NERC Discipline Hopping for Discovery Science

Lead Research Organisation: University of Plymouth
Department Name: Sch of Geog Earth & Environ Sciences

Abstract

As per the scheme purpose:

The initiative will support University of Plymouth via its interdisciplinary Sustainable Earth Institute and Marine Institute to initiate activities that will help the academic community to develop an understanding of different cross-disciplinary research perspectives and methodologies that could be used to enable discoveries that unlock new knowledge within the environmental sciences.

At Plymouth the funding will be used to undertake a suite of smaller activities which proved highly successful in the prior round.

Publications

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Description The University of Plymouth used its interdisciplinary Strategic Research Institutes as a platform for delivering the Discipline Hopping (DH) activities. The Sustainable Earth Institute and Marine Institute invited applications for funding, via an open call, to support one to three month fellowships that delivered into the scheme goals. Five awards were made.
1. Understanding the risk to salmonid fish from river and land use
As a new researcher at the University of Plymouth the DH Fellow wanted to establish a network of stakeholders to carry out future research that can enable environmental solutions. Her research involves understanding the risks for aquatic organisms, especially fish, within river. Therefore an ideal collaborator was the local NGO, Westcountry Rivers Trust. The aim was to determine the risks and potential environmental solutions for salmonid fish populations, especially in relation to access to spawning gravels and spawning gravel quality, across South West river catchments.
2. Crossing Currents between Literary Studies and Marine Biology
This research examined how modern literature responds to ecological crisis. The DH Fellow is currently investigating how poetic representations of the sea reveal shifting cultural relations with the ocean in the past hundred years. This research necessarily engages with scientific understandings of how the ocean is changing as a result of human activity in the Anthropocene, so the discipline hopping scheme provided an ideal opportunity to more deeply explore relationships between scientific and cultural understandings of the sea.
3. Soil biogeochemistry to health science tools to evaluate soil microbiology
Although often overlooked, soil health is a foundational aspect of life on Earth and dictates the capacity of soil to function as a living ecosystem for plants, animals and humans. The DH Fellow's work, as a soil biogeochemist, is focused on understanding soil health and how it may be sustained and improved. The aim was to develop her understanding and technical skills in molecular biology so that they may be applied to the soil microbiome, which will enable her research to take a more holistic approach that considers the interplay between biological, chemical and physical properties to understanding the health of soils and the wider environment.
4. Mapping the distribution of vulnerable marine ecosystems
As a deep-sea ecologist, the main objective of the DH Fellow's work is to map the distribution of vulnerable ecosystems so biodiversity managers and policy makers can make informed decisions when it comes to the potential effects of human activities on marine ecosystems and implementing protection measures. Sampling the deep ocean meets an important bottleneck when images have to be looked at in order to extract the abundance of the different types of animals present. Indeed, this translation from pixels to a meaningful list of species and ecosystems is mostly done manually by visual analysis of these images. This technique has greatly improved in recent years with better vehicles, better cameras, better software and better methods to detect and name the targets, however it remains too slow. Collaboration with AI specialists explored how this process can be automated.
5. Gap analysis on animal sentience and the food industry
An amendment in the Animal Welfare (sentience) Bill, where decapod crustaceans are included in the definition of 'animal' led to creation of an Animal Sentience Committee reviewing the impacts of government policy on the welfare of animals. The DH Fellow identified that implementation could see changes to commercial seafood practices, where imposing legislation on fishery and supply chain practices could mean the closing of businesses that have already been stricken by the pandemic. This work connected physiological based research into the understanding of how scientific-based policy is developed and implemented (in particular, the impacts it could have on the Shellfish industry) to carry out gap analysis by working directly with the food processing industry and policymakers to understand the implications that any amendments to the existing sentience bill could have on the industry.
• Outcomes to date, or any new/ planned activities catalysed as a result
Specific to above projects:
1. New understanding of environmental risk via catchment maps with fine sediment risk, quantity of redds and of juvenile salmon and trout. All data is derived from either ESRI streaming services (Satellite and Global hillshade), WRT or Environment Agency water framework directive cycle 2 data.
2. With regard to how poetic representations of the sea reveal shifting cultural relations with the ocean in the past hundred years, the research brough new engagement with scientific understandings of how the ocean is changing as a result of human activity in the Anthropocene, and exposure of relationships between scientific and cultural understandings of the sea. It also revealed how challenging cultural assumptions can shift research directions.
3. Work has demonstrated the potential to combine molecular biology with environmental chemistry advancing the Fellows research interests into new areas to contribute to environmental solutions.
4. Preliminary results have shown promising results with high accuracy and a good correlation between manual and automated counting of these species. However, more importantly these experiments have served their main purpose in showing the skills, software and methods can be combined to routinely conduct automated analysis on images of the seabed, collected with the vehicles used by deep-sea ecologists in Europe.
5. Work has supported a deeper understanding of the factors driving the need for new legislation, its implications and how any changes could be implemented in the industry. Work demonstrates possible gap between sentience/welfare demands and established industrial practices is shortened by forums that bring together the actors in place, with public bodies supporting their interaction.
• Any new interdisciplinary links (internally or externally) made as a result
New key 'gateway' contacts were made in external bodies for new win-win exchange for enhanced impact-shaping research. In these examples, the intentions of our research community are now much better known by the relevant industry collaborators so opportunity for future research steer and collaboration (as opposed to potential competition). A key factor identified was the benefit of understanding the common ground occupied rather than perceiving as territories that overlap with potential friction. Herein barriers are often about misunderstanding or suspicion and these Fellowships really helps mitigate that factor.
Exploitation Route Part of the ongoing strategic research institute mission to build capacity and mindset for interdisciplinary working and research impact
Sectors Agriculture

Food and Drink

Environment

Healthcare