Ladybirds spotted on Springwatch Unsprung

Two of our CEH colleagues were live on the Red Button and web this week, appearing with Nick Baker on the Unsprung element of the popular BBC Springwatch series. On Wednesday, Dr Steve Thackeray spoke about nature's calendar and climate change, which he investigates as part of the shifting seasons phenology project he leads. Earlier in the week, Dr Helen Roy chatted about biological recording, citizen science and, of course, ladybirds! Read more about Helen's day on the Springwatch set in her blog post below.

BBC Springwatch provided an exquisite insight into the life history of the 2-spot ladybird, Adalia bipunctata, on Monday night (25 May). The short film was inspiringly beautiful. The detailed perspectives on the secret lives of these familiar beetles were accurately and quite brilliantly portrayed.

The life history of the 2-spot ladybird featured on Springwatch 2014.
Photo: Richard Comont

I had the privilege of providing some information on the ecology of ladybirds to the BBC Springwatch production team during the making of this film. The excitement and enthusiasm expressed by Vicky Webb (Producer) and Rob Morgan (Researcher) throughout the filming was fantastic. I remember Vicky calling after the hatching eggs had been filmed. She conveyed such delight at what is undoubtedly one of the (many) most aesthetic moments of the ladybird life cycle. Rob had spotted some exciting signs of parasitism and we enjoyed discussing the likely parasitic suspects. I was extremely excited just anticipating the broadcast of this film, which I knew would be in the first episode of Springwatch 2014. So imagine my excitement when I was invited to contribute to Springwatch Unsprung - and it was an amazing experience!

The buzz about the Springwatch Production “Village” of portacabins, trucks and marquees is incredible. The passion for natural history and science communication is so apparent. All day people are running around with cameras and sound equipment to convey the brilliance and diversity of all aspects of wildlife from the RSPB Minsmere Reserve. Conversations on booming bitterns, the delightful miniature suffocated clover, stalking stoats, glimpses of hawkmoths and, of course, the magical ladybirds provide an inspiring atmosphere.

The bittern hide - looking for some of the stars of Springwatch 2014 at RSPB Minsmere

During the day I was invited to contribute to Springwatch Extra with Euan McIlwraith and we enjoyed a magical afternoon talking about ladybirds, their predators and the ways in which ladybirds interact with many other species. The Minsmere woodland provided the perfect stage. I joined Brett Westwood for a short walk in which he revealed the delights of some tiny and obscure (and, in some cases, rare) plants exploiting the sandy soils on the reserve. It was great to find an 11-spot ladybird, Coccinella undecimpunctata, in amongst these hidden treasures (I have to confess it was Marcus Brent-Smith of webcam fame who actually, and quite literally, unearthed the ladybird).

In the evening I joined the Springwatch Unsprung team. Springwatch Unsprung gives the BBC audience an opportunity to contribute questions and comments on wildlife. It is broadcast immediately after Springwatch and is a fantastically lively show. For me Springwatch Unsprung provided the perfect opportunity to celebrate the legacy of ladybird recording in Britain in conversation with Nick Baker. The quiz, a regular feature on Springwatch Unsprung, was on ladybirds for the night and enabled some hints on identification to be conveyed. It was fantastic to be a small part of Springwatch and I am looking forward to another contribution from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology when Stephen Thackeray is released on Unsprung on Wednesday night.

I would like to thank Sheryl Bawden, Vicky Webb, Rob Morgan, Brett Westwood, Euan McIlwraith, Marcus Brent-Smith, Anna Place, Nick Baker, Anne Gallagher and many others (catering, security, make-up, film crew...) for such a fantastic opportunity and for ensuring I was so welcome.

Helen Roy

The Springwatch Unsprung episodes are available to view on iPlayer for 3 weeks:

Ladybirds (episode 1)

Phenology (episode 3)

Related links

Details of how to download the iRecord Ladybirds app for Android and iOS

UK Ladybird Survey

iRecord

When and how to use citizen science for environmental projects

Helen's staff page at CEH

Steve Thackeray's staff page at CEH

Shifting seasons and ecosystem consequences project

BBC Springwatch

CEH science at EGU2014

The breadth of CEH science has been well represented in several sessions at this week’s European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2014 in Vienna. The event brought together more than 11,000 scientists from all over the world into one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, planetary and space sciences. Check out our Storify for a flavour of what’s been going on for CEH or scroll down for abstracts of our lead talks and posters.

