quite challenging.

If you’d like to write a blog post to share your experiences, or show your appreciation for our postdoctoral researchers, please contact research@bournemouth.ac.uk. You can also get involved on social media during Postdoc Appreciation Week by using #LovePostdocs and #NPAW2023 on Twitter and Instagram and tagging us @BU_Research or @UK_NPAW.

 

Policy Influence Opportunity – Forestry, land management & environmental

Impact, parliament, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, policy, Research communication, Uncategorized

Call for potential oral witnesses for EFRA Committee tree planting inquiry

  • The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee secretariat is looking for potential oral witnesses for the Committee’s inquiry into Tree Planting and Woodlands. please see the background to the inquiry and Call for Evidence for further information.
  • The Committee would be particularly interested to hear from researchers with expertise in forestry relating to some of the following issues: woodland management, land management, agroforestry, climate change mitigation and adaptation, biosecurity, biodiversity, economics and/or policy analysis of UK Government and Devolved Administrations’ policies and funding on forestry and tree planting.
  • Researchers who are interested must nominate themselves by 15 December. Please inform your BU Impact Officer and the BU policy team (policy@bournemouth.ac.uk) if you nominate yourself.
  • The Committee is committed to improving the diversity of the witnesses it hears evidence from because this provides a broader evidence base for its inquiries, so would also particularly want to hear from women researchers and researchers from minority ethnic communities.
  • The secretariat currently expects the evidence session to take place in early February.
  • Please complete your nominations on this form.

NERC report: Emerging trends and threats to biodiversity in 2018

Guidance, Research news

Gene editing to eradicate unwanted animal populations, deep water lasers for trawling the sea, radiation threats from next-generation mobile phone networks and how to protect the 44% of the Earth’s surface covered by no-mans-land oceans.

Earth from space

These are among the 15 environmental challenges and trends cited by a diverse group of 24 researchers and experts tasked with identifying the as yet little-understood issues that could have a big impact on our natural world in the coming year.

This was the ninth NERC-funded Horizon Scan of Emerging Issues for Global Conservation & Biological Diversity, led by William Sutherland, Professor of Conservation Biology at Cambridge University, and published in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

The annual report looks at new developments and threats that authors believe could present risks and opportunities in the coming year. The international team reviewed 117 potential emerging issues, whittling down to the 15 they believe may have the biggest impact – positive or negative – but are the least well-known.

Click here to see what the 15 emerging issues for 2018 were identified as.

BU Briefing – Trophic positioning of meiofauna revealed by stable isotopes & food web analyses

BU research

Our BU briefing papers are designed to make our research outputs accessible and easily digestible so that our research findings can quickly be applied – whether to society, culture, public policy, services, the environment or to improve quality of life. They have been created to highlight research findings and their potential impact within their field. 

This paper examines seasonal food webs of the invertebrates inhabiting the streambed of the chalk River Lambourn in England. Researchers conducted analyses of gut content (a dietary “snapshot”) of macro and meiofauna, as well as stable isotope analyses (determines the feeding links of an organism as it reflects its assimilated diet) of meiofauna to examine seasonal food webs of the chalk stream.

This study stresses the importance of temporal variations in food and consumer species composition for a comprehensive understanding of food web structure, asserted by similar changes in trophic structure depicted by gut content and stable isotope analyses.

Click here to read the briefing paper.

For more information about the research, contact Professor Genoveva Esteban at gesteban@bournemouth.ac.uk 
To find out how your research output could be turned into a BU Briefing, contact research@bournemouth.ac.uk.

 

Fusion Investment Funding helps to expand our conservation research in northern Sumatra

Fusion Investment Fund

A series of Fusion Investment Funds since 2013 has enabled Amanda Korstjens and Ross Hill (Department of Life & Environmental Sciences) to develop a multi-stakeholder network in Sumatra and the UK, and establish a multi-cultural learning platform which provides BU staff and students with unique access to research, professional practice and education opportunities in tropical ecology and conservation. This began with an emphasis on primates, however further Fusion Investment Funding over 2015-16 has enabled us to expand this to include the critically endangered Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus), focusing on human-wildlife conflicts and mitigation, and thus broadening the scope, sphere of influence and practical applications of the network and its learning platform.

