NFBR/BES Joint Conference

The National Forum for Biological Recorders is an independent group who aim to promote biological recording in the UK.

At the end of the week they held a joint conference with the British Ecological Society.  It was quite relevant to me, both through my studies with Manchester Metropolitan University, and through my volunteering with the Local Records Centre.  As it was being held in my region, I thought I would go along but I was only able to attend the first day of the conference due to other commitments.

The drive to Sheffield took about an hour, and I made my way slowly through the rush hour traffic to “The Edge”, a conference facility at Endcliffe Village which is part of the university.  After negotiating my way down a narrow cobbled street and finally finding somewhere to park, I arrived in time to grab a cup of tea and meet a few people before moving into the conference room.

The morning’s sessions were all concerned with technology. It was really interesting to hear about the various systems that can support biological recording.  Indicia, who have developed the INNS Mapper for Yorkshire Wildlife Trust as well as many other recording group schemes were present. I was particularly interested to learn about QGIS – free GIS software – and some relevant plugins that have been developed specifically for ecological and biological recording. These include grid systems are a range of resolutions, and colour codings such as may be used in a recording atlas. It is definitely something that I will explore when I have a few spare minutes.  The other thing was Scratchpad which provides free webpages for species and taxanomic projects, and there is also an option to publish scientific data – an option for my dissertation project I think as it would be good to share some of the photographs I have taken and some of the conclusions (in due course).

At lunchtime I sat outside enjoying the sunshine and chatting with other delegates over a sandwich.

In the afternoon, there were a series of workshops discussing various themes and issues in biological recording. I sat in on a session concerned with the verification process – who are verifiers, what do they need to do the job effectively, and how can new people be encouraged?  Whilst there was some interesting discussion, there are clearly a lot of people that take the traditional approach of one person being the county recorder for xyz species. There seemed little interest, in my group at least, about trying to get other people involved, making more use of online systems, and perhaps having multiple verifiers with a lower level of specialisation to ensure records are confirmed quickly but without losing any of the accuracy (similar to i-Spot verification, which uses peer group users to review and agree/amend identifications).
 

In all, it was a good conference and refreshing to see people from quite different backgrounds coming together to discuss a common theme.

When is a bee not a bee?

This week I am on a field trip organised through my latest Open University module: S295 The Biology of Survival. Our final topic is on pollination, and an optional course is being run to support us in running a short project that is submitted as our final course assignment and also contributes to the overall module grade.  The aim of this week is to give us confidence in identifying plants and insects and recording their interactions, so that we can formulate and test a hypothesis in our project.

Arriving last night, we had a brief introduction to the subject in an evening lecture and looked at the different parts of a flower. Today we concentrated more on insects, and spent two long sessions outdoors. This morning we walked around the site and caught various insects for identification. We learned that if it looks like a bee it probably isn't, as hoverflies also look rather bee-like! Once you learn a bit more though, it's fairly easy to distinguish them by the eyes, wings (with a U-shape and 'false' veins - photo to the right is a hoverfly) and behaviour. Some samples were taken back to the lab where we got the chance to look at diagnostic features more closely and worked through a key. There were also some specimens that we could look at with a hand lens or microscope.

This afternoon we spent more time looking at the interactions of the insects - were they visiting flowers at different life stages, how long were they there for, etc.  This evening the class came together to pool our ideas and start to think about ideas for a practical investigation.  One of these will be taken forward tomorrow when we get the chance to trial some field work.

The weather has been absolutely stunning for early April, and I'm wishing I packed a sun hat rather than waterproofs! The warm weather has been great for our work too though, as it means the insects are active despite it still being quite early in the season. An interesting course so far, with a great bunch of people and hopefully it will enable me to produce a better quality project at the end of it.

Tadpole Liberation!

