Author: EcoEvo@TCD

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Rewilding

wolf

Rewilding is the mass restoration of ecosystems by reintroducing (often long) lost animal and plant species which are then left to develop without human interference. It’s a topic explored by journalist George Monbiot in his latest book, Feral [1]. Monbiot captures the controversy surrounding rewilding with typical understatement, “Reintroducing elephants to Europe would first require a certain amount of public persuasion.” And “The clamour for the lion’s reintroduction to Britain, has, so far, been muted.” So why should we do it? He argues, and I agree, that people would value a biologically rich world over the desolate sheep-scapes that are common to the UK and Ireland. We live in a shadow world where we can see evidence of species that once surrounded us. One of the more striking examples of this shadow world are the putative elephant-resistant adaptations seen in Temperate trees. So, over and above the ecosystem services that would be realised and the potential financial gains resulting from such an endeavour, the primary motivation here is to nurture the existence value we draw from biodiversity.

The wolf reintroduction to Yellowstone is a great example of a successful reintroduction whose effect was felt throughout the trophic web. The wolves created zones of fear, areas where their prey no longer dared to venture which allowed vegetation to reestablish. This, in turn, gave habitat for animals like beavers to occupy. This in turn had a massive knock-on effect on the entire ecosystem and the other habitats of the park, all of which illustrates the profound influence predatory megafauna can have and the disastrous and unrectifiable trophic cascade which can occur where they are excluded.

Naturally, there are some serious obstacles to advancing this goal. It’s not a simple matter of dumping a pride of lions into the woods and hoping for the best. There will have to be some priming of the area if we want the animals to flourish. The Irish countryside isn’t as well suited to wolf packs as Yellowstone. This is especially the case if Pleistocene rewilding is taken seriously. Monbiot explains, “People who call themselves Pleistocene rewilders seek to recapitulate the prehuman fauna of the Americas.” This could be achieved through DeExtinction of long-lost species or by reintroducing proxies which would serve the function of the missing animals or plants. In the US where there are extensive wildlife areas that we Europeans could only dream about, reintroducing long disappeared animals or proxies doesn’t seem quite so ridiculous. For us, with so little unmodified habitat it almost seems like a non-argument when we don’t even have mundane megafauna or any land on which to put them. To take one example, the African species of cheetah could fill in for the American species (Miracinonyx), preying on the fleet-footed pronghorn, whose speed is another instance of an adaptation to a long-lost predator. But the issue here is the time that has elapsed since these species went extinct. Perhaps the ecosystem has changed too much for the species, proxy or not, to settle back in. Modern day North America is a very different place to the one of 12,000 years ago.

There is ample opportunity and, more importantly, land, to proceed with rewilding plans outside of traditional protected areas. Agricultural property is being abandoned all over Europe and North America as people move to cities. Rather than keep it fallow, why not restore the landscape to something of value?

This would represent an excellent opportunity for scientists and policy makers to engage with the public and highlight the benefits of rewilding or at least get it into the public consciousness. Of course there will be detractors, but the arguments for could be framed in such a way as to convince most reasonable people that wolves won’t be stalking their estates. I think rewilding is an exciting way to develop conservation; it is dynamic which is in contrast to the passive, ‘protect what we’ve got’ ethos, common to conservancy. It also brings some much needed positivity, opposed to the negative, guilt-laden, reactionary aspect of much of nature conservation.

Authors:  Adam Kane: kanead[at]tcd.ie, @P1zPalu

John Kirwan, @JohnDKirwan

References

1. Monbiot, G., Feral: searching for enchantment on the frontiers of rewilding. Allen Lane, London, 2013.

Image Source: Wikicommons

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How to write press releases

press release

Consider this scenario. You’ve recently published a new academic paper. It’s effectively your baby. The months or years of experiments, analysis, frustration, toil and troubles are now distilled into a stellar research article which, in your opinion at least, changes the face of science as we know it. Great! Now you need to get the word out beyond the Ivory Tower of academia and journal articles. Time to brush up on your public relations and communications skills.

Press releases are important tools for communicating scientific findings and informing the public about the importance of scientific research. From a researcher’s point of view they are also essential currency for enhancing your research profile and ticking the public outreach box on your next grant proposal. So, from all perspectives, it’s important to get press releases right.

We had an excellent NERD club session recently with Thomas Deane, press officer for the faculty of engineering, maths and science at TCD. His tips sparked a great group discussion about the dos and don’ts of writing good, interesting and hopefully popular press releases. Here are some of his useful guidelines which will come in handy next time you’re faced with writing a press release.

1) Simplify!

Remember that you’re writing for a non-specialist audience. Simplify your message as much as possible. Keep cutting things out of the article until it’s clear and succinct. Eliminate jargon but if you do need to use a particular specialised term then make sure that it’s explained properly.

2) Focus on the key parts

You already had to condense your months or years of work into a single paper. Now you need to do it again for the press release. Choose one or two of the key findings from the paper and explain them clearly and concisely. If possible ask someone without a science background to read your article. If they can understand it and identify importance of the findings that you’re trying to publicise then it’s a good indication that you’re on the right track.

3) Be active!

For reasons best known to the Department of Education, in school I was taught that you should only ever write about scientific research in a passive voice; “the animal was weighed” rather than “I weighed the animal”. This early training was reversed when I reached college but there are still some researchers who are stuck in their passive ways. Don’t fall into the trap! Writing in the active voice is easier to read, more interesting and will save on your word count. Press releases should be clear and engaging – this is infinitely easier to achieve if you write in the first person, active voice.

4) Find useful analogies

Good analogies should be engaging and clear. They’re particularly useful for attracting the attention of your audience and for explaining complex ideas. It’s a fun and beneficial exercise to come with an analogy to describe your own research. Here’s some of ours; territoriality behaviour in badgers is like the fall of the Berlin wall (they don’t respect boundaries) and ecosystem stability is like a Jenga tower (remove some key pieces and the whole ecosystem collapses).

5) Focus on the big picture

Research is inevitably piecemeal. Instead of the big bathtub Eureka moments, most new scientific findings represent small steps of progress in niche research areas. However, every tiny step contributes to an overall bigger picture. When communicating the importance of your work to the media it’s important to frame your research in a wider context. Think about why your research matters, where it could lead and why people should find it interesting. Remember that journalists and editors are short on time and probably patience. Your press release needs to include clear reasons why your work is interesting and deserving of their attention. However, one caveat to remember is that you shouldn’t artificially over-inflate the importance of your research. Don’t claim that your new findings about Drosophila are going to save polar bears from climate change!