picture1

Human-elephant conflict is a major issue in northern Sumatra resulting from habitat loss and fragmentation. A key factor that decides the potential for conservation and for mitigating Human-elephant conflict is the availability of suitable habitat, and therefore it is critical to determine how elephants are responding to the degradation and rapid loss of their habitat. In order to do this, we need to have a better understanding of their home ranging, habitat use patterns and foraging strategies to understand their response to habitat change. We also need to understand the perception and values of local communities, and to identify positive means of providing support to help balance human-elephant relationships. An opportunity related to this is the potential for ecotourism development in the region. Ecotourism is a sustainable, non-invasive form of nature-based tourism that focuses primarily on educative experiences for visitors and direct economic benefit for local people. This FIF funded Staff Mobility Network project involved funding for Ross Hill, Amanda Korstjens and Susanna Curtin to visit Sumatra to establish a new collaborative network for Human-elephant conflict mitigation work, and to publicise our work via workshops and international conferences.

We made a highly successful two-week visit to Indonesia during January 2016. We held meetings with the Head of International Affairs at both Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh, and University Sumatra Utara in Medan, to cement institutional relations and start the process of establishing a Memorandum of Agreement between our universities. Such was the level of support and interest from Syiah Kuala University that we also met both the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs (Dr Sofyan) and Rector (Prof Rizal), and after our visit they posted a very positive report on social media (click here).

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We also visited the regional offices of HAkA (Hutan, Alam dan Lingkungan Aceh) in Langsa, in order to establish a working relationship and research plan for elephant habitat modelling and mitigation of human-elephant conflict. We met with Rudi Putra (Chief Conservationist) and Tezar Pahlevie (Regional Manager) to identify a field site and protocol for elephant tracking by GPS collar, and were invited to attend the opening ceremony of the Conservation Response Unit field site at Serbajadi, Aceh Timor. This was attended by dignitaries including the District (Aceh Timor) and/or Provincial (Aceh) Heads of Forestry, Conservation, Police, Military, Public Prosecution, and the Mayor. This event received considerable local coverage in the media (and through social media), helping to establish BU at the centre of activities and generating considerable good will. We have established this field area as the focal study site for our developing human-elephant conflict project, and our post-doctoral researcher (Gaius Wilson) is there now beginning the process of data collection.

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In addition to putting in place the network and working relationships for our elephant project, we also met with our collaborators at the Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Programme (SOCP), including Ian Singleton (Director of Conservation) and Matthew Nowak (Director of Biodiversity Monitoring) to discuss research plans for our PhD and MRes students. We also made a successful field reconnaissance visit at our Sikundur field site, travelling up the Besilang River into primary rainforest to establish the potential of extending primate research into undisturbed forest. In Medan we visited the SOCP orang-utan quarantine and rehabilitation centre (The Sanctuary), meeting with Jess McKelson, the Quarantine Director and Project Manager of the Orang-utan Haven and Wildlife Conservation Education Centre, establishing possibilities for both research and professional practice student placements.

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Finally, we also visited the tourist area of Bukit Lawang to experience the role that tourism currently plays in orang-utan conservation to identify possibilities for an eco-tourism approach. We visited key sites and interviewed Zefri Chandra, Operations Manager of the only eco-lodge in the area, to gain an understanding of the difficulties and wider context of fulfilling an eco-tourism ethos in an environment where surrounding lodges and even the visiting foreign tourists do not particularly uphold or value this approach.

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A second successful visit to Sumatra took place during June 2016, with a mostly educational focus, but tying in with the research and conservation practice aims of the learning platform. A previous research blog describes this international field trip (click here). Also during this visit to Sumatra, as a separate activity to the under-graduate field course, I was able to receive training from Graham Usher (SOCP) in the flying and configuration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for remote surveying of field sites at a landscape scale. This was part of the two-way knowledge exchange at the heart of the learning platform that this and previous FIF SMN awards have helped to establish.

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In order to publicise our conservation research work at Sikundur, Amanda Korstjens attended the joint meeting of the International Primatological Society and the American Society of Primatologists, in Chicago, during August 21-27, 2016. She presented a poster on the LEAP project which was well received. For a brief report on the IPS-ASP conference, click here).

Please contact us if you would like to know any more information about our work in northern Sumatra, relating to primates, elephants, human-wildlife conflict or eco-tourism. Further information can be found on our LEAP project website (http://go-leap.wix.com/home).