Abstracts

Stephen Thackeray presented an update on the Shifting Seasons and climate change phenology project which he leads. For more details of the project, visit the webpage.

Andrew Chiverton: Which catchment characteristics control the temporal dependence structure of daily river flows?

Kelly Mason: Regulation of Boreal soil respiration - evidence from a Swedish forest fire chronosequence

Ed Rowe: Towards an understanding of feedbacks between plant productivity, acidity and dissolved organic matter

James Miller: Assessing the relative and cumulative impacts of future urbanisation and climate change on storm runoff in a peri-urban catchment

Steven Cole: Probabilistic flood forecasting for Rapid Response Catchments using a countrywide distributed hydrological mode

Kerry Dinsmore: Aquatic carbon and GHG losses via the aquatic pathway in an Arctic catchment

Cecilia Svensson: Improving winter river flow forecasts for the UK

Andy Robertson: Land use change to Miscanthus - measured and modelled changes in soil carbon fractions

Carole Helfter: Effects of winter temperature and summer drought on net ecosystem exchange of CO2 in a temperate peatland

Andy Robertson: Using an input manipulation experiment to partition greenhouse gas fluxes from a commercial Miscanthus plantation in the UK

Cecilia Svensson: Seasonal UK river flow forecasts based on persistence and historical analogy

Jessica Adams: Estimating sources and fluxes of dissolved and particulate organic matter in UK rivers

Kerry Dinsmore: Multisite comparison of drivers of methane emissions from wetlands in the European Arctic - influence of vegetation community and water table

Garry Hayman: Wetland methane modelling over the Scandinavian Arctic - performance of current land-surface models

Additionally, our scientists have been busy collaborating with many international colleagues who also gave talks at the event: topics included the Globolakes project, atmospheric ammonia, emissions modelling at the field scale, monitoring changes in peatland, greenhouse gas production from shallow lakes and ponds, soil organic carbon dynamics, vulnerability of ecosystems to extreme climatic events, water quality sampling, streamwater nitrate dynamics, soil status in drought, crowd-sourcing data with the mySoil app, historical flood information, using isotopes in Arctic catchments, the sensitivity of river reaches to water abstraction, soil hydraulics, peatland modelling, microbial carbon turnover and hazard assessment for volcanic eruptions.

Kelly Mason, Research Associate in Plant-Soil Interactions at CEH, presented
work on regulation of boreal soil respiration, which was carried out with
colleagues from CEH, Lancaster University, University of Washington and Bangor
University. Photo: Andy Robertson

Posted by Paulette Burns

IPCC report: CEH science makes key contributions

Several scientific studies led by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) are cited in
'Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability', a major report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which was published this week.

The report, from Working Group II of the IPCC, states that the effects of climate change are already occurring on all continents and across the oceans. It details the impacts of climate change to date, the future risks from a changing climate, and the opportunities for effective action to reduce risks.

CEH's science was cited in chapters examining Freshwater resources, Terrestrial and inland water systems, Food security and Detection and attribution of observed impacts.

CEH authors and publications referenced in the IPCC report include:

• Trophic level asynchrony in rates of phenological change for marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments Thackeray et al. Global Change Biology 2010.
• Simulated resilience of tropical rainforests to CO2-induced climate change Huntingford et al. Nature Geoscience 2013
• Impact of changes in diffuse radiation on the global land carbon sink Mercado et al. Nature 2009
• How might climate change affect river flows across the Thames Basin? An area-wide analysis using the UKCP09 Regional Climate Model ensemble Bell et al. Journal of Hydrology 2012
• Changes in habitat specificity of species at their climatic range boundaries Oliver et al. Ecology Letters 2009

CEH Director Professor Mark Bailey said:

“The IPCC’s landmark study warns that climate change is already here and is impacting every continent on planet earth. CEH’s national capability and long-term and large-scale monitoring platforms provide early warning of environmental change and underpin management solutions for land and freshwaters across the UK and globally. Our research, such as that used in the IPCC report, provides robust evidence for policymakers to drive adaptation opportunities and build increased resilience, and shows the importance of long-term and large-scale monitoring.”