My tadpole experiment is going really well so far. The guys are now a few weeks old and growing fast! The average hatching time was less than two weeks. They are now eating well, and as a result there is a lot of - erm - detritus on the floor of the tank. A handy hint I got off the internet was to use a turkey baster to 'hoover' out the bottom of the tank. I'm currently doing this twice a day, and changing water every two to three days, but as soon as I turn my back they make a mess again!  It is quite a time consuming project - caring for tadpoles isn't easy!

My initial methodology was to study 50 eggs/tadpoles in different tanks. As soon as I collected the spawn I realised this was impractical, as spawn is tightly stuck together and it was impossible to count off 50 eggs without damaging them, which would affect the impact of acidity on the embryo.  So instead I split the clumps into smaller lumps, and when they hatched I randomly selected 50 tadpoles to keep and liberated the rest back to the garden pond. I did this by gradually introducing pond water to the tank to bring the acidity level back to the same neutral level as the pond. I also let the tank float in the pond for several hours so that the water was the same temperature. Once released, I kept checking on the tadpoles and they survived, so this seems to have worked well and the change in environment wasn't too much of a shock to the system. 

I managed to collect more spawn so have three replicates of the experiment running. I have good results so far, with the most acidic treatment not hatching at all, but the intermediate and least acidic treatments have little difference between them. I also took a control group sample, which is reared in untreated rain water which is neutral pH.  There are slight differences in the hatching time within the replicates, but no evident difference in hatching success. 

I have continued to run the experiment and monitor the tapoles as they grow.  I am measuring a sample of them at certain ages. By photographing them and comparing them to a known distance (in this case, 10mm graph paper stuck to the bottom of the container), it's possible to measure their length accurately using some software called Image J which is free and easy to use.  I do have a significant difference in length at three weeks old, with the tadpoles in the more acidic water being shorter.  I have had relatively few deformities and this does not seem to be related to acid.  The results aren't exactly what I was expecting, but I have plenty to talk about when I do write the experiment up.

I have taken lots of photographs and video of the tadpoles and have also started a Flickr album. It seems a shame that I won't be able to use much of this in my final report, but hopefully it will be useful to refer back to.

Toad Counts

I've now complete the first week of 'proper' surveying when we were looking for amphibian signs rather than concentrating on collecting environmental data.  Unfortunately the first survey had to be cancelled - the weather on the day was really bad with very strong winds and bursts of heavy rain. I was actually out on another reserve that day and the surface of the water was very disturbed so it would have been difficult to see anything, even by torchlight. The temperature also dropped below 5 Celcius overnight which makes amphibians less active.

Our second survey was on Thursday night at Rothwell Country Park and this was much more successful. A group of four of us arrived and we managed to survey most of the ponds I had planned. We started about an hour before sunset and carried out a visual search for adults and eggs. I think it is a little early in the season for newt eggs, but we did see toads and newts in the ponds.  By the time we had reached the north east corner of the park it was getting dark so we switched to torching and made our way back to the cars, checking the ponds as we went.  The toads were out in large numbers, not just in the focal pond which is ideal for them to bask in, but there were quite high numbers in several of the other ponds as well.  We also saw a few smooth newts, and were blessed by a barn owl hunting overhead.

On Saturday a happy band of two turned up to survey Letchmire Pastures, which has a smaller number of ponds but they are larger in size. The initial search was not very productive, but again we saw toads that hinted at what was to come later in the evening. Once we began torching, we could hardly keep count, and it was actually quite difficult to walk anywhere as they were still arriving at the ponds.

I was conscious that once frogs and toads arrive at a pond they can breed rather quickly and then disappear. With this in mind, having missed out our survey at Ledston Luck due to bad weather I was concerned that we may miss seeing the toads there.  As the site is on the way home, we quickly pulled into Ledston Luck after completing the ponds at Letchmire Pastures, and had a quick walk around the focal pond. Again, this was awash with toads and I am pleased we managed to capture that information as well. Across the three sites, well over a thousand toads were counted so it was a great start to the season.