BU team investigate water quality at Poole Park

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Business Engagement, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

 

A new project to investigate and monitor water quality at Poole Park is being carried out by a team from Bournemouth University.

The work will be completed by Bournemouth University Global Environment Solutions (BUG), after Poole Park was successful in the first stage bid to receive a £2.9 million Heritage Lottery Fund for improvements.

The main boating lake in Poole Park has experienced issues over recent years, with swarms of midges and large amounts of unpleasant weed. The BUG team has already launched an intensive 12 month study to monitor the quality of water entering the lake.

Additional surveys of the ecology of the lake, including fish and other creatures, are also planned. The weekly water quality monitoring programme will help form an understanding of factors which cause the current problems and allow the team to identify a range of management options to enhance the general health of the lake. In addition to the boating lake, the study will also extend to the two smaller freshwater ponds to examine scope for further improvements.

Adrian Pinder, Director of BUG, said:

 “What many people don’t realise is the boating lake originally formed part of Poole Harbour and would have been refreshed with sea water on every tide. “With water exchanges with the harbour now controlled by sluice gates we need to overcome a number of challenges to manage the lake to its best potential.

“We are delighted to be working with Borough of Poole and all stakeholders to provide sustainable improvements to the Park’s water features.” 

Councillor Xena Dion, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for a Prosperous and Sustainable Poole, Borough of Poole, said: “Poole Park is a wonderful and highly valued facility, but as people will know there have been considerable problems in recent years with rather unpleasant smells from decaying weed and huge swarms of midges during the summer months.

“To try and tackle the problems we have tried a programme of lake flushing, dye applications and barley straw – all of which have had some degree of success.

“We are delighted that through the Heritage Lottery Fund we are able to bring on board a team of experts from Bournemouth University to help find more effective and long term solutions.”

BUG is currently one of a number of projects funded through the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), co-ordinated through R&KEO.

 

The Wessex Forum Event to be held at BU – – discussing ‘Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services & the Green Economy’ in the Wessex region

BU research, Business Engagement, Knowledge Exchange

Date: Wednesday 11 February

Location: Bournemouth University – Executive Business Centre

Time: Starting at 9.30am (all day event)

Event details:

The Wessex Conservation Forum aims to bring together representatives from NGOs, Universities and Government bodies for a free one day conference discussing ‘Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services & the Green Economy’ in the Wessex region. The services which nature provides us with, such as clean water, clean air, fertile soil and food, are not only crucial for the well-being of human-kind, they also represent an astronomical value. It has been estimated by economists that the loss of biodiversity was costing the EU €450 billion annually, equal to 3% of GDP. Hence, halting the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services is now a UK and EU priority for 2020.

Confirmed speakers include representatives from organisations such as: the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, the Freshwater Biological Association, Bournemouth University, University of Southampton, the Dorset Local Nature Partnership, Wessex Water and the Bournemouth & Poole Sustainable Food City Partnership. The conference will be centred around a series of talks in order to showcase research output, identify areas for further research and promote collaboration in order to fulfil these needs.

A complimentary lunch and refreshments will be provided on the day, and there will be plenty of opportunities to make and renew contacts throughout the day.

To book: This event is popular and places are limited.  Click here to register for your free place.

More information: We hope to see you at this event but if you are unable to attend and  want to find out more about the work that BU is involved in why not sign up to receive more information. The Wessex Portal (formerly the Poole & Purbeck Portal  has been developed with the assistance of  funding from the Higher Edication Innovation Fund – HEIF)  as an  online community to promote a better understanding of our region’s unique natural and heritage assets.

Click here to  sign up to receive more information on jobs,  general news and projects taking place as part of this initiative.

Professor Adrian Newton in National Geographic

BU research, Research news

BU’s Professor Adrian Newton has featured in a National Geographic article ‘Apples of Eden: Saving the Wild Ancestor of Modern Apples’.

Reporter Josie Glausiusz explores the endangered wild fruit trees of Central Asia, drawing on Professor Newton’s expertise and experiences working to protect the fruit and nut forests in Kyrgyzstan.

In the article Professor Newton explains the genetic importance of the fruit there: “All of the apples that we’re eating today and cultivating originate from this area. So if we want to add genetic variation to our crops to cope with new pests or climate change, then the genetic resource is these forests. It’s true for apples, apricots, peaches, walnuts, pears. In terms of a wild genetic resource for cultivated fruit trees, there’s nothing like it on the planet.”