Further information on IPCC report

A changing climate creates pervasive risks but opportunities exist for effective responses - IPCC Report (United Nations Environment Programme News Centre)

Assessing and managing the effects of climate change (CEH News Blog)

Further information on CEH science

Meeting the challenges of environmental change (CEH Science Strategy 2014-2019)

Staff page of Professor Mark J Bailey


Posted by Paulette Burns

Assessing and managing the risks of climate change

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published this week, says that the effects of climate change are already occurring on all continents and across the oceans. In many cases, it warns, the world is ill-prepared for risks from a changing climate. There are opportunities to respond to such risks, it says, though they will be difficult to manage with high levels of warming.

The report, titled Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, from Working Group II of the IPCC, details the impacts of climate change to date, the future risks from a changing climate, and the opportunities for effective action to reduce risks.

Responding to its publication, scientists from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) made the following comments:

Dr Richard Harding, Senior Hydrologist

“The first report of the IPCC fifth assessment concluded that human activities were already having an impact on our climate. This second report assesses the considerable number of studies investigating the current and future impacts of these climate changes and possible adaption strategies. The report concludes that warming increases the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts. Some ecosystems and cultures are already at risk from climate change and there is a warning of irreversible changes. In the future we will see increasing water scarcity and negative impacts on food production. Climate change is increasing the risks of extreme events (flooding, high temperatures etc) and the impacts are greatest for the most disadvantaged communities.

These impacts can be moderated by reducing their rate of change by mitigation, i.e. reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, and planning. The impacts from recent climate extremes show a considerable vulnerability and exposure to present day variability. This vulnerability will increase as the climate changes. The impacts, however, can be moderated by adaptive planning, by all sections of society. A first step towards this adaption is reducing our exposure to current extremes - this is a double win, giving protection now and increased resilience in the future.

This report is yet another wake-up call to take action on climate change. It illustrates that it is not too late to take action but the consequences of inaction will be wide-ranging and serious.”

Dr Stephen Thackeray, Lake ecologist and project lead of Shifting seasons, climate change & ecosystems consequences:

“The second report of the IPCC fifth assessment capitalises upon the increasing body of evidence that climate change has already had an effect upon wild plants and animals, and the wider ecosystems within which they interact. The report makes it clear that these effects may be complex because ecosystems respond to the interactive effects of a changing climate and many other stressors, such as habitat modification and pollution. It is clear that we need to understand, and plan for, these interactive effects if we are to successfully manage the natural world under ongoing climate change.”

Additional information

CEH scientists take part in research looking at the impacts of climate change on species and the environment and have an extensive network of long-term monitoring and experimental field sites. Analysis and modelling of these data provide early warning of change and are helping to deliver management solutions for land and freshwaters across the UK and globally.

Climate change is increasing the risk of extreme events.

Research involving CEH showed that the
Comma butterfly has expanded its UK range
northwards rapidly. Photo: Shutterstock

Examples of CEH climate change research

Future Flows and Groundwater Levels project details and datasets

Shifting seasons, climate change and ecosystem consequences project details

Ecological Processes & Resilience science area 

Meeting the Challenges of Environmental Change - CEH's Science Strategy 2014-2019

Related CEH news on climate change research

Drought and climate change - an uncertain future?

Water and climate change in the UK - assessing the evidence

Climate impacts evidence for biodiversity changes in the UK's countryside

Butterfly expanding northwards with warming temperatures and changed diet

Accelerating climate change exerts strong pressure on Europe's mountain flora

Wildlife responds increasingly rapidly to climate change

Posted by Paulette Burns

Spring has sprung – wildlife records and the shifting seasons

According to Google’s latest doodle, spring begins today, 20 March, in the northern hemisphere. At CEH we tend to follow the Met Office seasonal definition* which lists 1 March as the start date. Whichever way you look at it, spring-like weather has been seen in many areas of the UK over the last couple of weeks, and our natural environment is beginning to react.

