Our very own Dr Lisa Baldini is making the Teesside University headlines with her research project aiming to reconstruct past climate change in West Africa.
The full Teesside University press release can be found here.
Author: Ambroise
PhD Student mini-conference
Our PhD community impressed yesterday during the Earth and Environment PhD min-conference. This was a wonderful opportunity for the students to get feedback and questions about their work, while strengthening the research culture within the department.
The programme was as follows:
Environmental PhD Mini Conference Schedule
27th November 2024, 2-4pm
Each student to give a 7-minute presentation followed by 5 minutes for questions and feedback.
2:00 Welcome and introduction
2:10 Beginnings for environmental storytelling
Alison Reid, PhD candidate at Newcastle University
2:25 How can land provide multiple benefits for current and future generations? The case of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council.
Rach Butler, Carbon Reduction Coordinator at Stockton on Tees Borough Council, PhD candidate at Teesside University
2:40 Using Rainfall Isotopes to Decode Climate Variability: Implications for Stalagmite Studies in Western Africa
Fatai Ilesanmi, PhD candidate at Teesside University
2:55 Impact of prescribed burning on moorland carbon dynamics, microbial diversity and function
Dilmi Mapatunage, PhD candidate at Teesside University
3:10 Land-based solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation: The case study of the Tees River catchment
Okechukwu Ignatius Eze, PhD candidate at Teesside University
3:25 Above and below-ground carbon stocks and biotic changes during rewilding
Austine Otabor, PhD candidate at Teesside University
Green Jobs for Nature: MSc Student perspective on employability
Call for Expressions of Interest in Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships
Teesside University, the School of Health and Life Science, and the Earth, Ecology and Environment research collective are welcoming expressions of interest in Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships.
The research areas of existing strength are as follows:
- Climate change Impacts and palaeoclimate reconstruction
- Archaeological advances in preservation and outreach
- Sustainable agriculture and aquaculture
- Rewilding for ecological recovery and sustainability
- Sustainable food supply chain and environmental impact
- Microbial biotechnology and bioremediation
Contact point for inquiries: Dr Ambroise Baker (A.Baker@tees.ac.uk)
Two PhD Opportunities
Our environmental group is delighted to announce 1 fully funded and 1 fees-only funded PhD opportunities. See below and follow the links provided for further information.
Investigation of moorland management practices and carbon dynamics for climate change mitigation (fully-funded)
- Deadline: 01/02/2023 5:00PM
- Studentship code: RDS
- Staff name: Dr Cat Pschenyckyj
- Contact: C.Pschenyckyj@tees.ac.uk
- Research centre: National Horizons Centre (Biosciences)
- Start date: Successful applicants will be expected to start May or October 2023.
Peatlands are increasingly being seen as part of nature’s solutions to deal with the environmental challenges of today, from tackling climate change through to flood protection and enhancing biodiversity. However, while all peatlands provide these services, research and conservation efforts have focused largely on deep peats (>40cm depth). Therefore this project will investigate the impact of different management practices on shallow peatland carbon balances. A field campaign will enable multiple sites across the North York Moors to be surveyed and monitored for peat and pore water chemistry, microbial communities and carbon dynamics.
Above and below ground carbon stocks and biotic changes during rewilding
- Deadline: 01/02/2023 5:00PM
- Studentship code: RDS
- Staff name: Dr Ambroise Baker
- Contact: a.baker@tees.ac.uk
- Research centre: National Horizons Centre (Biosciences)
- Start date: Successful applicants will be expected to start May or October 2023.
This project will quantify changes in biodiversity, ecosystem function, carbon stocks and their interactions during the initial phases of rewilding. At the primary field site, some 66 experimental fixed plots are set up within formerly agricultural land comprising a variety of arable, improved, and natural grasslands. Rewilding was initiated in 2022, with the cessation of agricultural activities which will be followed by large herbivore re-introduction (eg hardy free-ranging cattle and pigs). The analysis will quantify ecosystem changes in time, against baseline data collected in 2021-2022, and enable an assessment of rewilding contribution notably to net-zero and nature recovery policies.
We anticipate the project to be a unique opportunity to work with a range of collaborators inside and outside academia. We are looking for candidates with a strong interest in combining biodiversity, microbiological and environmental science, to develop novel evidence contributing to the UN decade of ecosystem restoration.
Tees Seal Photo ID Project
As part of ongoing work to better understand and monitor seal populations in the Tees and surrounding areas, the Tees Seal Photo ID Project (TSPIP) is a new citizen science initiative giving members of the public (that’s you!) the opportunity to get involved in conservation research. Photo ID involves taking photographs of seals to capture the unique patterns on each seal’s fur. These patterns can be used to identify individual animals and monitor them over time. We can then get a clearer idea on population numbers, see which sites seals prefer and whether this changes over time, learn how far they travel and which other populations they interact with, and even see which seals here in the Tees like to hang out together. The non-invasive nature of photo ID means it’s possible to get all this information without ever having to touch or disturb a seal.