Read the full article, ‘Apples of Eden: Saving the Wild Ancestor of Modern Apples’, online here.

On stage at Bestival

BU research

Written by Josie Pegg

I love festivals; I’d love to have been a rock star, the only problem being that I have minimal musical talent. However I do know a lot about parasites, and this was enough to get me a gig at this year’s Bestival.

Though not quite as rock and roll as the main stage, I was speaking in the Bestiversity tent, in the Tomorrow World area of Bestival. My talk “The parasite saga – a tale of horror, love and mystery” was a fun pop-science look at parasites and how big a part they play in our lives.  The Bestiversity tent was rather fabulous. My audience were able to lounge on sofas and giant beanbags, while my retro-styled stage comprised a comfortable armchair and PA system – I’m sure we’d get a few bonus points in the student satisfaction survey, if all lectures were like this. Furthermore I was handed a cold beer as I walked on stage – perhaps maybe something to consider to enhance staff satisfaction!

The experience was a nice break from my less rock-and-roll PhD life, where I am presently trying to write my transfer document concurrent to surviving the busiest period of my field season. Although my Bestival talk was designed to be fun and accessible to anyone it was essentially a version of one of the chapters of my PhD, so writing it proved to be a very useful exercise for me; as Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”. It was also a gentle reminder that my PhD is actually really interesting and cool, and more than just a never-ending stream of tissue samples and spreadsheets.

Above all taking part in Bestival was simply a whole lot of fun – there aren’t many chances to use a powerpoint presentation containing slides of Santa, George Clooney and the alien chest-burster. And much to the fulfilment of my rockstar fantasy I was classed as an Artist so I got to walk around with an Artist wristband and travel on the Artist shuttle. Plus I could camp in the Artist campsite with hot showers and real flushing toilets! And I got two tickets so I was also able to enjoy the rest of the festival with my friends once my talk was over.

The best bit of the whole experience for me was late on Thursday night as my friends and I were dancing to some gypsy punk in the polka tent when I was approached by a stranger. “I saw your talk today”, she said, “I didn’t do science but that parasites can do all that is brilliant, thanks for telling me”.

Does that count as a fan? If so, could this have been my best moment ever?!

I’d encourage anyone to apply for next years Bestiversity. If you’d like to know more speak to your agent or Becca Edwards.

Find out about the Biodiversity, Environmental Change and Green Economy research theme

Research themes

Staff and students have been extremely but successfully busy undertaking policy-relevant, interdisciplinary research science aimed at: increasing understanding of environmental change and its impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems services, the physical environment and human livelihoods, evaluating environmental management options and policy responses, developing sustainable solutions to enhance environmental conditions and human wellbeing.

Research into the green economy has included carbon storage and management, renewable energy, green tourism, sustainable design, leadership of sustainable development, and the linkages between the environment and the economy. 

Our research continues to be internationally recognized, as demonstrated in publications in leading journals like Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ISME Journal (Nature’s Group), Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B, PLoS, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Quaternary Science Reviews, and Journal of Human Evolution, amongst many others. We recently launched a globally unique Masters degree in the Green Economy, which is delivered by distance learning.  Fish Ecology was defined as a world leader by SCOPUS citation rankings in 2012.

PhD student numbers have increased by 200% since 2007 due to our success at attracting external funding for BU’s novel match-funded PhD programme, and increased success at winning externally funded PhD studentships.

Our contribution to the Festival of Learning was substantial – we organised 16 events and activities, all of them well attended and enjoyed by attendees. This included a series of events to commemorate the centenary of the death of Alfred Russel Wallace. As the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution with Charles Darwin, as well as founding the discipline of biogeography, Wallace has left a substantial scientific legacy. A wildlife walk was held culminating in a visit to the monument marking Wallace’s final resting place. One suspects that Wallace himself would have enjoyed the wildlife walk most of all, complete with encounters with snakes, beautiful butterflies and remarkable slaver ants – all elements of Dorset’s wonderful biodiversity.  Wallace 100 Celebration does not end here! A forthcoming event will take place on 12th of October in partnership with Thomas Hardye School (Dorchester).