Primroses. Photo on Flickr by anemoneprojectors used under
Creative Commons licence.

Many of the environmental records held at CEH have been crucial in tracking the start of spring over recent decades. As a result we tend to get lots of questions at this time of year along the lines of:

• "Which species have been seen so far?"
• "How does 2014 compare to previous years?"
• "Is there anything unusual happening?"
• Finally, the big one, "Is it spring yet?"

To answer these questions we turn to our national experts and our long-term large-scale datasets. Scientists across CEH work on a broad range of species ranging from invertebrates through plants to seabirds. Much of the work is at the broad national scale, but we also get detailed field observations sent to us, particularly via the 80+ wildlife recording schemes and societies that are part of the Biological Records Centre.

Earlier this week I asked some of our ecologists to tell me about their latest ‘spring’ related projects and observations:

Dr Stephen Thackeray is leading a project on shifting seasons. He writes, “Over the past few decades we have seen that, on average, many signs of spring have been occurring earlier in the year. However variable weather conditions mean that, in any single year, the timing of these natural events may be relatively early or late compared to this long-term change. We are currently investigating differences in the sensitivity of many of the nation’s favourite signs of spring to changes in temperature and rainfall, to better understand the reasons behind these long-term patterns of change in UK freshwater and dry-land environments, and in our coastal seas.”

Dr Michael Pocock, an ecologist in the Biological Records Centre at CEH, said, "With the milder weather over the past few weeks, queen bumblebees have been emerging from hibernation and beginning prospecting nesting sites. I’ve seen buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) and tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) queens out already. Plants like sallows (with their pussy willow catkins) and winter-flowering heathers (in gardens) are important early sources of nectar for these bees.

"They will be establishing their nests and will produce workers later in the year. It is these workers that will be counted by thousands of school children and other participants for a ‘citizen science’ project later in the year, seeking to look at the effects of our landscape on bumblebee diversity.” The project Michael refers to is the Big Bumblebee Discovery.

7-spot ladybird, photo Helen Roy

Dr Helen Roy, like Michael an ecologist in the Biological Records Centre at CEH, has a particular interest in ladybirds. She also co-leads the UK Ladybird Survey. In 2014, the survey has already received reports of many of the 46 species of ladybird in the UK including the 22-spot, harlequin, the Adonis ladybird, 11-spot, cream, orange, heather, 16-spot,  10-spot and even the very rare 13-spot ladybird.  There’s also been lots of 7-spots reported, which is excellent news. Dr Roy is often asked about the impact of the alien Harlequin ladybird on the UK’s native species which include the 7-spot and 2-spot.

She says, “In 2012 harlequin numbers were slightly reduced because of the dreadfully wet spring and summer. In 2013 the spring was slow to get going but the fantastic weather through July and August enabled the harlequin to increase in numbers. This alien species can continually reproduce throughout the warm weather and so has the advantage of getting through a couple of generations per year. In contrast many of our native species have only one generation per year. So the high numbers of harlequins are a consequence of a good summer - favourable weather and lots of food (aphids).

"In contrast 7-spot ladybirds didn't fare so well last year but, so far, the numbers of records received by the UK Ladybird Survey in 2014 are encouraging. So although there were fewer 7-spot ladybirds around to overwinter  through 2013-2014 compared to 2012-2013, a good number have survived. Tens of thousands of people have got involved with the UK Ladybird Survey and their observations contribute enormously to our understanding of ladybird ecology."

Finally, Dr Marc Botham, who works on the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme,  gave me some butterfly information. As expected all the UK butterfly species that overwinter as adults were seen very early in January this year given the mild (if rather wet) weather in the South. Within the last two weeks as the sun has come out there have been observations of various 'spring' species including Small white, Large white, Holly blue and Speckled wood. More can be found on the first sightings page.

