August 2014 – Ambroise Baker's Research

We’re just back from our very successful field work around the Upper Lough Erne, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. We managed to survey nearly 20 satellite loughs for aquatic plants, water chemistry and bryozoans (see this previous post).

Corracoach Lough — Access to some of the lough was sometimes tough but always rewarding. Photography by Helen Bennion.

The help we received from volunteers and project partners was absolutely tremendous! Over the two week we have been a dozen of us actively involved in this research campaign. We’d particularly like to thank Hannah, Robert, Tim and Stephen for joining our team at this occasion and also all the land owners who were kind enough to grant us access to the lakes we had targeted.

Battling through reed beds to get onto some of the lough with our boats was one of the striking aspects of this field work! But it was worth the effort and the diversity of aquatic plant observed over the two week is very impressive. For instance we have sightings for at least ten different Potamogeton species (see this previous post), an extremely good score!

We’ll post more picture and reports from this field work in the coming weeks.

P. perfoliatus — Potamogeton perfoliatus (Photograph by Ben Goldsmith)

About Me

My work focuses on how plants, biodiversity and complex ecosystems respond to environmental change. Answering this question is critical to developing: 1) guidance to accelerate ecological recovery and 2) evidence-based policies to protect the environment and human well-being in the context of global change. New evidences in my research chiefly come directly from studying plants, the natural environment and large-scale, long-term ecological systems.

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Teesside University Profile

I am a Senior Lecturer in Ecology at Teesside University, UK. I was previously a post-doctoral researcher based in UCL (University College London), UK, working on landscape connectivity, biodiversity and ecosystem function in freshwater networks (projects: Lake BESS, Hydroscape). My PhD, completed in the Oxford Long-term Ecology Lab at the University of Oxford, UK, was a contribution to the hotly debated conservation practice of rewilding, using a long-term perspective.

Month: August 2014

Back from the field!

Back from the field!