Peatlands are carbon cycling hotspots

Last week I gave a talk at the British Ecological Society’s Annual Meeting in Sheffield – you’ll find it embedded below. If you view the talk on SlideShare, you’ll be able to see notes for each of the slides (under speaker’s notes). The story is similar to the previous talks that I’ve uploaded, but I’ve included a bit more information about the microbial communities in this one, along with some preliminary greenhouse gas emission data.

The quality of the talks and thematic sessions at the BES meeting was generally very high – I’m very much looking forward to attending next year’s.

Cycling on a windy day

This is my first post for a while, and may well be the last for some time – I’m settling into PhD-finishing mode. I’m still finding time for some fun things though, like cycling…

The weather in Lancaster today has been… exciting. After battling the rain-filled headwind all the way to work, I heard news of major delays on the railways and motorways after extensive flooding. This evening was a different story. The wind had, if anything, intensified during the day, blowing the rain away and whipping the tempestuous clouds across the sky at an alarming rate. I left campus and pedalled hard south into the wind again, then turned north to ride back home along the Lune estuary path.

What a ride it was. The cross-wind kept threatening to shove me into the trees – at times it felt more like sailing than riding a bike. Despite the need to concentrate, I couldn’t resist throwing glances back over my left shoulder and out to sea. The wind was piling the waves up into the estuary, brown seawater swelling high over the normally dry and grassy salt marsh. A dazzling silver-gold light spilled over the lush, now ponded fields, accentuating all the colours in the late summer vegetation. Rarely have I seen the grass such a vibrant green. Cows moved together to investigate the new watering holes. On the estuary path, trees raged sideways in the gale, scattering twigs and leaves, apples and galls across the way.

I arrived back at the dockside tired, ready to make the most of the generous tailwind. There’s nothing quite like spinning easily back home in top gear, the wind in your back, tyres zipping up the tarmac.

Today’s verdict? Cycle on rainy days. You’ll have adventures.

Upscaling peatland diversity and carbon dynamics is a winner

Back in March I won the first prize at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute’s* annual Student Seminar Day for presenting the following talk, which gives an up-to date overview of my research.

* Macaulay Land Use Research Institute recently became the James Hutton Institute

New 2020Vision promo video

You might have read my previous posts about 2020Vision, the multimedia initiative that is all about documenting the links between healthy communities and healthy ecosystems. I’m not actively involved in the 2020Vision project, but I think it’s a great idea. Here’s their new promo video, showcasing some of their most stunning images and the principles behind the initiative:

Capturing the wilder side of Britain

At a recent IUCN Peatland Programme meeting I met Mark Hamblin, web designer and image manager for 2020Vision.

2020Vision is a multimedia initiative, designed to promote the links between healthy people and healthy ecosystems. With a team of 20 photographers, they aim to communicate the value of healthy ecosystems to the public and key decision-makers. To do this they’ve created 20 ‘assignments‘, which focus on key ecosystems, one of which (of interest to me) is peatlands.

I can thoroughly recommend the 2020v blog, which regularly features stunning images, like the one below:

SOM 2010: Peatland Diversity and Carbon Dynamics

Embedded below is the talk I plan to deliver at SOM 2010, in France.

More to come after the conference!

How big is it?

This is a frequent question of mine, in relation to the spatial aspect of my research. It also comes up at higher frequencies around coffee time.

The BBC have put together this interesting site, which works by simply overlaying a spatial phenomenon over a location of your choice. So for example, you could investigate the practical implications of a full-size mock-up of Stonehenge in Trafalgar Square…