BIOLOGY NEWSLETTER November 2020
“Creativity”, said Albert Einstein, “is contagious - pass it on”. In that vein it gives me great pleasure to write this short Editorial for the inaugural issue of the Biology Subject Digital Newsletter (title to be confirmed - see ‘Opportunities’). In previous years we have produced a printed newsletter in Biology and Environmental Science, which, for historical reasons lost to the mists of time, was entitled ‘Leaves and Leather’ probably a loose representation of the flora and fauna studied within the field. We now feel the time is right for a more collaborative Subject approach in the form of digital news. This newsletter will therefore be a conduit for the many and varied activities taking place within the whole Biology Subject. We are a diverse Department, covering broad aspects of the life sciences, including elements of human and animal biology, microbiology, wildlife conservation, sustainability, and the environment, alongside food, nutrition, and wellbeing. We are also, therefore, a busy Department, with lots of news, reports, views, and updates to share on a regular basis, and we look forward to doing exactly that, in this new format. In this first edition, we kick off with some words from our current students; give some muchneeded programme and research updates; cover
graduate achievements; alumni insights; art and opportunities. Contributions here showcase not only the applied nature of our discipline, but also, its innovation and enterprise. I very much hope you enjoy reading our stories, and will end (or indeed begin) with a quote from the NASA astronaut, Mae Jemison, “Sciences provide an understanding of a universal experience; Arts are a universal understanding of personal experience. The arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity”.
Samantha Lane Subject Leader: Biology
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Editorial Samantha Lane, Subject Leader: Biology
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Special announcements Graduate Prize Winners 2020
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Student voice Biology society Food and nutrition society Allotment society
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Special feature 1 ERASMUS Semester Abroad at the Universitat de Vic (UVIC) – by Will Bray, 3rd year undergraduate, Environmental Science BSc.
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Special feature 2 Message from a small island – by Oliver Pitts, Environmental Science BSc (2019)
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Special feature 3 An open letter to rejection – by Ian Thornhill, Reader in Ecology and Conservation
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Special feature 4 Au revoir to Dr Iain Haysom
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News from the courses Biology and pathways Environmental Management Environmental Science Food with Nutrition Human Nutrition Wildlife Conservation Food and Nutrition in Practice
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Life, Health and Sustainable Environments (LHSE)
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Notes from the field
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News from alumni Thomas Williams - Food with Nutrition Graduate 2020 Isaac Parr Biology - BSc Graduate 2018
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Science-Art
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Exciting opportunities for Students to get involved!
Graduate Prize Winners 2020 We are delighted to announce the Biology Subject prize winners as follows: Bath Spa University Awards for Highest Final Year Grade were awarded jointly to Asher Griffin-Moore and Adam Silk (Environmental Science BSc); Victoria Ellis (Biology BSc); and Jessica Paradine (Human Nutrition BSc with Professional Practice Year). The Food and Nutrition Prize for Best Dissertation was awarded to Jake RigbyWilson (Food with Nutrition BSc), for his project entitled ‘Evaluation of microbial contamination of wedding rings’ supervised by Iain Haysom; these students win cash prizes of £50. Across the biology awards, Anil has also sponsored several personal prizes and these have been jointly awarded to Jessica Paradine (Human Nutrition BSc) and Zoe Sing (Food with Nutrition, BSc), for the highest academic achievement in the Biology Dissertation (Publication) module (£50); Zoe Sing (Food with Nutrition, BSc) for the highest academic achievement in BIO6106-20- Global Trends in Food Preservation and Packaging (£50) and Jake Rigby Wilson (Food with Nutrition, BSc) for the most committed student in the BSc (Hons) Food with Nutrition programme (£50). There are also sponsored awards: The Oxford University Press Achievement in Biosciences Prize was awarded to Leah Volak (BSc Biology (Conservation Biology) with Professional Practice Year), for her Dissertation entitled ‘An assessment of the effectiveness of wetlands replications in the town of Tyngsborough MA’, supervised by Stephanie Greshon - Leah wins £150 of OUP vouchers.
The Royal Society of Biology Top Student Award for the highest overall degree mark was won by Eleanor Conroy (Biology BSc), Eleanor will be given one year's free Associate membership of the RSB and can use the post-nominal letters AMRSB. The Best Food and Nutrition in Practice Award, sponsored by Marshfield Bakery, was won by Elizabeth Shaw (Human Nutrition BSc), for her project investigating the suitability of cereal bars for different population groups, supervised by Tracey Lewarne. The Best Marshfield Bakery Project, also sponsored by Marshfield bakery, was awarded to Emily Rich (Human Nutrition BSc) for her project on the development of a Brownie Brittle, supervised by Anil de Sequeira.
Well done to all our prize winners and graduates. We are very proud of you!
