Pint of Science; a science festival is bringing learning to your local. The festival takes place over three evenings in May and happens simultaneously in the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, USA, Spain, Germany, Brazil and Australia. The 2015 Festival hosted 500 speakers in 68 pubs across 12 cities and 20 universities
CBESS’s Iris Möller (Cambridge Coastal Research Unit (CCRU)) talked about ‘living on the edge’ as part of ‘Rising Waters’, a Cambridge contribution to the ‘Pint of Science’ Festival, at ‘The Maypole’ in Cambridge on 19 May 2015.
The talk was augmented by a live, hardware model demonstration by CCRU on how salt marshes can play a key role in the ecosystem service of hazard regulation – by buffering low-lying coasts from waves and high water levels. The talk was illustrated by Sue Rapley’s painting of swaying saltmarsh vegetation, based on CCRU’s pioneering study of storm waves over transplanted saltmarsh in the giant Hannover wave flume. Sue’s input was part of the Pint of Science – Creative Reactions collaboration – art meets science – pilot project organised for the first time in Cambridge; the interaction between Iris and Sue is detailed in Sue’s blog.
The giant Hannover wave flume – Möller, I., Kudella, M., Rupprecht, F., Spencer, T., Paul, M., van Wesenbeeck, B.K., Wolters G., Jensen, K., Bouma, T.J., Miranda-Lange, M., Schimmels, S. 2014 Wave attenuation over coastal salt marshes under storm surge conditions. Nature Geoscience 7: 727-731 [doi: 10.1038/ngeo2251].
Dr Iris Moeller, University of Cambridge