Last week, post graduate students from across the UK spent a week in Morecambe Bay getting to grips with biodiversity and ecosystem assessment in the coastal margin. The Advanced Training Short Course was funded by NERC and delivered by CBESS and MASTS.
Morecambe Bay
CBESS/MASTS: postgraduate and early career training in Feb 2015
The CBESS team is once again returning to Warton Sands in Morecambe Bay to deliver the second Advanced Training Short Course funded by NERC; biodiversity and ecosystem assessment in the coastal margin (BESA)
Autumn 2014: our data keeps growing
As autumn cools the air and our coasts become increasingly wild, wet and windy, CBESS members give a recap of events over the last three months. The collection of CBESS data continues to grow, with more and more samples being processed each day. This is providing the Data Analysis Working Group (DAWG) with an increasingly complex dataset to explore. With Theme 1 (socio-economic and ecological data collection) nearing completion, researchers are beginning to look at Themes 2 and 3: scale effects and context dependency on biodiversity and ecosystem service relationships.
University of St Andrews: fieldwork update from the Eddy Covariance Team
Over the summer, the Eddy Covariance Team at the University of St Andrews has been busy collecting additional chamber CO2 flux data, aiming to quantify the response of the different mosaics of vegetation over the landward-seaward gradient to a manipulated range of light conditions.
CBESS/MASTS: applications open for BESA 2015 course
Applications for the 2015 NERC Advanced Training Course: ‘biodiversity and ecosystem service assessment in the coastal margin (BESA)’ are open until 14 November 2014.
CBESS/MASTS: new training opportunity
Thanks to the success of this year’s NERC funded training course in coastal field techniques, CBESS and MASTS running the course again in February 2015.
University of St Andrews: Morecambe Bay socio-economic workshop
On 8 May, in collaboration with the Morecambe Bay Partnership, CBESS team members from the University of St Andrews, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology (CEH) were in Barrow-in-Furness to host a participatory stakeholder workshop for local recreational users.
Summer 2014: a summer of socio-economics
This has been a summer of socio-economics for CBESS, with the second recreational stakeholder workshop being held in Barrow-in-Furness in May. The workshop was ran in collaboration with the Morecambe Bay Partnership, who found us the amazing Art Gene venue and did an excellent job of recruiting participants and promoting the event. Representatives from multiple recreational sectors attended from around the Morecambe Bay area and helped us understand how they use the bay recreationally.
Spring 2014: and the sample processing continues…
This Spring, CBESS partners have continued full steam with processing of the 20,000+ ecological samples that were collected during the field campaigns last year. Both Bangor and Southampton Universities have provided updates which give an insight into the processing process.
CBESS/MASTS: post-graduate training course a great success
Last month CBESS and MASTS joined forces in Morecambe Bay to deliver a NERC funded residential skills development course for eleven postgraduate students and early career researchers. Leading researchers in the field of mudflat and saltmarsh ecology were brought in from institutions around the UK to impart their knowledge and experience of planning and conducting and major field campaigns in coastal habitats. The one week long course was based at Arnside’s YHA hostel, where we were excellently hosted by new owners Leah and Martin.