Citizen Science at the 2013 Science Communication Conference

Dr Michael Pocock, along with many scientists at CEH, regularly works with members of the public on what are often termed 'citizen science' projects, broadly defined as projects which involved volunteers in science. It's a strength of CEH's work, and one which builds heavily on many decades of coordination of biological recording across the UK.

Last week Michael and CEH colleague Dr Helen Roy took their places on the panel at the citizen science session at the UK's major Science Communication Conference which took place at Kings Place in London on the 16th and 17th May.

As well as four talks from citizen science practioners, the session included much discussion over the future directions that citizen science could take in this country, and globally. Many of the topics discussed were explored in more detail in a major report that CEH staff worked in 2012 which reviewed more than 200 citizen science projects from around the world.

Michael and I have created a Storify of the session here. It was a communication conference so there were plenty of tweets to choose from for the storify, including several comments from the Chief Executive of the British Science Association, Imran Khan.

Read more details or download a copy of the 2012 citizen science review and accompanying practical guide here.

The next big 'citizen science' project led by CEH is the 2nd annual National Farm Pollinator Survey, taking place on Open Farm Sunday on 9 June.

Barnaby Smith

Additional information

Research interests of Dr Michael Pocock

A revolution in ladybird recording

Ladybirds are charismatic insects and so it is perhaps not surprising that people in Britain have enthusiastically recorded them for centuries. With the launch today of a new ladybird recording app for mobile phones and iPads,  Dr Helen Roy from the UK Ladybird Survey updates us on how ladybird recording has changed over time. 

Tens of thousands of people have contributed to ladybird recording in Britain since the first record more than two centuries ago.  At that time it would have been difficult to imagine the technologies that now prevail in the world of biological recording.  Notebook and pencil and perhaps an entomological net have been, and remain, the essential tools of ladybird recording.  However, new technologies  provide opportunities to support this pursuit. 



Ladybird records span more than two centuries: the record cards above are
from the 1970s and 1980s.



Since the launch of the online UK Ladybird Survey in 2005, interest in ladybird recording has grown beyond expectation.  Indeed it has been inspirational.  The smartphone app launched today links to the new ladybird recording form within iRecord, allowing recorders to manage their own records and benefit from rapid verification by an expert behind the scenes.

 

Helen Roy and Barnaby Smith of CEH using the new ladybird app



 

Over the years the UK Ladybird Survey in its many guises (Coccinellidae Recording Scheme and Cambridge Ladybird Survey) has benefitted from rich and fruitful collaborations.  The project to develop the app was no exception.  The app was developed through the Biological Records Centre at CEH in partnership with the fabulous NatureLocator team at Bristol University and John van Breda at Biodiverse IT.  It is the latest in a line of apps from this team which to date include Leaf Watch and Plant Tracker and, in the near future, butterflies and orthoptera.

The new app and iRecord are set to revolutionise ladybird recording in Britain and the UK Ladybird Survey will take advantage of new technologies for biological recording with the aim of increasing participation even further while retaining the high quality data available for all to share.  However, nothing will detract from the pleasure of being in the field with a net, notebook and pen on a quest for ladybirds!

Dr Helen Roy

Additional information

Dr Helen Roy is an ecological entomologist at the Biological Records Centre within CEH

iRecord is a web-based tool for managing and sharing wildlife records

The iRecord Ladybirds app is currently available via the Apple store and will soon be available for Android devices through the Google store.

Contaminants research collaboration with China

We've highlighted in recent blog posts the importance of international collaboration in scientific research and some of the steps taken by CEH to develop new relationships with researchers abroad. The recent Memorandum of Understanding signed between environmental researchers in China and the UK [news story] resulted in a visit to China between 14-18 April of two groups of researchers from CEH and the James Hutton Institute. We've already heard from the team of lake ecologists about the links they forged on the trip. Now, in this new post by Professor Ed Tipping of CEH, he tells us about the visit of a group of contaminants researchers:

I was one of a group of scientists from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster University and the James Hutton Institute who took part in a five-day visit to the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences in Beijing to discuss collaborative research on environmental contamination by heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants. The other members of the group were Dr Stephen Lofts (CEH), Dr Andrew Sweetman (CEH and Lancaster University) and Dr Zulin Zhang (JHI) and we met Professor Yonglong Lu and his team of Associate Researchers, post-doctoral researchers and PhD students.