6) Include quotes and images

A good press release is a sales pitch. You need to excite and enthuse people about your research. Striking, unusual pictures and engaging, personal quotes will help to sell your message. If you include direct quotes and captivating pictures with your press release then it’s more likely to attract the interest of the journalists and editors who take up the story. To supplement printed quotes it’s a good idea to give your contact details and state that you’re available for interviews. The media success of Kevin Healy and Andrew Jacksons’ paper about time perception in animals last year is testimony to the benefits of good images and engaging interviews for selling a story (even if people add images which slightly misrepresent the paper!)

If you keep these considerations in mind they will undoubtedly improve your skills when it comes to putting together your next press release.

Go forth science communicators!

Author: Sive Finlay, sfinlay[at]tcd.ie, @SiveFinlay

Image Source: myteltek.com

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School of Natural Sciences Postgraduate Symposium 2014: Part 4/4

B.terrestris

On the 20th and 21st of February we had our annual School of Natural Sciences Postgraduate Symposium. Over the course of two days many of our PhD students presented their work to the School. We also had two interesting plenary talks from Dr Sophie Arnaud-Haond (Ifremer) and Dr Lesley Morrell (University of Hull). Unfortunately our third speaker, Dr Fiona Jordan (University of Bristol) had to cancel due to illness.

For those of you who are interested in exactly what we work on here at EcoEvo@TCD, here are the abstracts from the PhD student presentations. Check out the TCD website for more details!

Ruby Prickett*: Geographical, ecological and genetic characterisation of perennial biomass grasses

*Unfortunately Ruby was unable to attend but we still have her abstract

Evidence suggests that increasing CO2 concentration from fossil fuels in the atmosphere is contributing to global climate change. There is great interest in producing energy from biological sources such as willow (Salix spp.), and the grass Miscanthus. This project aims to contribute to the development of grasses of the C4 genus Miscanthus and several C3 species (Dactylis glomerata, Festuca arundinacea and Phalaris arundinacea) for use as biomass crops, particularly on marginal land. This project aims to produce maps and species distribution models for each of the four species, to identify potential areas for production and their impact on biodiversity; to collect new accessions of Dactylis and Phalaris in the Northwest Europe and Miscanthus in Asia; and to assess the genetic diversity within each species.

Rebecca Rolfe: Identification of Mechanosensitive Genes during Skeletal Development: Functional evidence associated with the Wnt Signalling Pathway

Mechanical stimulation is important for the correct formation of the skeleton. Mutant embryos that develop with an altered mechanical environment result in defects in ossification and joint formation in the limb. We tested the hypothesis that mechanical stimuli influence the regulation of genes important in skeletal development by analysing the transcriptome of muscle-less and control skeletal tissue. We found 1,132 independent genes are differentially expressed with significant enrichment of genes associated with development and differentiation and cell signalling. In particular, multiple components of the Wnt signalling pathway are affected. An investigation of the functional effects of over/ectopically expressing Wnt pathway components in the developing chick will be tested using in ovo and ex ovo electroporation. It will be used to assess whether manipulation of the Wnt pathway in the developing joint mimics the phenotype that is seen when mechanical stimulation is removed, to identify whether or not disturbing the pathway alone causes the phenotypic disturbance seen when mechanical stimulation is removed.

Anurati Saha: The Influence of Mechanical Forces for the Definition of Articular Cartilage

Articular cartilage covers the terminal ends of bones at synovial joints. It allows pain-free movement with injury or degeneration leading to diseases such as osteoarthritis. Current treatment is whole joint replacement but stem cell regenerative therapies would offer a more sustainable solution. Previous research in the lab has shown that appropriate mechanical stimulation from movement of the embryo is required for normal joint formation; joints fuse when movement is absent. My project aims to increase our knowledge of mechanical regulation of joint development in a number of respects and to explore application of such findings to achieve stable differentiation of cartilage for alternative regenerative therapies.

In the first year of my PhD, I investigated the potential of embryonic limb bud cells to form cartilage in micromass culture. This allowed me to establish a protocol to achieve chondrogenesis and revealed the stage of maximum chondrogenic potential. This part of my work will be developed to compare the response of embryonic limb bud cells and adult progenitor cells from different sources (bone marrow and joint derived) to mechanical stimuli in 3D scaffolds, potentially valuable in the refinement of protocols for regenerative therapies

Claire Shea: Mechanotransduction in Skeletal Development: From Embryonic Development to Regenerative Therapies*

*Highly commended

Why do babies kick? Why do astronauts in zero-gravity lose bone mass? What are the causes of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis? The human skeleton allows us to move, but also requires movement for its own development and maintenance. Mechanical forces impact developing tissues, making embryonic movement (kicking and stretching) necessary for normal skeletal development. Understanding how a healthy skeleton forms is also important for skeletal disease therapies which seek to generate replacement tissues by recapitulating the normal developmental pathway with cell cultures. Wnt is a cell-signalling system known to be vital to many aspects of embryonic patterning, and has been implicated in mechanotransduction by our lab. My work focuses on identification of Wnt component genes responsible for transducing mechanical signals such as tension, hydrostatic pressure, or shear into a genetic response in developing joints and bones. To characterise gene expression patterns in normal vs. mechanically-altered environments, and to assess the role of Wnt, I use genetic mutants (mouse) and gene electroporation (chick). My goal is to apply this in vivo information to in vitro efforts, where stem cells embedded in 3-D scaffolds will be treated with an optimal genetic and physical environment to form functional, stable adult bone or cartilage tissue.

Sive Finlay: Tremendous tenrecs: curious convergence and distinctive disparity*

*Best talk 1/2

Understanding patterns of variation in morphological diversity, such as convergence and disparity, remains a challenge in evolutionary biology. In particular, questions of convergence and the predictability of evolution are central to the long-standing debate about the relative influences of historical contingency and determinism in evolutionary processes. Theoretical models indicate that some degree of convergence is expected by chance in most phylogenies. Therefore, quantitative analysis and explicit tests of superficial patterns are essential if we are to identify and understand significant cases of evolutionary convergence. However, most quantitative methods of identifying convergence were developed using relatively few groups for which detailed morphological and ecological data were already known. I want to test the wider applicability and usefulness of such quantitative methods by applying them to a new study group.

Malagasy tenrecs appear to be both disparate from each other and convergent with other “insectivore” mammal species. I’m assessing the evidence for significant morphological disparity within tenrecs and convergences among tenrecs and other mammals using a combination of geometric morphometric techniques and phylogenetic comparative methods. Subsequently, I will establish whether there are correlations between morphologically similar species occupying convergent ecological niches.

