Impacts of habitat fragmentation in a warming world

Lead Research Organisation: Imperial College London
Department Name: Life Sciences

Abstract

Global warming is now an undeniable reality, with species range shifts, seasonal shifts in life cycle events, and reduced body size recognised as three universal responses to increasing temperature. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has forecast an average 1.5-4.5 C increase in global surface temperatures, with even stronger increases predicted for Arctic areas. In addition, the small species pool and geographic isolation of high latitude ecosystems makes them particularly vulnerable, with recent suggestions that they may act as early-warning indicators to the potential impacts of global warming. At the same time, humans are exerting great change on natural ecosystems, with habitat fragmentation recognised as one of the major threats to biodiversity. Agricultural expansion to meet growing global food demands has seen natural landscapes divided up into smaller, and more isolated fragments by monocultures of commercially important crops. My research will study the interaction of these two major components of global change and the effect they have on terrestrial communities. I will determine the manner in which natural communities assemble - a critical process in harvested ecosystems, which are continually reset to early stages of succession. I will then assess how warming and fragmentation alter this process and how detrimental that might be to the ecosystem services we derive. I will also determine the impact of warming and fragmentation on the structure of terrestrial food webs, with a particular interest in how loss of larger predators may undermine pest control in agricultural systems. This will have important implications for crop yield and quality. I will assess the resilience of these communities to extreme events, by simulating severe flooding in my study systems. And I will improve our predictability of warming impacts on terrestrial ecosystems by testing predictive models with the data I collect. The findings will help to inform conservation management in the face of continuing global change, as well as agriculture and land use policy, and our general understanding of how natural communities respond to climatic and human-induced disturbances.

Planned Impact

The following four sectors are the most likely non-academic beneficiaries of this research:
(1) Agricultural bodies in the UK, such as the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (ADHB) and the Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA), which support and advise the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
(2) Conservation bodies, such as Natural England, the Environment Agency, and the Wildlife Trusts in the UK, and Landvernd, the Icelandic Environment Association.
(3) Energy companies in Iceland, such as the National Energy Authority of Iceland (Orkustofnun) and Reykjavik Geothermal Limited.
(4) The general public, including UK schools, farmers, and ecotourism.

The field experiment at Silwood Park will examine the impact of warming and habitat fragmentation on grain yield and quality. This research is directly aligned with many of the goals of the HGCA, which also financially supports similar research programmes to help inform government agricultural policies through the ADHB and DEFRA. The findings may also contribute to future food security in the UK and internationally, by informing cereal farmers how to maximise their crop through promotion of biological control of pests. This approach may also promote successful organic farming over the use of pesticides, which can be harmful to the environment and human health.

The research at both Silwood Park and Hengill, Iceland may also help conservation bodies mitigate against the impacts of future global change, by making informed decisions about potential ecosystem-level impacts of habitat fragmentation, warming, and flooding. The development of models predicting the impact of warming and habitat isolation on food web structure will be particularly relevant to planning for and managing future environmental change. Environmental agencies in Iceland will also have baseline data on the ecological importance of geothermal areas to inform geothermal energy companies about the destructive potential of expansion, particularly for ecotourism - one of the country's largest industries.

Outreach activities will ensure the research informs and inspires a younger generation of environmentalists. Science exhibitions at the Natural History Museum and the Royal Society's headquarters in London provide the opportunity to interact directly with families and young adults. Media coverage will also transmit the research findings to as broad an audience as possible (see Pathways to Impact for full details).

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description This project has provided the first exploration of warming impacts on wild food webs, showing that food web structure becomes less complex as temperature increases (O'Gorman et al. 2019 Nature Climate Change). A simple model was developed which predicts the impact of temperature on food web structure using only body size data of organisms sampled from an ecosystem. This model can be used to forecast future effects of warming, and other environmental stressors such as habitat fragmentation, on the structure of complex natural systems.

The project also showed that warming can alter the body mass and abundance of organisms within food webs in surprising ways, with fewer resources supporting bigger and larger consumers in warmer streams. These results were driven by faster nutrient cycling, with algal resources rapidly replenished despite stronger grazing pressure from consumers in the warmer environment (O'Gorman et al. 2017 Nature Climate Change). The more efficient flow of energy through the food web resulted in brown trout being supported in warmer streams only (O'Gorman et al. 2016 Global Change Biology). These results show that there are scenarios under which larger apex predators can thrive in warmer environments, despite widespread predictions that larger predators should go extinct with global warming.