Visitors and hosts at CAS / RCEES April 2013.
Back row (L to R): Ed Tipping, Zulin Zhang, Yonglong Lu, Andy Sweetman, Steve Lofts.
Front row (L to R): Shijie Liu, Yajuan Shi, Li Xu

We arrived in Beijing on Sunday 14 April with enough time to allow visits to the Forbidden City and a hutong area (a relic of the old, low-rise Beijing). The business part of the visit began in earnest on Monday 15 April, with presentations from both our group of visiting researchers and the host scientists:

• Regional ecological risk of persistent toxic substances - Prof Yonglong Lu (RCEES, CAS)
• Research on metals in CEH - Prof Ed Tipping (CEH)
• Metal contamination and potential risks in drinking-water source sites of Beijing and industrial areas of Northern Yellow and Bohai Seas, China - Dr Wei Luo (RCEES, CAS)
• Intermediate dynamic model for metals - Dr Steve Lofts (CEH)
• International regulation of persistent organic pollutants (POPs): How to use measurements and fate modelling to inform policy? - Dr Andy Sweetman (CEH / Lancaster University)
• Environmental behaviour of metals around a typical watershed - Mr Li Xu (RCEES, CAS)
• Organic contaminants in the environment - Dr Zulin Zhang (James Hutton Institute)
• Simulation of spatial explicit multimedia fate of POPs in Bohai Rim - Mr Shijie Liu (RCEES, CAS)

The presentations were followed by an in-depth discussion session, before a special welcome dinner arranged for us by our hosts.

Zhang, Sweetman, Yonglong Lu and Lofts awaiting dinner at the Blue Whale Hotel, Zhangjiakou

On Tuesday 16 April, we set out with our hosts on a field trip to the Guanting Reservoir and Yanghe River, during which we learned about the contamination status and associated problems of the reservoir, pollution sources to the river, and the competing demands for river and groundwater within the catchment.

Future collaboration

We stayed the night in the city of Zhangjiakou and on the following morning made a tour of the city and its river, before returning to Beijing, taking in the remarkable Great Wall of China en route. On Thursday morning we were able to visit the exquisite Summer Palace, before returning to CAS / RCEES for a tour of their excellent and comprehensive analytical facilities. This was followed by discussions about future collaborative possibilities, during which firm plans were made for the visit of a Chinese PhD student (Li Xu) to CEH's Lancaster site in July, to carry out metal chemistry modelling. Plans were also made for the extension of collaborative work on persistent organic pollutants with Lancaster University, and a risk assessment of pesticides in the Yanghe River catchment with James Hutton Institute. There was also more general discussion about the possibilities of larger-scale integrated work in the future.

Zhang, Lofts, Tipping and Sweetman hearing about the Guanting Reservoir from Prof Yonglong Lu

Yonglong Lu and his colleagues were terrific hosts. They made our visit both interesting and enjoyable, and we very much look forward to working with them in the future to try to understand and predict how China's natural environment will develop in the coming years and decades.

Additional information

Professor Ed Tipping, based at CEH's Lancaster site, is an environmental chemist focusing on acidity, metals, natural organic matter and nutrients in soils and waters, with an emphasis on modelling.

Dr Steve Lofts is a soil and aquatic chemist at Lancaster, with expertise in the chemistry of metals in soils and waters, particularly in relation to speciation and its consequences for metal transport, fate, bioavailability and toxicity.

CEH News: CEH and James Hutton Institute build research links in China   

CEH Blog: Building environmental research links in Beijing

New horizons for CEH research

Research Councils UK, which is the strategic partnership of the UK’s seven research councils (including CEH’s parent body, NERC), opened an office in India in 2008 with the aim of making it easier for the best researchers in the UK and India to develop high impact partnerships in the region.  Last month CEH’s Director, Professor Mark Bailey, and Deputy Director, Professor Alan Jenkins, were able to spend an intensive few days in India with the RCUK India team to explore new opportunities for CEH; these include the possibility of establishing partnerships with high quality Indian researchers in the fields of hydrology and water resource management, ecosystem services and landscape ecology.

Water scarcity is a big problem in India and, along with energy, has been identified as one of the two critical issues that need to be addressed in the country’s current five-year plan. CEH’s expertise in water resources was therefore high on the agenda...

• Read more on the RCUK website

Building environmental research links in Beijing

The first visit of research scientists to discuss opportunities for collaboration following the recent Memorandum of agreement signed between environmental researchers in China and the UK took place earlier this month. One of the CEH participants, Dr Bryan Spears, tells us more...

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES) signed the MoU with the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) and the James Hutton Institute (JHI) in March 2013 [news story], initially to target research on topics including recovery of polluted environments, water management, food security, soil contamination and the development of eco-toxicology tools for environmental monitoring.