To finish off the week, I had an extra, informal visit to a different site with some colleagues. This looked a bit of an uninspiring site, but did have some great crested newts relocated there a few years ago. We arrived just as it was getting dark so I probably didn't see the surrounding countryside to its best effect, but it was surrounded on one side by arable fields and the M1 motorway on the other. Despite this, the first pond was fairly healthy with lots of suitable aquatic vegetation ... but all we saw were a lot more toads! There was the odd flash of silver that was probably the tail of a great crested newt, but they were very elusive and kept disappearing into the weeds. Picking our way carefully to the next pond, this time we did see a couple of newts but there were the more common smooth newts. The third and finally pond was very disappointing to look at, with little vegetation and the water was extremely turbid. However, there was a rather nice female great crested newt sitting on the surface that obligingly let us have a close look, so it was a worthwhile trip out after all.

PS. A return visit to Rothwell Country Park this week revealed that the toads have successfully bred. Spawn is much more difficult to find as it is laid in strings, often at depth, and intertwined around vegetation as shown in the photograph.

Start of Pond Surveying Season

In previous years I have monitored a few ponds in my local nature reserves. This year, I have been more ambitious and have extended both the number of sites to be covered and the scope of the surveys. As I am also wanting to gain experience and work towards my Great Crested Newt licence, I put a request out via my local ARG group to see if anyone would like to help me and have had an overwhelming response, with more than fifteen people coming forward. This means that I will always have someone with me when I go out surveying, which not only makes it more enjoyable but is also safer and I can do more night visits with confidence. The people helping me have a range of experience - some already hold a licence and others are wanting to learn more, so it's great that we can all support each other.

I have arranged to survey all three sites on alternate weeks.  This week was the first visit and was carried out during the day. The aim was to reconnoitre the site and gather environmental data, as well as doing a visual search of the ponds for signs of amphibians but mostly for frog spawn.

The environmental data provides an impression of the health of the pond, but also enables a Habitat Suitability Index to be generated. This provides a score that evaluates the suitability of the pond for Great Crested Newts based on ten factors. Being able to assess this is a requirement of the CIEEM competencies and the GCN licence, so I am trying to get as much experience as possible.  I have also been compiling the results into a summary document for each site to gain experience of producing ecological reports.

Our first visit was on Saturday to Letchmire Pastures. It took slightly longer than I envisaged to carry out the survey, but once I re-familiarise myself with the paperwork I am sure this will become easier. We found some frog spawn and stickleback in one pond, but not much else of interest.

On Tuesday, we surveyed Ledston Luck nature reserve. This was a much more interesting visit. Whilst looking for frog spawn, I stumbled across a feeding pile and latrine and confirmed water vole presence on the site. This was really exciting and totally unexpected and it made my day. We also saw signs of other mammals including fox, deer and field vole. There are two really nice ponds on site, two that are not so good as they are in very wooded areas, and some scrapes on the plateau that are unlikely to support amphibians.

On Thursday, we visited the largest site at Rothwell Country Park. I am more familiar with this site, as it's the one I have surveyed the most of the years. Although we did find frog spawn, there were no signs of newts although the water was very turbid in most of the ponds. I am not sure what is causing this as there has not been much rain recently.

On all of the surveys, we did a brief invertebrate sweep to assess the water quality. I do enjoy this part of the survey, and I would like to be able to identify more of the species, though I am getting more familiar with them already.

The most time-consuming part of the week has been compiling the results. I am transposing these onto my own spreadsheet, but they also have to be keyed onto the PondNet website.  I ultimately want to produce a report for each site, but am still experimenting with this and am researching what I should include and how this is best presented.

On Friday, I carried out an extra survey and went to Skelton Grange Environment Centre. As these are not part of my PondNet project, I carried out a shorter survey and just compiled the HSI scores for the ponds. This has given me good practice at writing up the results and thinking about their implications.

