Prof Ian Foster carries out research in South Africa

During the summer Prof Ian Foster spent 10 days at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, supervising a PhD student, Jordan Miller, with Professor Kate Rowntree.  (Kate is a Visiting Professor at the University of Northampton.)
 

Prof Ian Foster

The research focuses on sediment source tracing in the KrugerNational Park in Mpumalanga State. Here we sampled sediments from dry ponds and collecting samples of soil from different geological outcrops under the watchful eye of our armed ranger, Thomas, who kept a lookout for the Big 5 and other wildlife to make sure we could do the work efficiently and safely. One of the best research trips ever - not only ALL the big 5 in one day but hippo, cheetah, kudu, impala...

So what do your lecturers do when they are not teaching classes?

Outside of the classroom, your lecturers are engaged in all sorts of activities – researching new teaching methods, managing courses and modules, supervising research students, recruiting new students and / or doing blue skies or applied research; or just writing papers and applications for new research grants. So what happens when you get some funding for research? Here, Ian Foster tells you about a recent research grant made to a consortium of Universities and research-led organisations funded by the UK Department of Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The grant (in excess of £200,000) employs participants to work on a project officially called: SP1318; Scaling up the benefits of field scale protection measures to understand their impact at the landscape scale (April 2014 - 2016) (Figure 1). OK - not a very sexy title and it is a really difficult project to deliver upon so this brief introduction tells you what we are trying to do (and a bit about how) and where we have got to so far in this early stage of the project.

We have up until this post (28/11/14) had several meetings, Skype meetings and telecom conference meetings to work out what we are trying to achieve and how we will get there and have just completed our first workshop at the ADAS headquarters in Wolverhampton with a panel of experts on erosion in the UK. However, what surprised us all is that we know so little about the magnitude of the problem and the most efficient way(s) of solving it.

Figure 1  The Defra – funded project SP1318

Our funder is Defra but the consortium of researchers comes from Cranfield University, ADAS, Rothamsted Research, Anglia Ruskin University and, of course, the University of Northampton.

We are trying to establish the natural and management-based risk factors and build tools that tell us what background erosion rates should be and how we might reduce current rates to these levels. One problem we have is that there is ‘no one size fits all’ in terms of background rates in the UK so we must accept, for example, that background erosion rates in Cornwall may be very different from those in Yorkshire but that both are perfectly normal for the region. We are working with a range of databases to establish baseline soil erosion risk.

Whatever measures we (as a consortium) recommend for adoption must be suitable, applicable, compatible, implementable and, of course, be evidence based. That is a stupendously big ask. But that is what makes research so much fun and very challenging. You can judge how we have done 2 years from now as our report on project SP1318 will be made available to anyone who wants to read it on the Defra web site.

Prof Ian Foster

British Society for Geomorphology Annual Conference 2014, University of Manchester

Mattie Biddulph

As Geomorphologists, Jenny Evans and I are members of the British Society for Geomorphology. Every year there is a three-day conference, based around the general theme of geomorphology. There is a big emphasis on encouraging postgraduates to get involved, and helping them with their careers once they graduate. This year it was at the University of Manchester.

I arrived on the Sunday evening at the halls I would be staying in, after quite a lot of walking round in circles trying to find it… Manchester is a LOT bigger than Northampton! On Monday morning there was a special workshop for postgrads, where a panel was set up made up of a mixture of academics and industry workers in varying stages of their careers. This panel then gave advice and answered questions on career choices, worries surrounding an academic life, and tip on getting a job. It was very useful, but a lot of us spent the coffee break worrying about the potential prospect of moving location year after year for the next decade.

In the afternoon the conference officially began, with a River Restoration workshop, which was very apt for Jenny and me. It was really interesting to see different approaches to restoration, especially seeing examples of when it has gone badly wrong. Dr Malcolm Newson gave a particularly interesting talk, where he described the difficulties in trying to talk to the general public, particularly after flood events when tensions are running high. That evening we were given a buffet and drinks in the Manchester Museum, surrounded by fossils and dinosaur skeletons!