Laboratory experiments on the project showed that there are differences in the thermal sensitivity of organismal physiology and behaviour depending on the duration of exposure to higher temperatures (Cloyed et al. 2019 Journal of Animal Ecology). Here, the thermal sensitivity of biological traits was much greater after long-term exposure to warming and yet predictive models of warming impacts are typically parameterised using data from short-term exposure experiments. This highlights the urgent need to investigate the effect of thermal adaptation on organismal responses to global warming.

Laboratory experiments also showed that warming impacts on population persistence can be predicted from a simple model of energetic efficiency. Here, measuring the differential effects of warming on metabolism and feeding rates showed that energetic constraints in warmer environments lead to the loss of certain predators (Archer et al. 2019 Journal of Animal Ecology). These findings could be used to predict which species are most vulnerable to the future impacts of warming.

The project also demonstrated consistent effects of temperature on the community structure of soil-based systems. Published work has shown that alpha and beta diversity of invertebrate and plant communities decline with increasing temperature (Robinson et al. 2018 Journal of Animal Ecology). Ongoing work on the project will also show that these effects change during community assembly after spring snow-melt, leading to temperature-driven changes in the temporal stability of community diversity. The first demonstration of temperature effects on soil-based food webs will also be published in the coming year.
Exploitation Route Mechanistic models have been developed during this project for predicting the impacts of warming on complex food webs (O'Gorman et al. 2019 Nature Climate Change) and population persistence (Archer et al. 2019 Journal of Animal Ecology). These models were initially tested in sub-Arctic freshwater environments and should be validated with food webs and populations from other ecosystem types (e.g. marine, terrestrial) and from other latitudes (e.g. temperate and tropical systems). These models can be adapted for other environmental stressors apart from warming, e.g. habitat fragmentation, acidification. The modelling approaches could be used for informing policy and conservation management, by identifying the most vulnerable organisms within an ecosystem in response to warming or other environmental stressors. The datasets published as part of this project will also be a valuable resource for other investigators in the field of climate change research, e.g. for meta-analyses and further exploratory research.
Sectors Agriculture

Food and Drink

Communities and Social Services/Policy

Environment

 
Description My research contributed to an Ecology Letters paper that received the Ecological Society of America Innovations in Sustainability Science Award. Some of my findings were used in a Policy Briefing Note entitled "Adaptation of freshwater species to climate change". These briefing notes are distributed by the Grantham Institute to national and international policymakers and help to inform the future research agenda. I also presented aspects of my research to the general public, through public outreach events at the Natural History Museum, London and in my role as a NERC 50th Anniversary Ambassador. I was interviewed for an Icelandic documentary on the ecological importance of geothermal areas and I wrote magazine article for NERC's Planet Earth and the Wild Trout Trust's "Salmo trutta".
First Year Of Impact 2017
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment
Impact Types Societal

Policy & public services

 
Description Grantham institute panel discussion
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health
 
Description Grantham institute policy briefing note
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health
 
Description Policy briefing note
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health
 
Description A Novel Framework for Predicting Emerging Chemical Stressor Impacts in Complex Ecosystems
Amount £1,411,113 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/S000348/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2018 
End 02/2023
 
Description ARIES DTP studentship
Amount £90,000 (GBP)
Organisation United Kingdom Research and Innovation 
Department Aries Doctoral Training Partnership
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2020 
End 09/2024
 
Description Atlantic salmon population forecasting and sustainability in Icelandic rivers
Amount £150,000 (GBP)
Organisation Fálkaþing ehf.. 
Sector Private
Country Iceland
Start 01/2018 
End 09/2018
 
Description Functionality and Ecological Connectivity of Man-Made Structures (FuECoMMS)
Amount £847,607 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/T010800/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2020 
End 08/2024
 
Description Impacts of environmental and anthropogenic stressors on North Sea food webs
Amount £90,000 (GBP)
Organisation Chinese Scholarship Council 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country China
Start 09/2021 
End 09/2025
 
Description Match-funded PhD studentship
Amount £90,000 (GBP)
Organisation Centre For Environment, Fisheries And Aquaculture Science 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2020 
End 09/2023
 
Description NERC Highlights Topic
Amount £91,735 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/N005996/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2015 
End 05/2019
 
Description NERC Large Grant
Amount £1,815,580 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/M020843/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2015 
End 09/2019
 
Description Predicting the Impacts of Global Environmental Change on Ecological Networks
Amount £840,297 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/Y001184/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2024 
End 02/2027
 