Kevin Healy: The evolution of potent venom in snakes*

*Highly commended

The ability of a predator to capture its prey is a fundamental element of ecological interactions. Such interactions can broadly be described as following general scaling laws underpinned by factors such as predator-prey body size difference’s, or habitat complexity. Unlike many predators, the ability of snakes to subdue and capture prey is mediated not by physical size but by their highly evolved venoms. Based on general predator prey scaling predictions I explore the hypothesis that venom potency is affected by ecological factors relating to the ability to quickly subdue prey. The factors I predict to increase venom potency include large prey size and low prey metabolic rate, as they reduce the speed of the venom affects, and habitat complexity, as more complex habitats would allow prey more opportunity to escape. Understanding the general drivers of venom evolution can lead to insights into the evolution of snakes and other venomous species and point to perhaps other untapped venom derived bio-resources.

Erin Jo Tiedeken: The impacts of Rhododendron nectar toxins on Ireland’s bees: deadly meal or valuable forage?*

*Best talk 2/2

Bees provide the valuable ecosystem service of pollination while visiting flowers and collecting nectar. We are currently experiencing a “pollinator crisis,” as pollinating species decline in response to anthropogenic pressures. Moreover, bees may exhibit species-specific responses to drivers of decline.

Rhododendron ponticum is an invasive flowering shrub that causes ecological and economic damage in Ireland. R. ponticum produces floral nectar in order to attract pollinators, but paradoxically this nectar contains neurotoxins called grayanotoxins. Our study investigated the impact of grayanotoxins on three bee species; Apis mellifera, Bombus terrestris, and a solitary Andrena species. For each species we tested whether consumption of nectar grayanotoxins had an impact on (1) survival, (2) consumption rate, and (3) behavior. Our results demonstrate that bees have critically different responses to grayanotoxins. Grayanotoxins are acutely toxic to honeybees, however, bumblebees exhibited no lethal or sublethal effects. Solitary bee survival was not affected, however bees exhibited temporary neurological symptoms after eating grayanotoxins. Rhododendron reduces available forage for honeybees and some solitary bees but could provide an important food resource for certain bumblebees. Our results demonstrate that studies of pollinator decline should include multiple species and should not extrapolate to species other than those included in the study.

Image Source: Wikicommons

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School of Natural Sciences Postgraduate Symposium 2014: Part 3/4

Rhododendron

On the 20th and 21st of February we had our annual School of Natural Sciences Postgraduate Symposium. Over the course of two days many of our PhD students presented their work to the School. We also had two interesting plenary talks from Dr Sophie Arnaud-Haond (Ifremer) and Dr Lesley Morrell (University of Hull). Unfortunately our third speaker, Dr Fiona Jordan (University of Bristol) had to cancel due to illness.

For those of you who are interested in exactly what we work on here at EcoEvo@TCD, here are the abstracts from the PhD student presentations. Check out the TCD website for more details!

Brian Murphy: The biocontrol and biofertilisation potential of fungal root endophytes

Fungal infections of crops are often devastating and costly. However, not all fungal infections are detrimental, and some are beneficial. Beneficial root infections often involve symbiotic root endophytes. Benefits to plants infected with endophytic root fungi include an increase in seed yield, enhanced resistance to pathogens and improved stress tolerance. Here, we report that grain yield in cold-stressed barley can be significantly increased after inoculation with a fungal root endophyte provided that a threshold level of nutrients is provided. We also show that endophytes derived from a wild barley species may provide similar benefits for barley grown under drought stress with low nitrogen input. These results suggest that locally-derived fungal root endophytes may have potential for reducing agricultural nitrogen input whilst maintaining acceptable yield. The full potential of these organisms is still to be determined and further studies are urgently required to develop specific beneficial root– endophyte associations, or combination of them, that are tailored to particular crops for maximum impact in agriculture. Many fungal root endophytes are amenable to axenic culture, sporulate readily and can be multiplied rapidly, suggesting that they could be developed as effective crop treatments in stressed crops and may have the potential to increase crop yield provided that the environmental and partner-specific conditions are met. The discovery of previously unrealised benefits associated with these fungi holds great future promise for developing economically and ecologically viable crop

Alwynne McGeever: The quantification of tree population dynamics*

*Highly commended

This project aims to quantify how the populations of Elm and Pine have changed geographically in Europe over the last 6000 years. Achieving this involves 3 tasks; (1) collecting pollen data on these species from the European pollen database (EPD), (2) comparing the timing of events in the populations at different geographic scales using the R package Bchron and (3) a focused study on the dynamics of Scots Pine in Ireland. Task 3 has two sub-tasks; (a) investigating the native status of Scots pine in Ireland, (b) investigating the past growth of Scots pine on bog surfaces in Ireland. This work will discuss the progress so far. Data has been successfully obtained from the EPD. Probability distributions of when events in the populations occurred in Ireland, the UK and Austria have been plotted, allowing the timing and synchronicity to be compared. The growth of Scots pine on bog surfaces in Ireland in the lead up to the Pine decline was also analysed, for which there were 3 distinct phases over the last 9000 years. The principle remaining work involves plotting events for every country in Europe and extracting pollen from a core to investigate a putative native population of Scots pine in the Burren, Co. Clare.

Aidan Walsh: The identification of important areas of plant diversity in Ireland

Records of vascular plants from the island of Ireland have been collated into a single plant distribution database. Rare and threatened plant species records were identified and subsequently mapped at the tetrad (2km by 2km) scale. We examined the overlap in spatial coverage between areas designated for the protection of biodiversity in Ireland and tetrads containing rare and threatened plant species. A proportion of the locations of these species occurred in the wider countryside and will not benefit from the protection provided by designated areas. For example, 22% of tetrads with records of Flora Protection Order species occurred outside of designated areas in the Republic of Ireland. The combination of designated areas and landscape within 4km of the designated areas contained over 90% of the locations where records of rare and threatened plant species occurred. These results indicate the importance of both designated areas and the wider countryside for biodiversity conservation, and offer an opportunity for the spatial targeting of conservation actions. The project will ultimately develop a method to identify important areas of plant diversity at the tetrad and hectad (10km x 10km) scale.

Susannah Cass: Is the grass ‘greener’? Biodiversity impacts of legume-supported grasslands.