 

View of the Manchester Museum

The next day was made up of talks ranging from: the importance of long-term water quality records, to marine-influenced ice sheet decay, to channel migration in the Mekong River. Geomorphology is a huge and extremely varied subject. Today was also the day for a talk from Northampton’s Ian Foster, who gave a very interesting presentation, titled “Are lake/reservoir sediments really sensitive to environmental change? A question and (sort of) an answer from a case study in S. Africa.” That evening we had a conference dinner, set in the Christie’s library, which was a beautiful setting. 

 

Wednesday was the final day for the conference, again with a huge variety of talks, including an award lecture from Professor Jonathan Phillips from Kentucky, where he described geomorphology as ‘badass’, and gave us advice on how to become badass ourselves- that got our attention! We had a brilliant three days; the good thing about this society is that you can always count on seeing familiar faces each year, all with similar interests regardless of their specific research. We were all very tired by the end, despite being sat in a lecture theatre for the majority of the time - I think most people can relate to the mysteries of sleepiness whilst sat in those rooms…

The International Association for Sediment Water Science Conference, South Africa 2014

Mattie Biddulph

In July this year I travelled to Grahamstown, on the Eastern Cape of South Africa for an international conference indulging purely in sediment water science. I had never been to such a specific conference before, so was looking forward to perhaps understanding most of what was going on for a change! Myself, Simon Pulley and Ian Foster took the long journey down south (two planes and many, many hours of waiting in airports) to arrive in a freezing cold but bright and sunny South African winter, which suited Simon and I just fine, as that’s when the spiders decide to stay hidden… Rhodes University had a beautiful campus, and the town itself was a quirky mix of South African and British settlers.

The conference itself was slightly daunting as we both had to chair a session, as well as presenting. Themes covered: sediment fingerprinting, vegetation-sediment relationships, biogeochemistry, connectivity and catchment scale processes, finishing with “framework and tools for management”, which is where my talk slotted in. I presented my PhD research on finding the best methods for testing the effectiveness of mitigation measures, which have been put in place to reduce agricultural sediment pollution and their associated pollutants in England and Wales. River systems in South Africa and the UK are very different, particularly due to climate and geology; despite this, there were some useful ideas to be shared, as there is a strong argument for landowner control, using cheap, sustainable materials and low maintenance methods.

For one day of the conference, it was “fieldtrip day”. Simon and I chose to go on the trip to Addo Elephant Park, where we drove around the game reserve and were lucky enough to see dozens of animals that we definitely would not see at home, including: meerkats, warthog, zebra, kudu, springbok, giraffe and of course, elephants. It was a lovely day out, and apparently Ian’s boat trip along the Mansfield River was equally enjoyable.

Elephants at Addo Elephant Park

We were lucky enough to join some postgrads (Kat and Jordan) and Bennie, a PhD student, for a trip to Compassberg and Nieu Bethesda, a beautiful part of the country where you can be the only souls for at least 10 km around you. It was very interesting to work on some unfamiliar river systems and geomorphological features. We also did some sample collection for Ian’s research, followed by a night in a farmhouse without electricity but a very warm fire and a bottle of brandy! 

Ian testing the nitrate and phosphate of this incredible clean river near Nieu-Bethesda

Bennie, Jordan and Kat from Rhodes University, after some disturbance experiments

It was a fantastic experience, so much so that Simon is still out there, about to begin his post-doc. So far he’s learnt how to use a washing machine but has been without water for 4 days!

International Association for Sediment Water Science conference, South Africa

Three academics from the Department will be attending and presenting at the IASWS conference held at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, in July 2014.  Simon Pulley (who recently completed his PhD), second year PhD student Mattie Biddulph, and Prof. Ian Foster will be participating in the conference.  Prof. Foster is a member of the conference organising committee.   

The International Association for Sediment Water Science (IASWS) seeks to promote, encourage and recognize excellence in scientific research related to sediments and their interactions with water and biota in fluvial, lacustrine and marine systems and with particular reference to problems of environmental concern.