Description Pyramids of Life: Working with nature for a sustainable future
Amount £9,304 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/V016016/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2021 
End 10/2024
 
Description Royal Society Research Grants
Amount £13,994 (GBP)
Funding ID RG140601 
Organisation The Royal Society 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2015 
End 03/2016
 
Title Abundance, respiration, and feeding rates of freshwater invertebrates in the laboratory and field at increasing temperatures 
Description Data on the abundance of Limnophora riparia, Potamophylax cingulatus, and Simuliidae in the Hengill geothermal stream system, Iceland, along with data on respiration rates of L. riparia and P. cingulatus, and feeding rate data of both species (on Simuliidae prey) in the laboratory and field across a gradient of temperatures. These datasets also contain information on the natal stream (IS = stream identifier), natal stream temperature, experimental temperature, mass, species, initial prey number, and experimental setting (laboratory or field) where appropriate. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact 8 views 3 downloads 1 citation 
URL https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.tr4v447
 
Title Effects of thermal acclimation on metabolic and feeding rates 
Description This is a dataset of metabolic rates and functional responses, measured in laboratory experiments for a widespread predator-prey pair of freshwater invertebrates, sampled from across a natural stream temperature gradient in Iceland (4-18 °C). We found that acclimation to higher temperatures either had neutral effects or reduced the thermal sensitivity of both metabolic and feeding rates for the predator, increasing its energetic efficiency. These findings indicate that phenotypic plasticity can act as a buffer against the impacts of environmental warming. As a consequence, predator-prey interactions between ectotherms may be less sensitive to future warming than previously expected. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The following publication: Sohlström EH, Archer LC, Gallo B, Jochum M, Kordas RL, Rall BC, Rosenbaum B, O'Gorman EJ (2021) Thermal acclimation increases the stability of a predator-prey interaction in warmer environments. Global Change Biology, 27, 3765-3778. 
URL http://researchdata.essex.ac.uk/137/
 
Title Invertebrate biomass, vegetation cover, and environmental data from Hengill, Iceland 
Description This is a dataset of environmental data, percentage vegetation cover, total invertebrate abundance, and mean invertebrate body mass, sampled at 96 soil habitat patches in the Hengill geothermal valley, Iceland, in July 2013. The habitat patches span a temperature gradient of 7-38 degrees C, yet they occur within 2 km of each other and have similar soil moisture, pH, total carbon, and total nitrogen. Effects of soil temperature on the structure and diversity of plant and invertebrate communities using this dataset are presented in Robinson et al. (2018), published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? Yes  
 
Title Invertebrate community assembly data across a natural soil temperature gradient in Iceland from May-July 2015 
Description This is a dataset of environmental variables, total invertebrate abundance, and mean invertebrate body mass, sampled at 60 soil habitat patches in the Hengill geothermal valley, Iceland, from May to July 2015. The habitat patches span a temperature gradient of 5-22 °C on average over the sampling period, yet they occur within 2 km of each other and have similar soil moisture, pH, total carbon, and total nitrogen. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The dataset has just been published, so there are no notable impacts yet 
URL https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/e00770f3-4acf-4fd5-ba29-0a4dbdca09a4
 
Title Invertebrate data from Hengill 
Description This is a dataset of environmental data, percentage vegetation cover, total invertebrate abundance, and mean invertebrate body mass, sampled at 96 soil habitat patches in the Hengill geothermal valley, Iceland, in July 2013. The habitat patches span a temperature gradient of 7-38 degrees C, yet they occur within 2 km of each other and have similar soil moisture, pH, total carbon, and total nitrogen. Effects of soil temperature on the structure and diversity of plant and invertebrate communities using this dataset are presented in Robinson et al. (2018), published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact This dataset is now publicly available via NERC's EIDC. 
URL https://doi.org/10.5285/0f074839-1630-4ccd-aa63-84d0da16b28a
 
Title Invertebrate herbivory data across a natural soil temperature gradient in Iceland from May-July 2017 
Description This is a dataset of environmental data, vegetation cover, and community- and species-level invertebrate herbivory, sampled at 14 experimental soil plots in the Hengill geothermal valley, Iceland, from May to July 2017. The plots span a temperature gradient of 5-35 °C on average over the sampling period, yet they occur within 1 km of each other and have similar soil moisture, pH, nitrate, ammonium, and phosphate. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The following publication: Warner E, Marteinsdóttir B, Helmutsdóttir VF, Ehrlén J, Robinson SI, O'Gorman EJ (2021) Impacts of soil temperature, phenology, and plant community composition on invertebrate herbivory in a natural warming experiment. Oikos, 130, 1572-1582. 
URL https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/documents/da5d7028-2aec-4da2-96ff-f347a0dfa77e
 
