One of the research groups I am connected too – Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (PREDICTS) has just come to the end of its first three years. To mark the occasion a one day symposium was held at the Natural History Museum with talks on overviews of what the project has achieved, the latest results, and a look ahead. I was invited to do a 15 minute talk on my PhD work researching human effects on soil biodiversity which use the PREDICTS framework. The Symposium was webcast live on YouTube and attended by many PREDICTS researchers past and present so I was rather anxious! However I did feel maybe feel slightly less nervous than my previous two talks, and even had a glimmer of enjoyment when answering questions at the end, which had been the part I most dreaded! I also received good feedback from the talk which was a boost to my confidence. Nearly a year into my PhD it was good to reflect on the progress I have made in presenting.
Rather than blogging the whole event here, check my Storify for Tweets from the event: PREDICTS Project Symposium
The programme of talks is also available at www.predicts.org.uk and will soon be accompanied by YouTube videos of the talks.
This Throwback Thursday is from my trip to Scotland with the Dipterists Forum in September 2013, a wonderful week in the highlands collecting flies which I wrote up as a guest post for the Natural History Museum Curator of Diptera’s Blog.
Between handing in my MSc thesis and my viva voce, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to join Dipterists from the Natural History Museum on a collection trip to Scotland as part of the Dipterists Forum Autumn Field Meeting. Despite the daunting prospect of a long journey and sharing a cottage with people I barely knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for an intensive week studying flies which was also my first trip across the border.
I had a fantastic time, proving to me yet again that no matter how scary something seems it is always worth doing it anyway. I even had the honour of writing up the trip for Erica McAlister’s Curator of Diptera’s Blog, so rather than blog the trip here is
Dipterists under the (double) rainbow, Knappach Cottage, Kingussie
Since the trip I have joined the Dipterists Forum committee and am now Treasurer. Sadly I have not had the time or money to go on another fieldtrip, but next summer’s is local to me in Kent, so hopefully I might be able to take a couple of days out and switch earthworms for flies!
This week’s Throwback Thursday is about the cabbage white butterflies I had on my London balcony back in August 2013 while I was studying for my MSc. This also formed the basis of an article in the Amateur Entomologist’s Society Bug Club Magazine.
It is true you do not have to go far to see wildlife, even in the midst of a big city. Invertebrate scholars are particularly fortunate in this regard as insects, arachnids etc. really are everywhere, in your home and even on you. Here in my student room in Earls Court, London I have a little balcony which I have used to grow salad and tomatoes. Being an entomologist I soon became more interested in the creatures eating my vegetables (and eating them!) than the produce.
This week’s Throwback Thursday covers a course on hoverfly identification I attended in August 2013 as part of a qualification in Biological Recording and Species Identification.
I enjoy music, but until now had never been to a music festival, all those crowds of people, loud noise and camping was not something I thought I could cope with. However I was aware from talking to my colleagues at the University of Reading last year that festivals are not just about music, and often have stands and science activities run by universities and other institutions. This felt like something I would enjoy so I put it on my mental list of ‘things to do while studying for a PhD’. I was very excited to see a call from the Royal Society of Biology and British Ecological Society for volunteers to help run ecology themed activities and bioblitz (an event where you try to identify as many species as possible) at Latitude Festival in Suffolk. I duly applied and a few weeks later was off on a big adventure with my tent and sleeping bag!
Latitude Festival
I picked up my festival wristbands and met up organiser Penny Fletcher and some of the rest of the team I would be working with the for the next few days – getting introduced to the ‘Big Biology Bus’ – a mobile home decked out with insect photographs and information to be used for activities. The first evening was spent preparing for these activities, cutting out plants for the ‘Power of Plants’ activity where children choose which plants and features to include in their virtual garden made of paper and learn about what makes a wildlife-friendly garden.
My Latitude Festival wrist bands
Then followed my first night in a tent since my family holidays as a young teenager, it was not a very restful sleep and the portable toilets and showers were as grim as I expected, although better than usual I was told, since we were in the performers’ area. I could have paid for b&b or ‘glamping’ but considered coping with camping to be part of the experience! The day before we officially opened to the public was spent scouting out suitable areas for bug hunts and setting up more activities, including making a butterfly life-cycle mobile from Butterfly Conservation and dragonflies out of pipe-cleaners and lolly sticks – it was good fun!
Activities at Latitude Biology Bus
The day started with opening the moth trap, with expert Marc Botham from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology showing members of the public the moths and other insects trapped in the light trap which was left over night and adding to our species list for the Latitude site. Then it was off to inspect the pitfall traps that colleague Sara Ball had set out to catch beetles and see what other insects could be found on a public bug hunt – demonstrating beating (hitting a tree with a stick to knock insects off), sweep netting (sweeping a net through vegetation) and looking under logs.
Marc Botham from CEH opens the moth trapInspecting pitfall traps for beetles and other invertebrates
Kieron Brown from the Earthworm Society of Britain ran earthworm charming competitions, where the public has to make noise to drive earthworms out of the ground (it is thought to mimic the noise of moles or rain and force them to move upwards to escape). The soils here were very dry and sandy so not many earthworms were found but people still enjoyed learning about them and making lots of noise!
Earthworm charming at Latitude Festival
Ladybird expert Helen Roy of the UK Ladybird Survey gave talks on ladybirds and their parasites, accompanied by singing parasitised ladybird David Urry. In addition to craft activities, another event throughout the day was an insect sports day were people chose insect species to ‘compete’ in events such as high-jumping and sprint to see who would win and then see how they measured against them (my long jump was a pathetic 60 cm!). The public were also invited to vote for their favourite insect and could examine some of the invertebrates we had found during our bug hunts.