Speckled wood butterfly, photo: Shutterstock

The best way to record your wildlife observations is via iRecord.  It’s time to get outdoors and get recording!

Barnaby Smith 

Additional information

*Met Office: When does spring start - the difference between the meteorological and astronomical seasons

Making ecology count at the INTECOL Congress, London

The 11th INTECOL Congress, the world's largest international ecology meeting, comes to London next week (18-23 August 2013) as part of the centenary celebrations of the British Ecological Society, and Centre for Ecology & Hydrology scientists and PhD students will be there!

The theme of this year's Congress is "advancing ecology and making it count". It's a very significant event: the ecological science to be presented covers everything from aquatic ecology to island biogeography to species interactions, through a series of 43 symposia, 31 workshops, 56 oral sessions, 11 plenary talks, 500 posters, as well as social events and scientific trips. More than 2000 ecologists from 67 countries will be attending. Details of all the sessions can be found on the INTECOL website or with the very useful app produced for the conference.

We highlight just some of the CEH participants below to give a little taste of our own ongoing research in the field of ecology.

Stephen Thackeray, a lake ecologist based at our Lancaster site, is among those scientists who will deliver a keynote talk in one of the symposia. Stephen, who is currently coordinating the NERC-funded phenology project "Shifting seasons, climate change & ecosystem consequences", will present on Friday on trophic asynchrony: definitions, drivers and consequences in aquatic and terrestrial systems. The phenology symposium looks at perspectives from ecosystems across the International Long Term Ecological Network.

Busy both organising and presenting during the week is ecologist Matt Heard. Along with Adam Vanbergen of CEH, who is science coordinator of the Insect Pollinators Initiative, and Simon Potts, University of Reading, Matt has organised a symposium for Thursday entitled "Threats to an ecosystem service: evaluating multifactorial pressures on insect pollinators". The keynote at the symposium will be delivered by Claire Kremen of the University of California.

Pressures on pollinators are a global concern

During the symposium, Matt will present results from a project led by Claire Carvell of CEH that is aimed at helping to understand the effects of land management and habitat structure on bumblebee behaviour and colony dynamics. Additionally, Matt is involved in a separate session on Wednesday on the theme of agricultural ecology, when he will talk about how agri-environment scheme management enhances wildlife diversity and abundance at different scales.

Michael Pocock, co-author of the recent Guide to Citizen Science, is organising a workshop on citizen science to take place on Thursday afternoon. This will give participants the opportunity to hear about some of the leading technologies in citizen science and to try out some for themselves, maybe even be inspired to collaborate on some new ideas. Michael, who co-leads the Conker Tree Science project and who researches the complexity of ecological networks, will also be presenting a talk in a separate session that will look at the diversity of environmental and ecological citizen science.

Helen Roy, coordinator of the UK Ladybird Survey and another co-author of the Guide to Citizen Science, will also be involved in the workshop. Helen also has a separate talk on scanning for aliens in a session on invasive species which she will also chair.

Other CEH scientists presenting throughout the week include Owen Mountford on assessing the quality of agri-environment agreements, Ed Rowe on predicting effects of nitrogen pollution on soils, Danny Hooftman on mapping ecosystem services and biodiversity, Tom Oliver on impacts of climatic extremes, Gary Powney on species distribution change, Rosie Hails on population dynamics and Nick Isaac on trends in the status of UK biodiversity.

Dorset landscape. Ecosystem services and biodiversity changes in the
county over 70 years were mapped for a CEH study.

Importantly, an event like INTECOL also gives the opportunity for a number of our PhD students to present details of their projects in both talks and poster sessions. Those giving talks include Philip Martin, CEH and Bournemouth University, who will present "Carbon pools recover more quickly than plant biodiversity in tropical secondary forests", and Andrew Cole, CEH and Lancaster University, who will present on climate change and plant diversity effects on grassland function.

Good luck to everyone taking part, especially those who are travelling long distances to share details of their work. If you're not at INTECOL itself, keep your eyes peeled for press coverage of some interesting new science. Meanwhile, the hashtag to follow on Twitter is #INT13.