Biodiversity is of great importance for the delivery of many key ecosystem services in agriculture (Altieri and Rogé, 2010) such as pollination, weed suppression, soil conditioning and pest control. Legume crops have a long history of use in traditional agricultural systems for the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen (Graham and Vance, 2000) but have suffered a decline due to the ready supply of cheap inorganic fertilisers over recent decades (Graham and Vance, 2003). The Legume Futures project (EU FP7) aimed to investigate the potential for promotion of wide-spread legume-supported cropping in Europe, and the potential environmental impacts of such systems. We surveyed non-crop vegetation and earthworm (Lumbrucideae) biodiversity in semi-permanent and permanent agricultural grasslands, with and without legumes, at four established field sites belonging to the Legume Futures consortium (www.legumefutures.de). We found that responses to legume-supported cropping were different for non-crop vegetation and earthworms, and were dependent on the measure of biodiversity – abundance, species richness, diversity indices etc – considered. Mixed grass-legume swards supported more even and more diverse (Shannon’s H’ Index) non-crop vegetation communities but had less obvious impacts on earthworm communities.

Danielle McLaughlin: The molecular and morphological impact of notochord manipulation on the foregut in 3D explant culture

The notochord is a vital structure of vertebrate embryos, defining the anterior-posterior axis and strongly influencing molecular patterning and morphology of adjacent tissues such as the dorsally located neural tube. Despite their close proximity, the influence of the notochord on the ventrally located foregut as it separates to form oesophagus and trachea is undetermined. Oesophageal atresia is a relatively common congenital birth defect of unknown aetiology in which irregular foregut separation results in discontinuity of the oesophagus. In a well established model of this condition, the adriamycin mouse model, structural abnormalities of the notochord, frequently referred to as branches, are a distinctive feature. These notochord branches have a clear association with the site and severity of co-existing tracheo- oesophageal malformations. Further clinical and experimental examples of developmental disruption of the notochord occurring in conjunction with gastrointestinal tract anomalies including oesophageal atresia exist. We hypothesise that the notochord contributes essentially to the outcome in oesophageal formation and we have established an in vitro technique of 3D explant culture to examine the morphological and molecular impact of physical notochord

Sarah Hearne*: Limitations of the Fossil Record in Understanding Macroecological Trends

*Unfortunately Sarah was unable to attend but we still have her abstract

“To know your future, you must know your past” (Margaret Jang)

Since the fossil record was first recognised as the history of life on earth it has been an invaluable aid to understanding the evolution and diversity of life. It has been used to help explain and understand past and present distribution of biota across the globe and has increasingly informed our understanding of how life reacts to changes whether sudden, such as asteroid impacts, or gradual, such as climate change. Yet there are a host of biases inherent in the fossil record that make interpretation difficult. Many of these biases are either unknown or ignored by many researchers despite the fact that they are significant and limit the ability of the fossil record to reveal macroecological trends. Until these biases are accepted as problematic and efforts are made to counter them, macroecological interpretations of the fossil record will be little more than speculation.

Paul Egan: Variation of nectar toxins in space, time and habitat – is there evidence for functional significance?

The presence of toxic secondary metabolites in nectar represents somewhat of an ecological paradox. Although a number of explanations have been offered which pose a functional significance of this phenomenon; empirical tests of these hypotheses remain scarce. Here we employ use of an invasive species (Rhododendron ponticum) ideally suited as a model system, and investigate expression of diterpene grayanotoxins in nectar. Through comparisons within and between the species’ native and invasive range, possible post-invasion evolution and plasticity of this trait is explored in response to a number of spatial and environmental factors. In addition, a functional basis to toxic nectar is tested through examination of two potentially opposing processes: A.) if or how toxin levels are regulated in nectar over the course of phenological development of flowers, and B.) the extent to which phenotypic correlation with other plant tissues may in fact explain expression of toxins in nectar (e.g. as due to anti-herbivore defence in phloem, leaves, flowers etc.). In general, our findings reveal some important factors which influence nectar toxicity, indicative of both independent and adaptive regulation of this trait within plants. Our current studies seek to further test this purported adaptive function, examining the simultaneous and opposing selection pressures posed by pollinators and herbivores on toxin production, and the resultant impact on plant fitness.

Image Source: Wikicommons

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Gould Mine

Gould

The career of Stephen Jay Gould eludes easy definition because of his prolific output in so many areas. Michael Shermer characterises him as a historian of science and scientific historian, popular scientist and scientific populariser.

The popular science writings of Stephen Jay Gould (20 of his 22 books and hundreds of articles) are responsible for making me want to study macroevolution. He said of his popular essays that they were intended “for professionals and lay readers alike”. We have already covered some aspects of science communication, like how to do it and which kind of scientists should engage in it. Gould wrote 479 academic papers during his career, so any thought of public outreach damaging one’s science certainly didn’t apply to him.

Let’s have a closer look at his academic legacy. Gould is well known for his theory of punctuated equilibrium co-written with Niles Eldredge. This fuelled the debate around ideas such as species selection and the mechanisms explaining macroevolutionary patterns.

Despite this being the work for which he is best remembered it represents a tiny fraction of his output. He actually published only 15 papers with this theory as a main topic, which represents only 3% of his academic work! As a comparison, he published more papers (17) on baseball!

His primary field was invertebrate palaeontology (he was the curator of Harvard’s Invertebrate palaeontology collections from 1973 to his death in 2002) but again, even his main focus in this area (on Cerion snails) represents only on one quarter of his work. Shermer describes him as being “no single-minded fossil digger or armchair theorizer.”

Actually, nearly one fifth of his massive scientific output is primarily focused on the history of science. Again, as Shermer says, he was a “Historian of Science and Scientific historian”.

So Gould should not be only remembered for his proposal of punctuated equilibrium. Gould published 169 papers in 23 last years of last century, which gives him an average number of publications in the history of science of 7.34 per year. To put it in the historical context of the field, the only names that have been more productive are Aristotle, Kant, Goethe and Newton.

It’s rare to see a scientist who divided opinion so much, hagiographies have been written about him but he’s also loathed. Look at these for contrasting views:

“In the field of evolutionary biology at large, Gould’s reputation is mud.”

“Steve is extremely bright, inventive. He thoroughly understands paleontology; he thoroughly understands evolutionary biology.”

I’ll leave it to the reader to find out where they stand on Gould for there is a lot of controversy to consume. I prefer to remember him through his essays on Natural History than through his few papers about punctuated equilibrium, better illustrating the “measure of a man” (that’s Shermer’s pun). His life illustrates how interdisciplinary studies exponentially increase scientific productivity: “Gould has used the history of science to reinforce his evolutionary theory (and vice versa)” writes Shermer. And that applies as much to punctuated equilibrium as to baseball!