David Urry does the Ladybird song
It sounds like I didn’t really see much else of the Festival, and to be honest I didn’t really! I was much happier hunting for insects and adding to the species list for the bioblitz than going to see the acts, although I did go see a comedy show and listened to Portishead and The Vaccines from a safely muted distance.
Latitude Festival stages and food standsLight displays over the water at Latitude
After three days of insect activities, bioblitzing and portaloos I was back off home, and sensibly I had taken the Monday off to recover. I had a fantastic experience – challenging, exhausting and fun in equal measure! and would definitely do something similar again. For more photographs and videos check out Twitter and Vine.
Bioblitz total at Latitude Festival – a respectable 240 species
I’ve been a bit lax with my blogging over the last few weeks as I have been busy writing and submitting my early stage assessment – a report of what I have done so far in my PhD and what I plan to do next. This will be followed up with a short viva from my panel – eek! So it was good to get a day out doing outreach at Imperial College Silwood Park a few days after submitting. Silwood Park is Imperial’s postgraduate campus near Ascot, Berkshire, with research and teaching in ecology, evolution, and conservation. One of my supervisors is based there, so I occasionally visit for meetings and eventually will be going there to extract and analyse microbial DNA from my soil samples.
Silwood Park Bugs! day flyer
This time I was visiting for the Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environment (GCEE) Bugs! event which brought together Imperial College researchers and local wildlife groups for a day off engaging visitors in research, bug hunts and pond dipping. I was exhibiting some of the invertebrates that can be found in leaf litter, encouraging people to sieve them from the leaves and examine them under the microscope.
Me sieving litter at Silwood Park Bugs! dayEquipment for looking at leaf litter invertebratesA carabid beetle and harvestman found in the leaf litter
Other stands had activities to extract DNA from strawberries, examine aphids and their predators and parasites and fossil insects. I had a really enjoyable day finished off with a BBQ. More information and photographs from the day can be found on the Bugs! website.
Sometimes it is hard to think what to write on my blog posts, especially when I am supposed to be writing a 9 month report for my PhD! To help I have started a ‘Throwback Thursday’ looking back at some of the posts I made on my pre-Imperial College blog. This one was written in April 2013, when I was 6 months into MSc Taxonomy and Biodiversity at Imperial College London.
This week the Wildlife Gardening Forum held its conference ‘Soil Biodiversity in the Garden’ at the Natural History Museum in London. Being a keen gardener and researching soil biodiversity I had to go along.
Steve Head opens the Wildlife Gardening Forum conference
The Wildlife Gardening Forum is a group of organisations and people who are passionate about wildlife in gardens and seek to help people value and enjoy wildlife in their gardens. While there has been quite a lot of interest in gardens as habitats for birds, mammals and pollinating insects, few consider the life below ground so this conference was a great way to raise the profile of soil organisms and discuss ideas. Check my Storify: “Wildlife Gardening Forum – Soil Biodiversity in the Garden” to see some of the talks and discussion that was generated, finishing with an afternoon in the Natural History Museum Wildlife Garden.
Last week I was pleased to have another day of fieldwork, this time in the New Forest National Park in south England. The New Forest includes one of the largest areas of pasture, heathland and forest in south east England and the site we visited is Whitley Wood, a oak-beech wood pasture woodland with grazing deer and ponies. The Natural History Museum Soil Biodiversity Group have been sampling at this site for soil and leaf litter invertebrates nearly every month since 2002.
Whitley Wood
A 100 meter transect line is laid at random in the forest and a sample is taken every seven meters. This comprises a measure of soil moisture and temperature and what plants are growing in a 1 m quadrat. Then a pit is dug and any earthworms collected and the leaf litter from the 1 meter square is sieved and put into bags to take back to the Museum. From this month onwards we will also be collecting soil samples which I will be analysing for microbial DNA, I will then use this to investigate how microbe diversity changes during the seasons and the relationship with invertebrates.
Bags of leaf litter after sieving
Using a syringe barrel as a soil corer I took four samples per quadrat which were then mixed together in a tube, both syringes and tubes had to be sterile to avoid contamination with microbes from other places and each quadrat had its own tube – this will also give an idea of how variable soil microbes are across the woodland.
Soil cores from Whitley Wood – there is one for every 7 m over a 100 m transect
Whitley Wood fieldwork is popular with Soil Biodiversity Group volunteers and students because at the end of the fieldwork we visit a pastry shop for lunch. Then its back to the Museum to process the samples.
Post-fieldwork pasty and cakeThe most important job of the day! Soil Biodiversity Group head, Dr Paul Eggleton buys us lunch
To extract the invertebrates the sieved leaf litter is placed into Winkler bags, these are made up of two parts – the inner bags are made of mesh and look a bit like laundry bags, these are then suspended in a fabric funnel which is hung up in a room for three days. The top of the bag is tied up to stop the invertebrates escaping and at the bottom there is a bottle of alcohol. As the leaf litter dries out the invertebrates move down the funnel into the bottle to be preserved for later counting and identification.
Filling the Winkler bags with sieved leaf litter
Of course this time I also had my soil samples to store. The DNA extraction and analysis will require travelling to my co-supervisor’s laboratory at Imperial College Silwood Park so rather than going every month I am storing them up to process in bulk. To preserve the microbes they are stored in a freezer at -8o°C ready for when I need them.
My first lot of soil samples stored in the freezer
