R4All Course
Monday 24 – Friday 28 April 2017, Lancaster House Hotel, Lancaster
Environmental Infrastructures
Monday 27 February – Thursday 2 March 2017, Lancaster House Hotel, Lancaster
Working with natural processes to restore lake habitats
The deterioration in water quality across the world over recent decades as a result of nutrient pollution is now a huge environmental problem. The need to restore the water quality of lakes is stimulating the use of a range of remediation techniques. This PhD will take advantage of a unique natural experiment in which pollution […]
Widening our view of the reef: the landscape ecology of disturbance and recovery on Pacific coral reefs
Satellites and other high-resolution imaging techniques have enabled landscape ecologists to explore the spatial ecology of terrestrial biological communities, such as forests, for decades. The same opportunity has not existed in the sub-tidal marine environment, except for habitat mapping at course taxonomic resolutions. With the development of high-resolution underwater imaging, landscape-scale spatial data sets at […]
Using environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis to explore aerial pollen communities and identify links to hay fever
Bioaerosols consist of biota such as pollen, fungal spores, bacteria and viruses and include plant allergens that negatively affect human health. Almost a quarter of people display allergic reactions to combinations of tree and grass pollen causing symptoms ranging from hay fever to asthma, with associated socio-economic costs to society and health services. Identifying pollen […]
Understanding long term climate and atmospheric composition change over Antarctica
Air bubbles trapped in the ice of the Earth’s cold regions provide a unique, fascinating and long term record of atmospheric composition. Ice-core records of reactive gases are a relatively recent innovation, and potentially offer constraints on aspects of the past ~10000 years where there is little consensus (or investigation) with climate models. In this […]
Understanding coastal vulnerability in an uncertain world
Sea-level rise and enhanced storminess, driven by climate change, is greatly increasing coastal vulnerability and the impacts of coastal recession worldwide. Although coastal cliffs provide valuable natural protection, they also present rockfall and landslide hazards; thus, understanding the processes involved in coastal recession is vital in order to implement appropriate sustainable management strategies to carefully […]
The role of supraglacial lakes in ice sheet change and sea level rise
Every summer, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets develop a rash of supraglacial lakes around their edges. When they grow large enough, the water they contain can drain into the ice beneath which can either lubricate flow on grounded ice or structurally weaken floating ice shelves. Both of these impacts can lead to increased ice […]
The impact of trace metal contaminants on environmental and animal health: a multi-disciplinary approach
This project will explore the mobilisation and bioaccumulation of heavy metal contaminants from historic mine waste from old mine sites in Wales, and their impact on wildlife health. This is a unique, interdisciplinary project involving environmental geochemistry, ecology, plant science and animal health, involving colleagues at the University of Nottingham, the Natural History Museum, and […]
The impact of piscivorous birds on freshwater fisheries
Many freshwater fisheries of ecological and economic importance are in decline, while populations of piscivorous (fish-eating) birds such as goosanders and cormorants are increasing. This has led to growing pressure from the angling community to control numbers of these birds, and it also poses a challenge to the designation and management of protected riverine areas […]