Researchers from all four institutes met in Beijing between 14-18 April. One of the areas of discussion was the remediation and restoration of polluted environments, and a team including Professor Gang Pan (CAS), Professor Stephen Maberly (CEH), Dr Bryan Spears (CEH) and Dr Andrew Vinten (JHI) participated in four days of dialogue and field trips which focused on the restoration and management of lakes and their catchments. These discussions were extremely productive and were used to produce both short-term and long-term research objectives.




Figure 1: Researchers from the four groups outside CAS

  

Day 1 was allocated to joint presentations (Pan, Maberly, Spears and Vinten) with Professor Pan’s colleagues and students in attendance, to outline current areas of expertise, facilities and collaborative opportunities.

• Professor Pan outlined a range of geo-engineering techniques developed for the rapid control of cyanobacteria in freshwater lakes and presented some novel techniques for encouraging macrophyte recovery and controlling redox conditions in surface sediments.
• Professor Maberly introduced research conducted by the Lake Ecology Group at Lancaster including studies on the ecological and physical responses of lakes to climate change, nutrient enrichment and the ingress of invasive species and highlighted the potential for lakes to feedback to climate systems through carbon processing pathways.
• Dr Spears presented work on lake restoration including data screening approaches being used to combine large spatial scale and long-term lake monitoring data sets to aid the selection and application of appropriate lake management measures. Dr Spears also presented an update on whole lake experiments using geo-engineering approaches for the control of legacy phosphorus sources in bed sediments.
• Dr Vinten highlighted the need to learn from local communities, especially with regards to how the management of water resources can be fitted to local community needs – whether in Scotland or China. This need was demonstrated using stakeholder-led catchment management case studies including Rescobie Loch on the Lunan Water in Angus and in the Pantanal, Brazil.

Day 2 and 3 included an overnight visit to Datong to see the recently built large experimental ponds where a trial of Modified Local Soils had been conducted to rapidly remove harmful cyanobacterial from treatment ponds (Figure 2 and 3). This experimental facility was funded by the Datong City Water Supply and Drainage Group Ltd and will be used to develop novel management strategies for the improvement of water quality in the nearby Cetian Reservoir, as well as being developed to support international research collaborations.



Figure 2: Experimental treatment ponds








Figure 3: Professor Pan holding treated and untreated water



The visit was hosted by the water company who also participated in a discussion on local issues of water management and economic costs of treatment (Figure 4). The importance of the newly constructed experimental facility for the development of novel management measures with which treatment costs can be reduced was discussed, as was the importance of international collaboration to meet these objectives. 




Figure 4: Prof Stephen Maberly discussing the importance of the facility with
Dr Zengguang Zhang of the Datong City Water Supply and Drainage Group Ltd,
and other stakeholders.

 



On Day 4 the group discussed collaborative research opportunities and structured these into a research strategy. This strategy has at its core the collection of joint data sets and exchange of expertise to fill knowledge gaps in each collaborating institute.

After a busy few days, the trip ended on the evening of 18 April with just enough time for a social event involving Karaoke, one of the (dubious) highlights of which was a painful rendition of Robbie Williams’ “Angels”, led by CEH pair Professor Maberly and Dr Spears!

Over the coming days the team will develop a report outlining the research objectives to be submitted to institute directors for consideration. Watch this space for further updates.

Additional information

CEH Lake Ecosystems Group

CEH's UK Lake Restoration research

Staff page of Professor Stephen Maberly

Staff page of Dr Bryan Spears

CEH News: CEH and James Hutton Institute build research links in China

James Hutton Institute

Communicating CEH Lake Restoration research – we’re speaking the same language!

In the UK we take it for granted that our work will be presented in English. However, presenting our work in English does not always allow us to reach the widest possible audience. This was all too apparent to two PhD students based at CEH’s Edinburgh site who realised that they could increase the exposure of their work by attending conferences in their home countries (Germany and Poland) and presenting their work in their native languages. As the students highlight to us below, this has been an enlightening and rewarding process.

The workshop “Lake remediation – Experiences and new challenges (Seentherapie - Erfahrungen und neue Herausforderungen) organized by the IGB Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (Germany) in March 2013 offered the opportunity to exchange and discuss experiences in the expanding field of lake remediation measures between experts from consultancies, agencies and scientists. Sebastian Meis presented the findings of his PhD study on the use of a phosphorus (P) binding and P-capping agent for sediment P-release management in shallow lakes in the session “Eutrophication control measures” (“Technische Maßnahmen zur Verminderung der Eutrophierung”).
 


Delegates at the Lake remediation workshop organised by the IGB Leibniz-
Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany in March 2013



Sebastian said, “This was a great opportunity to present my work in my native language, and to increase the exposure of CEH research more widely. The feedback on our work was very positive and I learned that similar projects are being conducted at a relatively large scale in Germany as part of the EU Water Framework Directive.”   