Title Metabolic plasticity can amplify ecosystem responses to global warming 
Description Metabolic rate data for freshwater invertebrates sampled in the Hengill geothermal valley Iceland in the summers of 2015-2018. Includes body mass, acute temperature exposures, and chronic temperature exposures. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The following publication: Kordas B, Pawar S, Kontopoulos DG, Woodward G, O'Gorman EJ (2022) Metabolic plasticity can amplify ecosystem responses to warming. Nature Communications, in press. 
URL http://researchdata.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/148
 
Title Pelagic trophic network in the Scotia Sea (2006-2009) 
Description Among all possible interaction types, trophic interactions are easily observable and essential in terms of energy transfer, and thus binary networks have arisen as the most straightforward method to describe complex ecological communities. These food-web models also inform on the ecosystem dynamics and function, and the patterns arising from food web topology can be indicators for ecosystem stability. We present a comprehensive pelagic network for the Scotia Sea underpinned by surveys and dietary studies conducted in the Scotia Sea in the last century. Selection of the trophic links followed a protocol based on taxonomy and geographic location, and was further refined based on the consumer and resource depth ranges and their body size ratios. The resulting network consists on 228 nodes and 10880 links which represent the main trophic paths in the Scotia Sea ecosystem and can serve as a basis for ecosystem modelling in the Scotia Sea or comparison with other ecosystems. Funding was provided by NERC Highlight Topic grant NE/N005937/1 and NERC Fellowship NE/L011840/1. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01407
 
Title Soil property, microbial abundance, and plant and invertebrate biomass data across a natural soil temperature gradient in Iceland from August 2018 
Description This is a dataset of soil physiochemical properties, bacterial and fungal abundance, and above and belowground plant and invertebrate biomass, sampled at 40 plots in the Hengill geothermal valley, Iceland, from 15th to 22nd August 2018. The plots span a temperature gradient of 10-35 °C over the sampling period, and this temperature gradient is consistent over time. The dataset also includes data on the decomposition rate of soil organic matter, which was sampled at 60 plots in the Hengill valley from May to July 2015. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact This dataset resulted in the high profile publication: Robinson SI, O'Gorman EJ, Frey B, Hagner M, Mikola J (2022) Soil organic matter, rather than temperature, determines the structure and functioning of subarctic decomposer communities. Global Change Biology. 28 (12), 3929-3943. 
URL http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.rxwdbrvbd
 
Title Substratum-dependent responses of ciliate assemblages to temperature : a natural experiment in Icelandic streams - Dataset 
Description Ciliate assemblages play a significant role in the microbial food web. The effects of environmental temperature on assemblage composition may be influenced by abiotic factors such as seasonality and disturbance, but the effects of temperature on ciliate assemblages found on different substrata have not been explored. Sandy bottoms and submerged rocks harbour dissimilar ciliate assemblages, and it might be expected that their ciliate assemblages will respond differently to temperature. We studied how alpha diversity, beta diversity and total biomass of ciliate protist assemblages found on sandy bottoms and submerged rocks differed in 13 geothermally heated streams in Iceland whose mean temperatures range from 5 to 20 °C. We recorded number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and measured the size of cells in ciliate assemblages from both substrata. Effects of temperature on natural ciliate assemblages were substratum dependent. On rock surfaces, both total ciliate biomass and alpha diversity declined with increasing temperature, and beta diversity increased with increasing temperature difference due to OTU nestedness (assemblages from warm streams being composed chiefly of subsets of the OTUs found in colder streams). In sandy substrata, however, ciliate assemblage composition was independent of temperature. Substratum-specific responses may be due to differences in mechanical disturbance, nutrient availability or exposure to invertebrate grazers. Rock-surface assemblages may be more exposed to the flow and retain less nutrient than those of sandy substratum; thus, they may be more strongly resource limited and more responsive to direct effects of temperature on metabolism. Alternatively, rock-surface assemblages may be more exposed to grazing by invertebrates, which intensifies with temperature. Our study highlights the need to account for environmental context such as substratum type to fully understand the effect of temperature on microbial assemblages in streams. Future increases in global temperatures may affect fresh waters differently depending on their prevalent substratum. Those dominated by hard substrata may have their ciliate assemblages, and thus, food-web structures and ecosystem functioning more strongly affected by warming relative to systems dominated by soft substrata. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact This dataset resulted in the publication: Plebani M, Fussmann KE, Hansen DM, O'Gorman EJ, Stewart RIA, Woodward G, Petchey OL (2015) Substratum-dependent responses of ciliate assemblages to temperature: a natural experiment in Icelandic streams. Freshwater Biology, 60, 1561-1570. 
URL https://zenodo.org/record/4686554
 