Students at Teesside University are already at work photographing seals and compiling catalogues of individuals which show their markings from different angles, allowing us to efficiently compare new photographs to animals we’ve seen before. There’s only so many places we can be at once though so we’re reaching out to the community to ask you to consider taking photographs of the seals you see and sending these to us. In doing so, you’ll be helping us to expand our catalogues and build upon our understanding of the seals we’ve already logged. At the time of writing, our catalogues contain 132 local seals.
Any picture of a seal could potentially be useful, but the easiest photographs for us to match show the whole left or right side of the animal. If the seal is swimming and you just capture the side of its head, don’t worry – we can use those images too! Photos of seals’ undersides are also helpful as they can allow us to record the sex of the animal.
Want to get involved? Simply send your seal photos to F.Pellie@tees.ac.uk. Please include the date and location the photos were taken in the email.
Want to learn more about the project? This project is coordinated by Freya Pellie, an environmental science PhD student at Teesside University; feel free to drop Freya an email with any queries you may have: F.Pellie@tees.ac.uk.
TSPIP is part of a wider PhD study of the Tees seals, made possible by a studentship funded by Graham Construction and Teesside University.
New Publication: Proglacial lake expansion and glacier retreat in Arctic Sweden
Dr Adrian Dye (Lecturer in Environmental Science, Teesside University) and colleagues report an increase in proglacial lakes in Arctic Sweden as glaciers have retreated. These lakes have grown in size and extent over time, which now form an important store of water (previously unmapped) in mountainous catchments. Some lakes have also enhanced glacier retreat rates… Glacial lakes in the southern region (Sarek) are significantly smaller than those in the northern region (Kebnekaise), so it cannot be assumed that glacial lakes will develop uniformly across an area. More work needs to be done to predict where proglacial lakes are likely to form, particularly where populations currently depend on glaciers for water resources.
Access the publication through the publishers website with this link.
1 kilometre under the surface: Researching organisms from extreme environment
MSc Microbiology students Orakan Jones and Nathalia Thompson with Drs Paul Dean and Jens Holtvoeth collected brines for extremophile research 1,000m below the surface in the Boulby salt mine.
In October, a team from Teesside University took part in the 10th annual field event on astrobiology, robotics, and planetary exploration (MINAR X), organised by the UKRI Underground Laboratory at the ICL salt mine at Boulby. Dr Jens Holtvoeth was joined by Dr Paul Dean and two microbiology MSc students, Orakan Jones and Nathalia Thompson to travel 1.000 meters down the shaft and underneath the North Sea, together with scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh, York, Manchester, and Newcastle, the California Institute of Technology, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena).
The aim of our team was to collect samples of salt and brine for biomarker and DNA analyses to produce a geochemical fingerprint of fossil and living microbial communities and to gain information on cellular adaptation mechanisms of halophile microorganisms to the extreme conditions. This will help to interpret fossil biomarker distributions found in the salt with regard to environmental conditions at the fringes of the evaporating Zechstein Sea about 250 million years ago.
While the team were able to collect brines from a disused part of the mine, aptly named Billingham Bath, the collection of salt samples by coring the salt with sterilised drill bits had to be postponed due to a technical fault of the corer. Thus, the team is looking forward to going down the shaft later this semester, again.
Partnering with Durham Wildlife Trust to address microplastics pollution in the River Wear
An update on a previous blog post about our microplastic project in Co Durham, UK.
Environment Group researchers Drs Baldini, Baker, He, Rollason and Scott, along with recent Environmental Science graduate, Zhuhaa Siddiq, recently partnered with Durham Wildlife Trust to investigate microplastics in the River Wear. Fieldwork happened over several weeks in late summer 2021 and involved standing in the river with a microplankton net and flow meter for 20 minutes to collect a known volume of river water for microplastics detection. We sampled water and sediments at five locations along the river Wear from the source (near Wearhead) to the tidal limit (Chester-le-Street). Laboratory analysis revealed a pattern of increasing microplastics in river water downstream from the source until river flow was altered by Durham city weirs. A sharp decrease in microplastics was observed at the furthest downstream site, Chester-le-Street. In sediments, there was a clear pattern of microplastics accumulation downstream of wastewater treatment plants. In summer 2022, Environmental Management research project student, Patrick van Loo Jenner, investigated our hypothesis of microplastics accumulation upstream of weirs in Durham as a precursor to scheduled dredging by the Environment Agency. In March 2022, Dr Baldini presented preliminary findings to a Source to Sea workshop addressing plastics pollution at Durham County Council and in July 2022, submitted a final report to Durham Wildlife Trust. A manuscript of our findings is currently in prep. For more on this successful Teesside University collaboration with local partners see https://www.durhamwt.com/source-sea.