Authors: Thomas Guillerme (guillert[at]tcd.ie, @TGuillerme) and Adam Kane (kanead[at]tcd.ie,@P1zPalu)

Image Source: Wikicommons

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School of Natural Sciences Postgraduate Symposium 2014: Part2/4

Trex

On the 20th and 21st of February we had our annual School of Natural Sciences Postgraduate Symposium. Over the course of two days many of our PhD students presented their work to the School. We also had two interesting plenary talks from Dr Sophie Arnaud-Haond (Ifremer) and Dr Lesley Morrell (University of Hull). Unfortunately our third speaker, Dr Fiona Jordan (University of Bristol) had to cancel due to illness.

For those of you who are interested in exactly what we work on here at EcoEvo@TCD, here are the abstracts from the PhD student presentations. Check out the TCD website for more details!

Aoife Delaney: Eco-hydrology of humid dune slacks*

*Highly commended

Dune slacks are hollows in coastal sand dune systems where the groundwater table is close to the surface. Many dune slacks flood in winter to form temporary ponds which can last from a few weeks to several months. Humid dune slacks are an Annex I habitat (2190) and in accordance with Article 17 of the Habitats Directive they have been mapped and assessed in Ireland on the basis of their vegetation. During monitoring in 2013, Humid dune slacks (2190) were assessed as Unfavourable-Inadequate and topics for further research were identified. The extent and effect of water abstraction and wastewater from recreation facilities has not been firmly established in Ireland, and work relating biological communities to water quality or depth and duration of flooding has focussed almost entirely on vegetation up until now.

This project will assess variation in vegetation, mollusc and water beetle communities present in dune slacks in Donegal, Mayo, Kerry and on the east coast. It will also investigate the effects of land management by comparing biological communities of sites which are under different management regimes such as extensive pasture and golf courses. The hydrological functioning of dune slacks will be related to biological communities they support.

Anne Dubearness: Systematics of the genus Embelia Burm.f. (Primulacae — Myrsinoidae)*

*Highly commended

Primulaceae subfamily Myrsinoideae is a species-rich tropical group containing over 2000 species, with several taxonomically difficult genera with poorly defined limits and many novelties needing description. Within the subfamily, Embelia is a genus of climbing shrubs distributed mostly in South and South-East Asia and tropical Africa. The last monograph of this genus (made by Mez in 1902) recognised 8 subgenera and 92 species, but the total number of species is currently estimated at 140. The systematics of this group needs investigation using a modern phylogenetic approach: indeed, Embelia displays extensive morphological variation (especially regarding the position, shape, size and merosity of the inflorescences) and is only distinguished from other Myrsinoideae by a climbing habit and distichous leaves. This project aims to combine molecular and morphological data in order to investigate the systematic of Embelia at 3 levels: first of all the monophyly of the genus must be tested, then the existing subgenera must be assessed and refined in order to produce a taxonomic framework of the genus, and the final focus will be on the subgenus Euembelia Clarke, which contains more than 65 species and could certainly be split into several sections.

Thomas Guillerme: Combining living and fossil taxa into phylogenies: the missing data issue*

*Highly commended

Living species represent less than 1% of all species that have ever lived. Ignoring fossil taxa may lead to misinterpretation of macroevolutionary patterns and processes such as trends in species richness, biogeographical history or paleoecology. This fact has led to an increasing consensus among scientists that fossil taxa must be included in macroevolutionary studies. One approach, known as the otal evidence method, uses molecular data from living taxa and morphological data from both living and fossil taxa to infer phylogenies. Although this approach seems very promising, it requires a lot of data. In particular it requires morphological data from both living and fossil taxa, both of which are scarce. Therefore, this approach is likely to suffer from having lots of missing data which may affect its ability to infer correct phylogenies. Here we assess the effect of missing data on tree topologies inferred from total evidence supermatrices. Using simulations we investigate three major factors that directly affect the completeness of the morphological part of the supermatrix: (1) the proportion of living taxa with no morphological data, (2) the amount of missing data in the fossil taxa and (3) the overall number of morphological characters for all of the taxa.

Florence Hecq: Effects of scale and landscape structure on pollinator diversity and the provision of pollination services in semi natural grasslands

Over recent decades, humans have been changing the environment more rapidly than in any other period of history. Technological advances and new agricultural policies have led to a simplification of landscape structure resulting in the loss and fragmentation of habitats for flower-visiting insects which play an important ecological role as pollinators. Pollinating insects are very mobile and are influenced by the availability of flowers and nest sites over a scale of several kilometres.

In this study, we investigated the effects of the complexity of landscape structure on the diversity of four pollinating taxa and on the provision of pollination services to four plant species. Pollination data were collected in 19 semi-natural grassland sites in north midlands region of Ireland and related to the composition and configuration of surrounding landscape at two spatial scales (500m and 1km radius around sampling sites). Landscape structure was characterised by digitising each landscape feature with aerial photographs and GIS, and then ground-truthed using field-based surveys. Knowledge of these pollination/landscape scale relationships is crucial for a better understanding of pollinator diversity patterns and should be helpful for future conservation management decisions; ensuring essential levels of pollination services to wild plants are maintained.

Lindsay Hislop: Does nutrient enrichment moderate the effect of water level fluctuations on littoral communities?

Freshwater abstraction from lakes in order to support a growing human population is rapidly becoming a major global stress on lacustrine ecosystems. The consequent amplification of water level fluctuations disproportionately impact lake littoral zones, which contain the majority of their biological diversity. However, remarkably little is known about the impacts of amplified water level fluctuations on littoral assemblages and less still is known about how they interact with nutrient enrichment, one of the most pervasive and important of human disturbances on the biosphere. To address this, we established an experiment in large outdoor pond mesocosms where we quantified the effects of water level fluctuations and nutrient enrichment, both separately and together. We found that the impacts of water level fluctuations on both primary producers and benthic consumers varied significantly along the depth gradient. However, we found no interactions between nutrient enrichment and water level fluctuations. Given that the problem of amplified water level fluctuations is likely to be exacerbated considerably by predicted increases in climatic variability and enhanced water demand, our findings have profound implications for the conservation and management of global aquatic biodiversity.

