Student receives letter from Sir David Attenborough

There can’t be many people currently working or studying in ecology, conservation, or the environmental sciences who were not in some way inspired by the programmes presented by Sir David Attenborough during his long career.

One of our undergraduate students recently received a hand-written letter from Sir David.

Saadia's letter from Sir David Attenborough

Saadia Khan, a BSc (Hons) in Wildlife Conservation student, was part of the audience for a special recording of the BBC's Inspiring Attenborough at 90.  Saadia took the opportunity to pass on a letter to Sir David, explaining how he inspired her.  The full story can be read in full on the University of Northampton’s website.

Students visit Wicken Fen

A group of students recently visited one of Britain’s oldest nature reserves, as part of their studies.

Dr Janet Jackson and students at Wicken Fen

Undergraduates studying Environmental Science, Wildlife Conservation, Biology and Countryside and Wildlife Management spent the day at Wicken Fen, in Cambridgeshire, which was the first reserve cared for by the National Trust, starting in 1899.
 
Wicken Fen is said to be the birthplace of modern ecology, being home to the Godwin Plots, one of the world’s longest-running scientific experiments.

Photos from the visit can be viewed here

Director of Planning gives talk about new Waterside Campus

On Tuesday 20^th January 2015 Neil Rowley, Director of Planning at Savills visited the University to talk to third year Geography and Environmental Science students.

Neil Rowley, Dr Janet Jackson, and the students

Savills are the main consultants dealing with the planning application and Neil Rowley’s talk was based around how the planning process operates and how stakeholders are consulted.  Students attending the talk are taking the Sustainable Development: Land Use and Policy module, taught by Dr Janet Jackson.  This third year module covers a range of topics from land degradation, sustainable land use and planning, to Environmental Impact Assessment.  The students are currently working on an assignment related to the planning application for the new University of Northampton Waterside Campus, which is expected to be open in September 2018.  The students took this opportunity to ask Mr Rowley lots of questions related to their assessment.

Research Excellence in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences

Just before Christmas the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences received an early present with the release of the results of the Research Excellence Framework.  This is a national assessment of research activity carried out by the government in all British universities, and the outcome determines how much core research funding they receive over the next six years.  The Department was very pleased with the result of our submission to the Geography and Environmental Studies panel; over 40% of our research papers were rated as “world leading” or “internationally excellent”, with most of the rest being “recognised internationally”.  In addition some of the Human Geography staff working on children’s geographies were entered into the Education unit of assessment, which also did well.  For a young, mainly teaching-focused, non-research-intensive institution such as the University of Northampton, it was an impressive result.  All of this research feeds directly into the student experience, by way of case studies and cutting-edge findings, bringing the subject alive and relevant to the modern world.  

Landscapes south of Northampton

On Saturday 18th October two coach-loads of first year students spent the day travelling around various landscapes south of Northampton.  This trip is part of module ENV1107 Principles of Physical Geography.  

Four sites were visited: Dunstable Downs, Heath and Reach, Stony Stratford and Courteenhall. At each site the students were encouraged to work in small groups to describe the landscape. Students needed to consider topography, scale and how the landscapes compared to each other. Using inclinometers they took slope angle measurements which will help with their descriptions and allow comparisons between the four landscapes. 

Valley at Heath and Reach

At Heath and Reach each group used the inclinometers and a tape measure to measure the cross profile and long profile of a valley. Following the field trip the groups will use these data to produce to-scale diagrams of the valley. These will be presented to the tutors as part of the assessment for this module - a group interview.  

The group at Stony Stratford

Congratulations!

Many congratulations to all of you who graduate today!

We hope you have had a fantastic time at Northampton and wish you all the best for the future!

Fire and water in Tenerife!

Students who attended the 13th annual Department field trip to Tenerife in early May were greeted with a stunning example of the power of nature to recover following devastating natural events.

When the previous cohort of students, led by Professor Jeff Ollerton, were on the island in 2013, the native pine forest on the mountain slopes south of Las Cañadas looked black and bare, having burned a few months previously in one of the frequent fires which naturally occur in this environment.

As you can see in these first two photographs from April 2013, trunks of the endemic Canary Island Pine Tree (Pinus canariensis) were blackened, most of the foliage had burned off, and the shrubs growing in this habitat were mostly destroyed.

Twelve months later, following one of the wettest winters that Tenerife has experienced, the field course was greeted with a sight of rejuvenation. The pine trees are re-sprouting and the landscape is full of colour as plants such as Erysimum scoparium, Echium wildpretii and Argyranthemum tenerifae flower in abundance. There are also more butterflies than have previously been seen in these habitats.

From fire and rain comes new life and new beginnings, a positive environmental stimulus for the endemic biodiversity of Tenerife. The fire has opened up the vegetation, allowing seeds to germinate, and the winter rain has stimulated growth and flowering in these summer-drought habitats. It provided the students with a great example of how the ecology of such dry, subtropical habitats is affected by both climate and fire.

Students take the plunge! Ecology fieldwork in Northampton

Water quality is important to all our lives. Second year BSc Biology, BSc Environmental Science and BSc Wildlife Conservation students recently spent a day investigating the water quality of three sites along Dallington Brook, Northampton. Measuring water quality involves donning waders and using a net to collect samples of bottom-dwelling animals (snails, insects, crustaceans) by kick-sampling alongside taking measures of stream characteristics such as water depth, stream velocity, pH, temperature and conductivity. Back in the laboratory the animals are sorted, identified and classified according to their requirements for clean water. The biodiversity data help us to understand the ecosystem health of the river. The students will present their results in a special scientific poster session.

All ready to sample Dallington Brook

Operation Wallacea- Guyana

Joe Gosling

The expedition started with a 12 hour mini-bus ride from George Town (Guyana’s capital) to the Iwokrama river lodge which is in the heart of the Iwokrama rainforest. Here we spent a few days getting used to the hot, humid conditions, getting to know the other research assistants and the researchers, as well as finding out exactly what we will be doing. We then had a 2 hour boat ride up the Essequibo River to our first camp, Turtle Mountain, where we spent 4 days.

Each day we got to sign up for a morning and evening session to help out one of the researchers and we got time in the middle of the day to relax when most of the animals are inactive. These included a mammal transect, dung beetle transect, a herp walk (reptiles and amphibians), fishing, bird mist netting, bat mist netting and river surveys. My personal favourites were the herp walk where we were catching frogs, snakes and lizards for DNA samples and fishing where we caught all kinds of menacing looking fish and a lot of piranha!

The second camp we stayed at was called Cabucalli where it rained a lot! The fishing was particularly good but I think we were all happy when we moved on to our third camp, Rock Landing.  This camp was my favourite as we could have refreshing afternoon swims in the river and there was a huge diversity of wildlife. For me one of the highlights of the trip was here, catching a tree boa with my hands from a boat. Our fourth and final camp was called Sandstone which also had a huge diversity of wildlife. A few lucky research assistants got a glimpse of a giant river otter and I was lucky enough to see a pygmy anteater in a tree while on a river survey. Our final afternoon and night before we went back to George Town was spent at the Surama Eco Lodge on the Rupununi savannah. Here we had a football match with the local people and after they had a party for us. 

This was one of the most amazing experiences of my life spending a month in a remote tropical rainforest and seeing a huge variety of wildlife. As well as this, I met some really good friends and the staff were extremely enthusiastic and willing to have a laugh. We all had a great time together and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the biological sciences.