The Poole & Purbeck Portal successfully launched in March this year, funded by Fusion. The portal is an on-line community to promote better understanding of our region’s unique natural and heritage assets.  Exciting opportunities, knowledge and expertise are shared on the Portal, creating a gateway for new collaborations across the region.  We invite you to join us by registering your interest on http://www.pooleandpurbeckportal.co.uk/

Dr Genoveva Esteban

School of Applied Sciences

 

Sign up to the Biodiversity, Environmental Change and Green Economy research themes here:

    Your Name (required)

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    Staff or PGR student? (required)

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    Please select the themes that you are interested in (required)

    September’s Biodiversity, Environmental Change and Green Economy Research Theme Seminar- Monday 23rd Sept

    After a short summer hiatus the research theme seminars are back.  This month I am pleased to present something a little different.

    We will be joined by some of the ‘Black Fish’ team as they pass through Bournemouth on their UK speaking tour. “The Black Fish is an international marine conservation movement on a mission to end the industrial overfishing of our oceans. Through investigation and action they work to expose and challenge illegal and destructive fishing practices”.

    For more information see their website http://theblackfish.org/

    Environmental activism is a step away from our daily academic lives so please come along and join the debate!

    Date: Monday 23rd September; Room: K103; Time:  11am – 1pm

    Defra Funding Opportunity – Biodiversity segmentation scoping study

    BU research, Funding opportunities

    Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs invites applications for its biodiversity segmentation scoping study.

    The aim of this project is to undertake a biodiversity segmentation scoping study, to help understand the attitudes, values, motivations and behaviours of key groups and how to engage them more effectively. The objectives of the project are: to undertake a review of existing segmentations, data sources and relevant literature, to inform understanding of target audiences and behaviours and possible approaches to increase engagement with biodiversity issues; to undertake in-depth qualitative research with key groups, including key stakeholders and public groups; to assess options and make recommendations for development of a full-scale biodiversity segmentation, including consideration of target audiences and behaviours; to make other recommendations in addition to or apart from segmentation to help identify and understand target audiences and behaviours and develop effective interventions and approaches; to be flexible in response to evidence needs identified by the people engagement group and inform its work, as well as future biodiversity people engagement policy; to work closely with the two PEG task and finish groups on priority audiences and priority behaviours; to provide high quality outputs in a range of formats. It is expected that the cost of the project will be within the range of £70,000 to £100,000.

    View the full details of this call here.

     The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

    Some Calls for Tenders including biodiversity, culture, Chile, Latin America and China!

    EU

    Implementation of 2020 EU Biodiversity Strategy: The European Commission, Directorates-General for the Environment/Climate Action, has published a call for tenders for the implementation of the 2020 EU biodiversity strategy: priorities for the restoration of ecosystems and their services in the EU. The aim is to provide support in relation to Action 6a of the EU biodiversity strategy. Target 6a concerns the development of a strategic framework to set priorities for restoration at subnational, national and EU levels.

    EU–Chile Co-operation on Regional Innovation Systems: The European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional Policy, has published a call for tenders for the EU–Chile co-operation on regional innovation systems in the framework of regional policy.In the framework of its dialogues on regional policy with countries outside the European Union, the Directorate-General for Regional Policy is keen to share its experience on European regional policy by offering technical assistance, training and expert advice related to specific regional development’s interests raised by their external partners.
     The intention is to organise a twinning exercise and a training programme to support officials responsible for regional innovation systems in Chile.

     EU–Latin America Co-operation on Cross-Border Co-operation: The European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional Policy, has published a call for tenders for the EU–Latin America co-operation on cross-border co-operation in the framework of regional policy. In the framework of its dialogues on regional policy with countries outside the European Union (EU), the Directorate-General for Regional Policy is keen to share its experience on European regional policy by offering a mix of information sessions and study visits related to specific regional development’s interests raised by their external partners.  The intention is to organise up to two information sessions in Europe for Latin American participants and two workshops in Latin America.

    EU–China Regional Policy Dialogue: The European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional Policy, has published a call for tenders for the EU–China regional policy dialogue. In the framework of its dialogues on regional policy with third countries, the Directorate-General for Regional Policy is keen to share its experience on European regional policy by offering a mix of information sessions and study visits related to specific regional development’s interests raised by our external partners.  The intention is to organise two information sessions in Europe for Chinese participants, followed by two seminars in China and four targeted information sessions in Europe for small groups of Chinese participants.