Title Thermal sensitivity of snail locomotion 
Description Contains data on the locomotor performance of Radix balthica individuals exposed to certain temperatures for long and short durations. These datasets contain information on the natal stream temperature, experimental stream temperature, and snail mass. Additionally, contains data on respiration rates of snails exposed to temperatures for long and short durations. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact 33 views 8 downloads 1 citation 
URL https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.j948f2p
 
Description Bernhard Eitzinger 
Organisation University of Helsinki
Country Finland 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I collected spider samples from soils of different temperature in the Hengill geothermal valley for Dr Bernhard Eitzinger to perform DNA metabarcoding of gut contents in Prof Tomas Roslin's laboratory at the University of Helsinki.
Collaborator Contribution Dr Bernhard Eitzinger perform DNA metabarcoding of gut contents from 180 spider samples collected from soils of different temperature in the Hengill geothermal valley in Prof Tomas Roslin's laboratory at the University of Helsinki.
Impact We have data on the diet 180 spiders from this study which will lead to a publication and a BES grant submission this year.
Start Year 2015
 
Description Bryndís Marteinsdóttir 
Organisation University of Iceland
Country Iceland 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I have helped to design a long-term study assessing temperature effects on plant phenology and to co-supervise Master's students and research assistants for Dr Bryndís Marteinsdóttir at the University of Iceland.
Collaborator Contribution Dr Bryndís Marteinsdóttir at the University of Iceland has helped to supervise one of my Master's students (Emily Warner) who looked at temperature effects on plant-herbivore interactions. She will also be providing access to a long-term dataset on plant phenology to strengthen this study.
Impact The data collected by my Master's student, Emily Warner, will be combined with data collected by Dr Bryndís Marteinsdóttir in a publication output this year
Start Year 2016
 
Description Juha Mikola 
Organisation University of Helsinki
Country Finland 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I am a co-supervisor of Sinikka Robinson's PhD studentship, which is funded by the University of Helsinki and primarily supervised by Dr Juha Mikola in the Terrestrial Interactions Research Group.
Collaborator Contribution Sinikka Robinson was a former Master's student who is now doing her PhD on the same terrestrial system that I work on in Iceland. This has brought additional research support into my wider project at no extra cost to NERC.
Impact Sinikka has just published her first paper from her PhD in the Journal of Animal Ecology: Robinson et al. (2018) Soil temperature effects on the structure and diversity of plant and invertebrate communities in a natural warming experiment. I am the corresponding author on this paper.
Start Year 2015
 
Description Murray Thompson 
Organisation Centre For Environment, Fisheries And Aquaculture Science
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution I approached Dr Murray Thompson about submitting a joint application for funding to Cefas and the University of Essex for a match-funded PhD studentship. We developed a project idea together, secured approval from our institutes, and are currently advertising for a PhD student (to start in October)
Collaborator Contribution Dr Thompson helped to develop the ideas, contributed to writing of the proposed project, and will also participate in the interview process for selecting a candidate in due course.
Impact Match-funding for a PhD student (50% from Cefas, 50% from University of Essex School of Life Sciences)
Start Year 2016
 
Description Pepe Barquín 
Organisation University of Cantabria
Country Spain 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We sampled food webs in rivers along a land-use and temperature gradient throughout the Cantabrian Mountains and measured metabolic rates of invertebrates in the laboratory
Collaborator Contribution Dr Barquín provided laboratory space, vehicles, field equipment, electrofishing gear, staff, and technical support for sample processing
Impact Named as a project partner in a NERC grant submission, co-author on a policy briefing paper about managing Atlantic salmon, and co-author of the following paper: Woodward G, Morris O, Barquín Ortiz J, Belgrano A, Bull C, de Eyto E, Friberg N, Guðbergsson G, Layer-Dobra K, Lauridsen R, Lewis HM, McGinnity P, Pawar S, Rosindell J, O'Gorman EJ (2021) Using food webs and metabolic theory to monitor, model, and manage Atlantic salmon-a keystone species under threat. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, 675261.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Rasmus Lauridsen 
Organisation Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution We have participated in two summer field expeditions to the River Frome in Dorset to sample metabolism, diet, and growth of salmonids, as well as tagging fish to track them over the coming years.
Collaborator Contribution Dr Lauridsen has provided staff, electrofishing equipment, home office licences, and tagging infrastructure on the River Frome to ensure the goals of research are successfully addressed.
Impact We have provisionally been awarded an ARIES DTP studentship (value ~£90,000), just waiting on the student (Peter Betts) to accept the offer.
Start Year 2018
 