Nuria Valbuena Parralejo: The impact of artificial sub-surface drainage on greenhouse gas emissions, change in soil carbon storage and nutrient losses in a grazing cattle production system in Ireland

In Ireland, over the 33% of milk is produced on a Heavy Soils farms. Heavy Soils are characterised by low permeability and often form in high rainfall areas. The combination of both can lead to waterlogging, promoting soil compaction which significantly affects the grass production. Drainage has been shown as an effective tool for improving the soil permeability. Little data is available to assess the effect of the artificial subsurface drainage of a grassland production system, on greenhouse gas emissions, change in soil carbon storage and nutrient losses. This experiment will be carried out in Teagasc Solohead Research Dairy Farm (latitude 52° 51’ N, 08° 21’ W; altitude 95 m a.s.l.). Different treatments (i) mole drain winter, (ii) mole drain summer, (iii) gravel mole and (iv) control were imposed in one site of the farm in 2011. A new experiment will be set up at a different site on the farm in summer 2014 with (i) control and (ii) gravel mole into collectors. Nitrous oxide (N2O) flux measurements, soil respiration measurements, soil total carbon and total nitrogen analysis, soil nitrogen mineralisation and net nitrification, water analysis, water table measurements and herbage production will all be perform in both sites over two years.

Adam Kane: Ontogenetic dietary partitioning in Tyrannosaurus rex*

*Highly commended

Obligate scavenging in vertebrates is a rare mode of life, one which requires very specialized morphologies and behaviours to allow the scavenger to cover enough area to find sufficient carrion. Yet, a number of studies have suggested that Tyrannosaurus rex occupied this niche with others arguing for its role as an apex predator. In this study we move away from the polarised predator-scavenger debate and argue that T. rex underwent an ontogenetic dietary shift, increasing the proportion of carrion in its diet as it aged due to both the increased availability of carrion through direct intraspecific and interspecific competition and also by exploiting resources unavailable to its smaller competitors, namely bone. We follow an energetics approach in our study to explore the effect of this previously unrealised resource on the ecology of T.rex and look at the impact of the proposed ontogenetic dietary shift.

Image Source: Wikicommons

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School of Natural Sciences Postgraduate Symposium 2014: Part1/4

tcd logo

On the 20th and 21st of February we had our annual School of Natural Sciences Postgraduate Symposium. Over the course of two days many of our PhD students presented their work to the School. We also had two interesting plenary talks from Dr Sophie Arnaud-Haond (Ifremer) and Dr Lesley Morrell (University of Hull). Unfortunately our third speaker, Dr Fiona Jordan (University of Bristol) had to cancel due to illness.

For those of you who are interested in exactly what we work on here at EcoEvo@TCD, here are the abstracts from the PhD student presentations. Check out the TCD website for more details!

Sven Batke: High energy weather events – long term responses on forest canopies and epiphytes

High energy weather events are often expected to play a substantial role in biotic and abiotic forest dynamics and large scale diversity patterns but their contribution is hard to prove. In this study we modelled cumulative hurricane impacts at Cusuco National Park, Honduras. The model was validated on the ground and microclimate and epiphyte data were collected along the forest profile and the modelled hurricane impact gradient. During this talk preliminary data will be presented that highlights the importance of including such events in understanding current abiotic and biotic canopy dynamics.

Qiang Yang (Marvin): The multidimensionality of ecological stability: A theoretical study

Understanding the factors that determine the stability of biological communities has been a focal point of ecological research for decades. However, a challenging aspect of stability is its many components, including asymptotic stability, resilience, resistance, robustness, persistence and variability. However, in spite of its multidimensionality, the few studies that measured multiple components of ecological stability simultaneously considered them as independent and therefore analysed them separately and we know remarkably little about the mechanisms underpinning relationships among components of stability and whether there are any general features of these relationships that are common across ecosystems.

Here by simulating the dynamics of distinct food-web structures following a range of perturbations on the species abundance in these food webs in silico we quantify 1) the general relationships among different stability components, 2) the effects of the strength of perturbations (i.e. the extent of biomass loss), the structure of food webs (i.e. trophic levels and connectance) and the individual species (i.e. its trophic position, generalist/specialist, omnivorous/monophagous) on the multivariate relationships among components of ecological stability in a range of food-web structures.

Mirjam Ansorge: Infectious diseases in squirrels and their importance for human health*

*Highly commended

It is well known that emerging infectious diseases like HIV or SARS have their origin in primates, and understanding the drivers for parasite sharing between humans and our closest relatives is an important factor for human health. However, some of the worst pandemics in history came from more distantly related animals. For example, the bubonic plague, which erased almost half of Europe’s human population in the 13th century, and was transmitted by fleas living on rats. This suggests that we should also investigate diseases in species that are not closely related to humans but that do come into contact with humans regularly. Squirrels are ubiquitous and share our parks and forests. Because they are considered non-threatening and often used to human presence, they are likely to have contact with humans and therefore to transmit parasites and vectors, such as fleas. These contacts can result in serious diseases in humans such as plague. I reviewed the recorded distribution of disease carrying squirrels in the USA from 1978 to 2002 and analysed the geographic range of parasites and parasite species richness in squirrel species. I will also discuss the importance of squirrels for human health.

Sai Krishna Arojju: Association mapping of agriculturally important traits in perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.)

Linking genotypes to phenotypes and explain the natural phenotypic variation in terms of simple changes in DNA sequences is a major objective in plant breeding. Association mapping is a method which can be employed to search for genotype-phenotype correlations in individuals without population structure to identify co-segregation of genetic markers and phenotypes. This project aims to conduct an association mapping study in 1800 genotypes of Lolium perenne under three experimental regimes (1) simulated grazing management, (2) silage management and (3) persistency grazing management with 2 clonal replicates in a randomised block design. Each replicates consists of 40 blocks with 50 plants. 30 populations with different background have been selected for this study (10 released varieties, 8 half-sib breeding families, 8 full-sib breeding families and 4 Irish ecotypes). Genotyping will be performed by developing genotyping by sequencing (GBS) libraries for Illumina HiSeq2000 sequencing and we will also combine this with phenotyping on a range of forage quality traits including biomass accumulation, lignocellulose determination, flowering time, tillering capacity and digestibility on Lolium accessions. Variations in candidate genes of forage quality traits will also be examined.