     Preparatory Action on Culture in External Relations: The European Commission, Directorate-General for Education and Culture, has published a call for tenders for the provision of a preparatory action on culture in external relations. The overall objective to which the contract will contribute is to support ongoing policy reflection and development on strengthening the role of culture in external relations and to nurture future work in this area.  In particular, it should contribute to formulating recommendations for a strategy on culture in European external relations.

    LIFE+ 2012 Call now open!

    EU

    The sixth LIFE+ call opened recently and closes on the 26th September 2012. LIFE+ funds projects that implement, update and develop Community environmental policy and legislation. There are three strands:

    There is a significant change to the application process this year as this must be done using a new eProposal online tool. There are user guides available on the LIFE+ website. In addition applicants submitting a Nature & Biodiversity project or an Information & Communication project related to Forest Fire Prevention will also need to submit an A8 form, signed by the relevant competent authority.

    Beta Technology can review your project idea before you start taking time to fill in the application form, simply complete the project concept form and send it to Catherine Holt or Jane Watkins . You can also take a look at the Tips and Advice section of the Beta website for some great hints when completing an application.

    There is also an Info Day for this call being held in London on May 29th  -povisional plans for the day include presentations from Stefan Welin, Technical Desk Officer at the EU LIFE Unit, Catherine Holt from BETA Technology and previous project funding recipients. Attendance is free but must be registered in advance, places are limited and will initially be allocated at one per organisation on a first come, first served basis; you can register here.

     

    BU is world number one for fish biology research

    Research news

    Research emerging from the Centre for Conservation Ecology and Environmental Sciences at Bournemouth University (BU) is rated the best in the world for the study of fish biology.

    Head of the Centre, ProfessorRudy Gozlan, said: “Fish are carried by a vascular network of rivers and are the blood of millions of people that rely on healthy inland fisheries for food, business and sport fishing. We are delighted that our research contributes to that knowledge and comes in support of human communities all around the world.”

    The statistic is from the bibliographic database ‘Scopus’, which calculates institutional strengths, based on article clusters. 

    Institutions are ranked according to three measures:

    • Publication leadership, calculated through the proportion of articles from BU in the fish biology cluster
    • Reference leadership, calculated through the proportion of citations in the fish biology cluster that cite BU articles
    • State-of-the-art leadership, outlining how recent BU’s fish biology references are.

    The accolade comes as BU researchers enter discussions with the Environment Agency regarding the testing of wild fish populations for the deadly parasite Sphaerothecum destruens.

    More commonly known as the Rosette Agent, the parasite killed 90% of UK salmon in lab tests and has been blamed for the rapid demise of Leucaspius delineatus, or the sunbleak species, in parts of Europe.

    Professor Gozlan said: “Since the first discovery of the Rosette Agent in wild populations five years ago we have carried out a set of tests and all species were highly susceptible to infection. We have carried out further tests in semi-natural conditions and found the same results. We looked at one wild fish population and found the disease present. In California our colleagues did the same in a population of returning salmon and found the parasite in around 40% of the fish. The Environment Agency will not determine the impact of the Rosette Agent unless they start specific health checks.”

    More information on the Centre for Conservation Ecology and Environmental Sciences can be found on the centre’s webpages.

    View Keynote Speeches from the FSBI 2011 conference

    BU research

    The Fisheries Society of the British Isles (FSBI) 2011 Annual International Conference took place at BU in July last year.

    The week-long event organised by the FSBI and BU focused on the damage being done to aquatic ecosystems and fish communities, and discussed how scientific evidence could be used to benefit the world’s fisheries.

    The conference attracted many esteemed Scientists from a total of 22 countries who presented their research over five days.

    Four of the keynote speeches, as well as an overview of the conference, can be seen below.

    An overview of the Fish Diversity and Conservation: Current State of Knowledge

    Julian Olden (University of Washington) – Invasive Species and Alternative Global Futures for Freshwater Ecosystems

    Ya-hui Zhaoyh (Chinese Academy of Science) – Out of Sight Out of Mind: Current Knowledge on Chinese Cave Fish

    David Dudgeon – Asian River Fishes in the Anthropecene – Conservation Challenges in an era of Rapid Environmental Change

    Steve Railsback – Behaviour in Fish Conservation Models: Getting From “why” to “how”

    Paul Skelton – Walking the Tightrope: Trends in African Freshwater Systematic Ichthyology