Limnology Part 2

We started today with a biology lecture, concentrating on the phyto- and zooplankton that we would be looking at later in the day. Whilst the other took a break, I accompanied one of the centre staff down to the weather station to get a closer look and see how they take measurements. It helped to bring things to life, and was good revision for my course, especially seeing how the hours of sunlight are measured.  This is done using a Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder - the instrument focuses the Sun's rays through a spherical glass lens and on to a piece of card, scorching a line on to the "burn card" every time the Sun emerges from behind the clouds. Sunshine hours correlate to the length of the burn. There are different slots for the card depending on the season, as the sun is at a different level in the sky.

After the mid-morning break, we all kitted up and got ready to face the wind and rain on the lake.  The rain wasn't too heavy, and my new waterproof jacket kept me dry. We took both boats out at once, and took it in terms to collect phyto- and zooplankton samples. Nets of different mesh sizes were used for each, and the method also varied.  Phytoplankton float so the net was pulled horizontally for 2 minutes, just below the surface of the water. Zooplankton are noctural and more likely to be lower down in the water column, so they are collected using a vertical sample. We then dropped anchor and used it to pull up some macrophytes (plants) growing on the bottom of the tarn.

After lunch, we settled back into the lab and set up microscopes to see what we had found. The tutor was a bit dissappointed that we hadn't found any diatoms, but I was more than impressed with the range of phytoplankton I found which included anabaena, microcystis, gleotrichia and ceratium.  Volvox (pictured) was particularly pretty. I could have spent hours looking at it. We were a bit less successful with the zooplankton, and I found it quite hard to identify things - I know it was a copepoda but couldn't be more specific - more practice needed! 

The course finished mid-afternoon, and after a brief wrap up session we were on our way. Naturally I hit the rush hour traffic so it took nearly two hours to drive home. I treated myself to a hot bath to recover from a tiring but very enjoyable few days.  Just a few days at home, and then I am going to Bristol for the week, attending International Penguin Conference 8 (IPC8). I am sure much of it will be over my head, but it will be good to meet the guys from South Africa again and catch up on their research.

Limnology Part 1

I arrived at Malham Tarn Field Studies Centre yesterday late afternoon for the start of a two and a bit day course in limnology - the science of the lakes. After dinner at 6pm, we had a short introductory lecture and then had an early night to settle in to the accommodation. I was very studious and did a past exam paper ... and picked out a few more things I need to revise.

This morning was a fairly leisurely start, with breakfast just after 8am and lectures starting just after 9am. Being Bank Holiday week, the centre is quite quiet and there are only seven delegates on our course, which is a good number. We had somewhat of an information download this morning, but it was very good revision for me covering the physics and chemistry of the lakes, including wave action, temperature profile, gas exchange and nutrients. 

After lunch, we carried out practical activities in alternate groups.  My group was first to take the rowing boat out on the lake and take some water samples. This was done using a ?Rettner tube, and dispensing the contents from various depths into glass collecting bottles. As we were measuring dissolved oxygen, the key was not to let there be an air gap/bubble at the top of the bottle. We also had a bit of a paddle around the lake looking at the adjoining peat bog - quite a unique juxtaposition to have an alkaline marl lake next to an acid peat bog.

Whilst the other group went on the boat, we had a graphing exercise to do which was to create a isopleth of temperatures for various depths and dates. It was a bit like an intellectual join the dots exercise, quite time consuming - I'm sure there must be a computer programme that does this now!

When the other group returned, we went to the lab to analyse the water. The first test we did was theWinkler method, which involves adding various chemicals in turn to the water sample, creating various reactions. At the end of the process, you can determine how much oxygen was in the sample by how much of the final chemical needed to be added to make the sample clear.  I took pictures of each stage, so will no doubt write up some more precise instructions in due course.

For the second test we used colormetry to determine the pH of water. This used various colour dyes, and the comparison against a colour chart to match to the closest colour and read off a value. It was accurate to 0.2 pH, but there was a little subjectivity in it, as different members of the group did not always agree on the colour match!  It is definitely more reliable that litnus paper, and allegedly more so that electronic meters that need to be constantly recalibrated.

After dinner, we had another short lecture on the history of Malham Tarn itself. We then had a walk out to the sluice gate, then on to a sink hole, a round trip of about 3km. It was getting dark when we got back, so I just settled down for the night, ready for another action packed day tomorrow ...

Bats and Sea Shores

Last weekend I had my first outing with the West Yorkshire Bat Group. The task was to check bats boxes in Northcliffe Woods in Shipley. Well, I had a nice morning wandering round the woods, getting a break from work and studying and I even managed to drag Robert out with me. We met some nice people, but unfortunately the bat boxes were all empty so I didn't get the close encounter I had hoped for.

A couple of the boxes contained lovely nests, probably blue tit, but most of them just had a mixture of moths, millipedes and spiders.  I did manage to get a photo of a speckled wood butterfly flitting around the forest floor - another ID to add to my collection.

I've just watched an excellent programme on BBC1 called 'Britain's Big Wildlife Revival' as part of their Summer of Wildlife series. This week the focus was on marine and coastal wildlife, and it brought back lots of memories about my trip to South Africa, and made me reflect on all the things I have been fortunate enough to get involved in so far.