William Burchill: Closing the farm nitrogen balance at Solohead Research Farm

Nitrogen use efficiency on Irish dairy systems tends to be low and leads to high farm-gate N surpluses (N imports minus N exports passing though the farm gate). The objective of this study was to quantify all N flows on a white clover based system of dairy production at Solohead Research farm from January 2011 to December 2012 and to account for surplus N. The system was rotationally grazed at a stocking density of 2.35 cows ha-1 received annual fertiliser N input of 112 kg ha-1 (BNF) was quantified using two 15N isotope techniques. A 15N gas flux and  static chamber method were used to quantify N2 and N2O emissions, respectively. Inputs (fertiliser N, BNF, feed and rainfall deposition) and outputs (milk and livestock sales) of N (kg ha-1) from the system were 274 and 80 respectively, with a farm-gate surplus of 194 kg ha-1 in 2011. Total measured N losses (kg ha-1) were 210 including 19, 43, 25, and 123 as N leaching, NH3, N2O and N2, respectively. The results of the present study indicate that a large proportion of Irish dairy systems N surpluses are returned to the atmosphere as environmentally benign N2 gas.

Donna Hawthorne: Fire, human and climate interactions throughout the Holocene

Significant changes in global and regional climate as well as changes in vegetation, land use, agriculture and policy, have promoted an increase in fires in the Irish landscape. To understand these changes the interrelationship between fire, climate and people will be explored. Past climatic oscillations have been studied at 8 sites throughout Ireland in an attempt to understand the current climatic changes which may mirror future patterns in climate. The landscape character and fire regime of each of these sites will be reconstructed and will seek to develop a model of risk assessment and management for future fire in the Irish landscape. The data span from the early Holocene to the present day, drawing on charcoal and pollen data, radiocarbon dating, and mineral and chemical data from lacustrine sediments. This work presents the first chronological comparison of regional fire activity across various locations throughout Ireland, and provides a base line level of data which can be drawn on in future scenarios when fire frequency is expected to increase. This work is in its third year of a four year PhD programme and preliminary discussions and results will be presented.

Louise Esmonde: Toxicity assessment of the agricultural pesticide Roundup Pro Biactive using Myriophyllum aquaticum and other test organisms.

Pesticide use in Ireland has increases over the last number of years yet its impact on the environment and in particular freshwater ecosystems is still not fully known. This study examines the toxicity of agricultural pesticides on non-target organisms with special reference to submerged macrophytes. In this study the toxicity of the herbicide Roundup Pro Biactive (active ingredient glyphosate) was examined using the plant species Myriophyllum aquaticum. Plant shoots were exposed to Roundup Pro Biactive concentrations of 0.01%, 0.1%, 1%, 5% and 10% for a period of 14 days. After the test period the response of the plant to the herbicide was measured in terms of wet weight, dry weight, shoot length, root length and root number with Relative Growth Rates (RGR) and EC50 values being calculated at each concentration. Preliminary results show a clear difference between the relative growth rates of control and test specimens. At concentration above 1% significant reductions in relative growth rates were recorded and physical deterioration of shoots was observed at concentration above 0.1%. Further studies will focus on the toxicity of five other agricultural pesticides on these same test species.

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Killing in the Name of Science – Dying for Conservation

Conservation. Noun. From the Latin verb conservare, to protect from harm or destruction.

Dallas safari club auctions off permit to hunt rare rhino.

Giraffe unsuitable for breeding killed at Copenhagen zoo .

Six Lions at Longleat safari park destroyed due to excessive population increases.

What on earth is going on?

These stories have gone around the world and caused almost unanimous outrage. This is not surprising. The disparity between the ideals of conservation and the sometimes tricky real-world dilemmas that occur can cause consternation and indignation to many. Given my previous posts you won’t be surprised to learn that it might be a bit more complicated that the headlines have led us to believe. So let’s delve a bit deeper and see whether these animals were justifiably killed or whether there’s something else going on. As always, I’m going to try and leave the ethical considerations to one side as much as possible and focus on analysing the scientific justifications given. So, on with the show . . .

The Rhino

rhino

In early January a permit to shoot an elderly rhino was auctioned off to raise money for rhino conservation. There are arguments on both sides as to whether this was a good idea. The rhino was, according to reports, an old, non-breeding male rhino who had the potential to injure or even kill younger males. Removing him as a threat seems to be a good idea. Culling occurs in many managed populations and is used to maintain healthy, sustainable populations. Removing this animal from the population is, based on our understanding of male rhino dynamics, the best course of action scientifically.

Whether the auction was the best way of achieving this is outside my remit. Culls can, and do, occur with less publicity and spectacle. Given the outrage expressed, it would be interesting to know how many of the people complaining had ever donated to rhino conservation organisations. If the organisations were not so desperate for money would they have ever considered such a headline-grabbing action?

The Giraffe

giraffe

Copenhagen zoo killed a giraffe that was considered useless for breeding . They then publicly dissected it and fed it to their lions. This story is the most interesting as it has two separate components: the killing and the treatment of the animals after death. Here I am extremely split. Captive giraffes are, to some extent, victims of their own success. Breeding programmes across Europe have been very successful and zoos are pretty much at ‘carrying capacity’ with few able to take excess giraffes and genetic inbreeding is becoming a problem. One of the zoos that offered to take the giraffe already has his older brother which was the argument used against the transfer.

The obvious solution would be to prevent the giraffes from breeding in the first place but this isn’t always easy in giraffes. From the BBC article,

“Contraception and castration have been raised as possibilities, but both would require sedation. This is a relatively high-risk procedure in the case of giraffes, as they are liable to break their necks when they fall while sedated.”

There are contraceptives available now that can be used with little risk so the number of ‘excess’ giraffes should reduce in the future. However, Copenhagen Zoo has a policy of allowing their animals to breed naturally, even though this is clearly causing a surfeit of animals.

As to the treatment of the body, I’m in no doubt they did the right thing. One of my favourite TV programmes in recent years was Inside Nature’s Giants where large animals were dissected and their anatomy and evolution was described and shown in all it’s ‘gory’ detail. I am all for increasing the public understanding of how animals work and the crowds that gathered to watch are proof that this interest exists. It is important to demystify biology and this is a great way of doing so. As for feeding the giraffe to the lions, well, what else were they going to do with it? Bury it? Burn it? Either way a waste of meat.

While I’d intended to ignore everything but the science, it’s proving incredibly hard! So my editorial for this story is that I’m not sure that killing the giraffe was the best idea. There were zoos that were offering to take the giraffe and, while it may not be the ideal option in terms of the breeding program, it is up to the zoo taking the giraffe to determine this. If they think the benefits of having another giraffe (and the public goodwill they will receive for offering sanctuary) outweigh the costs then I think this is their decision, not Copenhagen Zoo’s. The zoo needs to consider contraception as another instance like this will not go down well with the public and zoos are reliant on public support for their continued existence. I’ve seen several people say they will never visit the zoo and if they hold true to their word and their example is followed, Copenhagen Zoo is looking at tough times ahead.