Description Simeon Hill 
Organisation British Antarctic Survey
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I built on connections made with Dr Simeon Hill at BAS during my NERC Fellowship and NERC-funded SeaDNA project to apply to the ARIES DTP for a PhD studentship in collaboration with Dr Hill. We have just found out that we were successful with this funding application and our nominated student has accepted the award.
Collaborator Contribution Dr Simeon Hill helped to develop the ideas for the proposed project, contributed to writing of the application for funding, and participated in the interview process for selecting a candidate. Dr Hill also brought another collaborator from BAS on board, Dr Philip Hollyman, who will join the supervisory team for the project.
Impact UKRI funding for a PhD studentship (ARIES DTP)
Start Year 2018
 
Description Tony Dell 
Organisation National Great Rivers Research and Education Centre
Country United States 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution I hosted Dr Anthony Dell, his post-doc Dr Carl Cloyed, and his undergraduate student Tracie Hayes on my 2016 summer field expedition to Iceland. We shared space with them in our lab at the University of Iceland, which I pay bench fees for through my NERC Fellowship. We also allowed them to join us on field work in the Hengill geothermal valley, enabling them to video-track the movement and behaviour of freshwater snails in streams of different temperature. These data complement my research on the temperature dependence of trophic interactions.
Collaborator Contribution Dr Anthony Dell brought three custom-built video tracking stations to Iceland. Each station comprises a near-infrared (850 nm) LED light panel (Smartvision Lights, MI, USA) that lies underneath the tracking surface where organisms move and interact. A GoPro Hero+ Silver Edition camera is mounted above both the light panel and the tracking surface, supported by a 3D-printed frame. After removal of the factory lens, each GoPro is outfitted with a 4.2 mm rectilinear lens and an 850 nm infrared pass filter (Rage Cams, MI, USA). When the infrared light panel is on, organisms moving anywhere on the tracking surface will be silhouetted, providing a high-resolution video image that has high contrast between the background and each animal. Each station costs $10,000 to build and so their use in my research provided high quality data that could not otherwise have been obtained within the funding limits of my NERC Fellowship.
Impact Video-tracking of the freshwater snail, Radix balthica, was carried out during the field trip, which is a key grazer in the study system. Videos have been analyzed using tracking software developed in TD's lab that automatically quantifies movement (e.g. velocity, angles of attack) and behaviour (e.g. Brownian motion, Lévy flight). The results are currently been written up for a publication that will be aimed at Ecology Letters.
Start Year 2016
 
Description Blog contribution to World Wildlife Day 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Grantham Institute asked me to contribute to their blog on environmental issues for World Wildlife Day after reading a media article about a paper I recently published in Global Change Biology.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://granthaminstitute.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/how-can-wildlife-adapt-to-a-warmer-world/
 
Description Imperial news piece 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Imperial media office wrote an article on a paper that I published in Global Change Biology and posted it on the main Imperial website, as well as distributing it through their newsletter and social media channels
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_23-2-2016-16-39-12
 
Description RRS Discovery 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact As part of my role as a NERC 50th Anniversary Ambassador, I attended the mooring of the RRS Discovery in the Thames near Tower Bridge and promoted NERC science to members of the general public as part of a stall with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Water Explorer Final 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact I presented tanks of freshwater pond organisms at the final of the Water Explorer competition, an initiative aimed at conserving water use at a national level through involvement by school children. I educated the school children that made the final and their teachers on the kinds of organisms that can be found in healthy freshwater bodies. I also got the opportunity to interact with environmental representatives from HSBC Bank and Global Action Plan, which is an independent charity committed to engaging people in practical solutions to environmental and social problems.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Wild Trout Trust asked me to contribute an article on my research for publication in their Salmo magazine 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact I was invited to contribute an article on temperature effects on brown trout from my research in Icelandic geothermal streams to the Wild Trout Trust's Salmo magazine. The article will be distributed nationwide to angling organisations, small businesses, nature groups, etc.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016