Puffins - I had limited success on my photo shoot to the East Coast earlier this month, and the programme confirmed that puffins are in decline in the north of the UK. The issues seem similar to those faced by the South African penguins, in that much of the problem is down to food availability. The programme showed nests being surveyed on the Farne Islands, and we got to see a chick just a few days old and it's parent being ringed.  And yes, naturalists aren't supposed to use the word 'cute' ... but sometimes you just have to! I'll never forget holding my first penguin chick ...

Sea Eagle - I had my first encounter with a sea engle when I took a group of air cadets
on an activity week to Mull. As we drove along the road, an adult was sitting on the fence post just metres away - what an amazing creature. In the programme, a 6 week old chick was removed from the nest to be weighed and ringed. Again, I can relate this to my penguin experiences. The sea eagle chick appeared much calmer than my penguin chicks though, and didn't peck its way out of the bag ... At 6kg, it was also somewhat heftier - it's a good job it was so complacent otherwise it would be a real handful.

Litter - A whole pile of weird stuff was washed up on Northumerland's beaches ... not as much as around Robben Island though. One thing I can confirm - ear buds and straws from drinks containers are a world wide problem. Please dispose of litter carefully, and don't flush weird things down the toilet.

Grey Seals - I did a project on seals as part of my A-level General Studies. I wrote to the BBC and got sent lots of amazing material from a documentary they had run; I think there was a disease like canine distemper affecting seals at that time. It's good to see the seal populations around Britain are recovering. It would be amazing to swim with the seals. When we went snorkelling and sea kayaking on the west coast of Scotland I was desparate for a close encounter, but they were always out of reach.

I've signed up for the CIEEM regional event at Flamborough in a few weeks time, so I'm now really enthused about going along and learning more about coastal species ID and recording.

Bees

Bees are really hard to photograph! I've been on a bit of a mission the last few weeks to try and take some good pics, with mixed success. Here's one of my better ones ...

There was an excellent document on BBC on Friday evening - a Horizon special on the decline of bees in the UK. "What's killing our bees?" was hosted by journalist Bill Turnbull who is also a bee keeper. It was a good summary of the issue, explored some of the causes and also some of the latest research to improve things in the future.  A recommended watch - you can still get it on i-player.

When the paving in my back garden is finally sorted out, I will be planting up a mini wild flower meadow to help the butterflies and bees.

Citizen Science

Today I managed to get some of my work colleagues involved in a science project!  I mentioned the Society of Biology's flying ant project last week, and today when I came in to work this morning my colleague Ian presented me with a small tupperware box containing two flying ants. He had obviously paid attention to my enthused ramblings, and had humanely killed them by putting them in the freezer.  As we were chatting, some more colleague overheard the discussion. They too had seen flying ants, so I helped them log the sightings of the website.

As far as my S216 studies go, I did manage to get my project submitted a week early. The deadline was yesterday, and I am hoping my tutor will be kind and not make me wait too long for the result. I enjoyed the fieldwork, searching for amphibians in my local country park. I also found out lots by researching various scientific papers. However, my results were inconclusive and I found it really hard to stick to the word limit.  I was only a few words over, but I am sure I will get criticised for leaving out some vital facts.  Fingers crossed I will get a reasonable result.

It's only three weeks until my next assignment deadline, so I need to get motivated. This hot weather is not very conducive to staying indoors and reading text books!

I got my joining instructions through for a Limnology course run by the Field Studies Council. It takes place at the end of August at the Malham Tarn centre. It will be a nice break, and hopefully will embed some of the learning points for my environmental science course, as well as giving some practical experience of taking water measurements.

East Coast Visit

Last weekend I took a bit of time out and my husband and I went to the East Coast. We finished work early on Friday, and had a pleasant drive out to Scarborough with the roof down. After checking in at the hotel, we had a meal at the local pub, then went to the Spa complex for an Amy MacDonald concert.  The warm up act was a guy called Martin from Sunderland: The Lake Poets. His song "Edinburgh" is my favorite in a long time! A very talented young man - you should definitely check out his music.

The next day, we drove down the coast and visited a couple of nature spots. Although I spent all my childhood summers at Scarborough and often visited other places up the coast, I have never visited the area around Flamborough. The first stop was the RSPB reserve at Bempton Cliffs. The weather was beautiful, and we got there before it got too hot. We wandered up and down the cliffs looking for puffins. They were being quite elusive, but I did manage to get some pictures. 

I had the zoom lens on my camera, and got some good shots of bees and butterflies as well as the sea birds. In fact, when I got home and looked at the photos on the computer, they were much more interesting than I thought ... I managed to photograph some young birds in nests that I didn't even realise were there!

I also managed to capture this young gannet, with the distinctive ink spot pattern on its wings, and beautiful facial markings.

Next we made a quick stop at North Landing, near Flamborough, just a few miles down the coast. I had a wander along with cliffs, which are part of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve, and took some more photos.

After lunch at the cafe at the top of the slipway, we set off home, and I managed a spot of sunbathing in the car with the roof down and my shades on. Very relaxing! A few enjoyable hours were spent in the evening sorting through my photos and submitting sightings to i-spot. I started using that website when I did the OU's Neighbourhood Nature course, and have just kept up with it as the process of logging things helps me remember species names and acts as a record and reminder too.

I even submitted a few photos to the Society of Biology competition "Feeding Life".  I don't think they are nearly good enough to win, but you don't know if you don't try.

I got an email from the CIEEM about an event running at Flamborough in early September. It sounds like a good opportunity to practice species identification and surveying, and I now know its a lovely part of the world, so I am going to sign up.  Another practical event to look forward to.