Tadpoles Developing

The last few weeks have been rather busy and a little bit stressful.  Several days elapsed until additional spawn was laid, and whilst I was waiting I was starting to panic that I wouldn't be able to complete my experiment. Since then, I have had over a dozen clumps of spawn. It has been a little difficult to catch this quickly once it has been laid, as the frogs tend to lay new spawn on top of existing spawn so that it forms a mat. I actually now have four replicates of the experiment running: all of the first batch (Replicate A) seems to have spoiled so I took a further batch (Replicate D) to ensure I had three sets of results to compare.

Another stressful moment was when my pH meter failed: I discovered that water had got into the battery compartment and fried the electrics. I ordered another on overnight delivery, and although it was much more expensive it seems a lot slower and only produces readings to 0.1 decimal place. I have taken to checking it against the calibration fluid before I start checking my water treatments as I am not overly confident in the new meter so am erring on the side of caution.

Now that I am over a week into the experiment and have three replicates running I am starting to get some good results. It was impossible to identify the early stages of development without a microscope, but once the embryo started to develop a tail bud I could allocate it to the appropriate Gosner stage.  Development seems to be progressing very quickly, with just a day or two between the tail bud first developing and the gills forming. The embryos are now moving, mostly curling and uncurling, within the central egg sack. The next stage to look for is a heart beat behind the gills, but I am not sure I would be able to see this without a microscope.

Although none of the embryos have hatched yet, there are some obvious developments. The least acidic treatment, at 5.5 pH, seems unaffected and is developing in line with my control group which is in neutral pond water.  The tadpoles in moderately acidic water of 4.5 pH seem to be about a day behind in development terms, and there are slightly more deformities/undeveloped eggs.

The most acidic treatment, at 3.5 pH, is much different - none of the eggs are developing. The inner sack has turned opaque and the eggs generally are cloudier and more condensed. In some of them, the nucleus seems to have broken apart. I am continuing to monitor them, but doubt any will hatch.

I have taken lots of photos and notes to remind me of each development stage, and this should make it easier when I come to write the discussion section of my dissertation.

Tadpole Experiments

As I'm close to completing my degree, in February I started my dissertation project, a 30-credit final year module on environmental science. I get to choose my own project, as long as it compares biotic and abiotic factors. I have chosen to study common frog tadpole hatching success at different levels of water acidity. This follows on from my second year project where I did some fieldwork in a local nature reserve, and found that amphibians were absent from one particularly acidic pond. After some literature research, I have set up a home experiments to assess at what point acidity is lethal, and at which point it can develop into frog spawn. Is there a tipping points or a gradient along which acid impacts development?  The last few weeks have been quite intense in planning and setting up the experiment.  I had to get approval from the module team early, as the deadline for my first assignment isn't for another ten days, but the frogs arrived in my pond in mid-February.  I am at a slight disadvantage as I am having to cram a lot of work up front, but it will mean that my data collection is over relatively quickly and I have the summer to write up and get involved in other conservation tasks.

Yesterday, activity in the pond increased and the first clump of spawn was laid. This happened at lunchtime, just as I was about to set off for an overnight trip. As I had committed to collect spawn within 24 hours of it being laid, needless to say my trip was delayed while I collected the spawn and decanted it into separate tanks.

First I split the clump of frog spawn into four different batches.  This was much harder than I imagined as the jelly stuck the eggs together very firmly. Three smaller clumps were put into my least acidic water to acclimitise, then two of the clumps were gradually moved to more acidic water.  One of the four clumps was returned to the pond.

The experiment has only been running a day and so it's not really possible to see if there is a difference between the spawn in the different water treatments.  The one in the most acidic water does look slightly more cloudy, but this could be my imagination. There are a couple of deformed eggs, but these occur in different treatments so it is not necessarily the acid that has caused it - it could have been damaged whilst I was splitting the spawn.

Hopefully the frogs will produce more spawn in the coming days as I need to carry out at least three replicates of the experiment. I am trying to photograph the spawn at different stages so hopefully there will be some interesting photos posted here over the coming weeks.