Their decision to use the killing as an educational exercise was the best thing they could do, though I do find it strange that a lot of the outrage seems to be directed at the public nature of everything rather than the killing in the first place. The outrage is precisely why this should be done in public, though I do think the attitude of the zoo has been a bit too confrontational and almost designed to cause outrage.

Lions

lion

Finally, the lions. Lions have been synonymous with Longleat for decades so to hear that they have killed six is almost unbelievable. As with all these stories there is public outrage, with people unable to understand how an organisation that has looked after lions for over 50 years can end up with killing an entire litter. As with all these stories, digging a little deeper reveals a more complex story. A statement from Longleat was given to HuffPo where they explained why they felt the litter needed to be destroyed. The cubs had genetic problems due to inbreeding which was could result in brain tumours and was already causing behavioural problems. From their statement,

“. . . all [cubs] individually exhibited adverse neurological signs such as ataxia, incoordination and odd aggressive behaviour that were not considered normal . .  One of the cubs had to be put down because he was attacked by his brother and by Louisa [his mother]. The further lions referred to were put down due to associated and severe health risks.”

From this statement it seems that euthanasia was an inevitable and unfortunate consequence of inbreeding in their mother (breeding that did not occur at Longleat). It highlights why breeding programs must be carefully monitored and controlled and why animals like the giraffe should not enter the breeding population.

Conclusions

This has turned into more of an opinion piece than I’d intended which was, I suppose, inevitable considering the contentious nature of the stories. I hope I have shown that there are more to the stories than the headlines and they are more justifiable than they may first appear.

Zoos play an important role in conservation and education. They have to make difficult, unpopular decisions at times and when they do it is vital that they explain clearly their scientific rationale. The public are quick to react without getting all the facts and if you don’t explain your case carefully you risk a backlash that can have significant negative consequences. The science may be sound but the ‘politics’ surrounding the stories is more controversial and must treated with as much care as the scientific decisions that instigated them.

Author: Sarah Hearne, hearnes[at]tcd.ie, @SarahVHearne

Image credits: Wikimedia commons

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Systematic Reviews

ploughed

Before I came to TCD, I spent my last six months at Lancaster University working with Dr Georgina Key on a systematic review of methods to make agricultural soils more resilient to threats like climate change, and erosion. What is a systematic review I hear you cry? Allow me to elaborate, and share some of our experiences from doing something slightly different.

A systematic review draws together and summarises the available scientific literature surrounding a particular topic or method. The Cochrane Collaboration, which produces systematic reviews in medicine and healthcare, defines such reviews as “a systematic, up-to-date summary of reliable evidence”. The aim of a systematic review is to provide the public, policy-makers and practitioners with a clear, unbiased picture of the latest, most reliable science on a certain practice, so that they can make informed decisions on how suitable that method is likely to be for them.

The goal of our systematic review was to produce a list of actions that could be used to improve the resilience of agricultural soils under pressure from a variety of threats. The first steps we took involved coming up with a list of key issues that would be important to manage agricultural soils in order to maintain sustainable food production in the future. We then took to the peer-reviewed literature, searching for experimentally tested solutions to the issues we’d identified, using a combination of journal trawls and keyword searches.

Journal trawls involved identifying relevant journals, like Soil Use and Management and Geoderma, then systematically searching all volumes of each journal for articles involving the issues we’d identified. Our keyword searches took a more targeted approach, using combinations of keywords to whittle down a selection of relevant articles. These approaches produced a large number of articles – far too many to summarise effectively in the time available – so we shortlisted them based on a number of criteria, foremost of which was ‘Has the action (e.g. non-inversion tillage) been tested using a robust, experimental design?’ We also filtered our keyword searches, carried out in ISI Web of Science, to the top 100 results, sorted by relevance.

Having eventually come up with a list of articles that tested the actions we’d identified, we set about summarising them. This was done according to a set template, using a specific style. This was initially restrictive, and difficult to adapt to – each article had to be summarised using specific vocabulary, within 200 words – but it ensured that the summaries would be understandable by people without a science background, and that the key message of the article wouldn’t be obscured by our own prejudices regarding the research.

Writing the summaries was the most time-consuming, but also one of the most rewarding, aspects of the project. By writing lots of summaries, we started to develop more of an understanding of how to write about science in a way that completely avoided jargon. This isn’t as easy as it sounds! But it is a vital skill for scientists to learn, in order to communicate their work to the public, and the people who will eventually turn it into policy. Having read lots of abstracts, those that stood out were the ones that communicated the message of the paper succinctly, in language that a non-expert could understand.

The article summaries and key messages from our short synopsis are now online– you can select an ‘action’, and read through the key messages, definitions, and all the evidence that we found and summarised for the use of that action, and its effects, in agriculture. I think there’s real value of having all this information collated together in one place, and communicated in an understandable way. Our soils synopsis is one of a number of synopses that you can browse through on the NERC Sustainable Food Knowledge Exchange Programme website.

Although it was only a short project, putting the synopsis together was a rewarding experience for both of us, particularly in terms of communication skills developed and networks joined. The synopsis that we produced is by no means the final product, and will need to be updated in the future to keep up with the amount of continual research in this area. The next step is to assess the synopsis, and its implicit recommendations, by asking experts and practitioners in the field how effective they think the research we covered would be, if it was implemented. This step should provide valuable feedback, helping to highlight any gaps in our synopsis, as well as improving future synopses.

Authors: Mike Whitfield and Georgina Key

About the authors

Mike Whitfield has a PhD in peatland carbon cycling from Lancaster University. Last year he helped to design and implement a long-term grassland biodiversity experiment in the Yorkshire Dales and worked with Georgina Key on the soil sustainability synopsis for six months, before moving to Dublin. Mike’s current postdoc at TCD focuses on modelling greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural land, with the aim of producing a map of estimated greenhouse gas emissions from soil for the whole of Ireland.

http://mikewhitfield.co.uk

Twitter: @mgwhitfield

Georgina Key has a PhD in ecosystem service provision, specifically conservation pest control. Having completed her first postdoc at Manchester reviewing literature on maintaining soil fertility, she is currently doing an assessment of the literature in collaboration with Cambridge University and Waitrose. In the future she hopes to work with tea and coffee companies, implementing sustainable growing practices and improving rural livelihoods.

Email:georginakey[at]outlook.com 

Twitter: @KeyGeorgina

 

Image credit: Treehouse1977 on Flickr