Whilst in Gdansk, Poland, Justyna Olszewska was giving an invited lecture on CEH’s research on lake restoration to the Gdansk Water Foundation, in Polish. The Foundation organises seminars focusing on the "hot" topics in the field, and given 2013 was officially nominated “Lake Year" by the Marshal Office of Pomerania Region, this seminar was devoted to the subject of lake restoration.

Justyna said, “Introducing CEH’s lake restoration research in Polish was a very interesting experience. It allowed me to compare the results of restoration work conducted in the UK with the Polish experiences in this area. It was great to discuss management issues with Polish scientists and local authorities and we now have a much better appreciation of the problems shared by both countries.

"Being a native speaker was definitely helpful, both during the presentation and discussions, but also during the social events. What was evident was that literal translation of scientific terminology is not always possible, or clear, and that follow-up discussions are important for ensuring that the scientific content is properly communicated. In addition, gaining general knowledge of the environmental problems in my home country has helped me put my work in Scotland into the wider context.“

Dr Bryan Spears of CEH, supervisor of both Sebastian and Justyna, said, “I thought it was really impressive that Justyna and Seb wanted to present at these meetings in their own language. From the feedback we have had from both meetings it has clearly helped fuel debate and increase interest in our work.”

Copies of both presentations can be viewed at the following links:

• Sebastian's [in German, PDF, 2.9mb]
• Justyna's [in Polish, PDF, 3.7mb]


Related CEH links

CEH 's UK Lake Restoration research

Staff page of Dr Bryan Spears

Thanks to Sebastian Meis and Justyna Olszewska

Reflections on the science underpinning the EU Biodiversity Strategy

CEH is involved in a number of cross-European partnerships and initiatives – international collaboration is a major feature of our science. One such initiative is ALTER-Net (a Long-Term Biodiversity, Ecosystem and Awareness Research Network), which comprises 26 partner institutes from 18 European countries. ALTER-Net integrates research capacities across Europe: assessing changes in biodiversity, analysing the effect of those changes on ecosystem services and informing policy makers and the public about this at a European scale.

Together with the European Commission, ALTER-Net has organized a major conference which has been taking place in Ghent, Belgium this week, during which participants are discussing the implementation of the 2020 European Biodiversity Strategy. Specifically, conference members are looking for scientifically sound, evidence-based recommendations on how to implement and realize the strategy. More than 200 scientists from 66 research institutes and more than 25 countries are taking part – not only is CEH among those helping to organise the event, along with Belgian lead organisers INBO, we also have scientists speaking during the main programme, and have organised some of the side events.

The location for the conference is an Augustinian monastery, probably an ideal place to “retreat” to for focused thought and discussion (the whole conference lasts for four days).

Outcomes

The conference recommendations will be presented to EU policy makers and it is expected they will form a starting point for the European Platform on Biodiversity Research Strategy (EPBRS) meeting to be held under the Irish EU Presidency in Dublin in May.

Why an EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy?

After the overall failure of the previous European strategy to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010, the EU adopted a new strategy in 2011, with a 2050 vision and a 2020 headline target. This 2020 target was defined as:

"Halting the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020, and restoring them in so far as feasible, while stepping up the EU contribution to averting global biodiversity loss."

The EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy includes six mutually supportive and interdependent targets that respond to the objectives of the 2020 headline target:

1. Conserving and restoring nature
2. Maintaining and enhancing ecosystems and their services
3. Ensuring the sustainability of agriculture, forestry and fisheries
4. Combating invasive alien species
5. Addressing the global biodiversity crisis
6. Contributions of other environmental policies and initiatives

In a series of workshops, groups of scientists and policy makers will discuss the targets, before presenting their recommendations during the final plenary session on Thursday afternoon (April 18 2013).

More about the conference can be found on the ALTER-Net website. Dr Terry Parr from CEH was one of the speakers during Tuesday morning's plenary session on  "Biodiversity, ecosystems and sustainability - how to maintain, enhance and convince in the future". Others taking part in the session included the Finnish research institute SYKE, IRSTEA of France, the European Commission's DG Environment, and the University of Paris-Sud. On Wednesday, Dr Helen Roy of CEH will take part in a session focused on invasive alien species, while on the same day Dr Andrew Sier of CEH leads a side event which will look at developing new initiatives for ALTER-Net to undertake.

Get updates from the event on Twitter using #ALTERNetConf. More information on CEH's international collaborative work can be found on our main website.

Related CEH links

Dr Terry Parr

Dr Helen Roy

Dr Andrew Sier