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STUDENT VOICE
Hello! This is Samuel and Luke from the Biology Society. We would like to give you some information about our society, and let you know how we plan to run things for the 2020/21 year. Last year, we started the Biology Society with the goal to connect students who are either studying biology, or simply have an interest. Here are just a few activities we have planned for Biology Society! • • • •
Online meet and greet Article of the week Challenges/games Interactive project
Due to COVID-19, we are not holding in-person gatherings this semester, but we would still love to have you involved. There will be plenty of opportunities to meet other people on your course and have fun in our society. We look forward to meeting you! @bsubiologysociety
EcoSoc At Eco Society we are inclusive in all aspects of sustainability and climate justice! Recently, we’ve been campaigning for Environmenstrual Week where we fundraised for Women’s Environmental Network (WEN), and have engaged with Black History Month. At the moment, we’re putting together a team for Hedgehog Friendly Campus and are going for bronze! Our new social sec, Laura Allen, is heading the campaign. If you'd like to get involved please email. It's nearing winter and our hogs are looking for a home! Food and nutrition society Allotment society
su-eco@bathspa.ac.uk @bsuecosociety 4
ERASMUS Semester Abroad at the Universitat de Vic (UVIC) by Will Bray, Environmental Science BSc The Erasmus semester abroad at the University of Vic Catalonia, was a thoroughly enriching period which provided several opportunities and insights throughout the duration of the placement. The experience of studying abroad exceeded all expectations of what I initially wanted to gain from this international placement, and despite the complications associated with COVID-19, I personally thrived off the challenge although at times the situation complicated many aspects. Beginning at the end of January 2020 I undertook six modules which would provide me with a new insight into different subjects relating to my degree, such as Aquatic Ecosystems and Nutrition
in Crisis situations. Consisting of a mixture of theoretical and practical sessions these lessons enabled a perfect balance to apply what had been learnt in the classroom into a real-life situation, which I gained a significant amount from. Furthering this through work with conservation organisations such as CERM (Centre for study of Mediterranean rivers). A project highlight was perhaps the vertebrate inventory I produced jointly in Spain and the UK, with the survey carried out along the North Devon Coastline. This provided several challenges due to working remotely from my team who lived in two different countries and ensuring effective communication with staff at UVIC to deliver this piece of assessment, as a result of the pandemic. A substantial part of each course was composed of teamwork and projects, allowing the opportunity to collaborate with students and staff of different nationalities. Overall, networking, career enhancement and communication are the major factors that I gained from this placement, and I remain in frequent contact with the students and staff I met whilst abroad, with added clarity of what I want to achieve for the duration of my degree and the beginning of an Environmental career.
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A message from a small island by Oliver Pitts, Environmental Science BSc
Back in 2018 when I was in my second year at Bath Spa University, I began to consider my dissertation options for the fast approaching third year. I knew I wanted to do something a bit out of the ordinary and when an opportunity presented itself through the Biology Department to conduct professional research abroad, I was very interested. Ian Thornhill, my Environmental Management lecturer was offering an opportunity to go not only to the Caribbean, but more specifically to the lush green Island of Dominica. After a long hard think about the trip, considering logistics and costs, I decided to go for it. A fantastic way to not only get all my data for my dissertation wrapped up before third year, but also an opportunity to go and explore the tropical beauty of the Caribbean for myself. This dissertation trip was run through Operation Wallacea but organised by Ian Thornhill who had been previously researching tropical stream leaf decomposition in tropical ecosystems in Dominica. The finances needed for this trip were helped by being awarded a Biology grant from Bath Spa University. Arriving in Dominica, after a long-haul flight to Antigua followed by a short connecting flight and having a chance to settle into the new campsite (The Three Rivers Eco-Lodge) run by Jem, we quickly got the experiment underway. I had to collect two different types of leaves to place in leaf packs that would be placed into 10 different river locations, all within walking distance of the camp site. 6
They would slowly degrade over time, so I had to make sure that the initial weight of 2 grams of Candle Wood and 5 grams of River Tree was as accurate as possible before being placed in the river. After six weeks of collecting data, comparisons could be made between the rates of decomposition of different leaf species. Further to this, the role of microbial communities was also analysed. Two leaf packs with fine mesh and two leaf packs with coarse mesh were analysed from every site every week to assess the impact of invertebrates and microbial communities on the breakdown of leaf litter. The coarse mesh pack allowed invertebrates and microbial communities to degrade the leaf litter whereas the fine mesh pack allowed only the microbial communities through, keeping the invertebrates out. This allowed us to focus more closely on the role that invertebrate communities play in the decomposition of leaf litter. After careful collection and processing, the invertebrates trapped in the coarse mesh bags were then collected and put into containers of 100% ethanol to keep them fresh for future laboratory analysis at Bath Spa. The fine mesh bags were put through a different process. The bags were opened, and the content deposited into a plastic bag filled with 10ml of distilled water that was heated on a gas hob to kill any bacteria that could contaminate the water.
After shaking this bag for 1 minute allowing the distilled water to fully displace any bacteria and microbial communities, a sterilised loop was dipped into this water to transfer a few drops onto a glass slide. Slides were then left to air dry and crystal violet was applied so that the bacteria and microbial communities could be identified under the microscope. During this experiment, one huntsman spider did get trapped in a microscope. So, as I was bringing back equipment, it flew back with me to the UK to be unpacked in Bath Spa University! Although the experiment that I was conducting in Dominica was an extremely important part of the trip I also had the opportunity to explore the island and do a range of other activities. There were other groups of students from the UK, US and many other countries on the campsite who were completing various conservation and biology field trips with Operation Wallacea. One of my best memories of this trip was completing a sixhour hike that involved going up the volcanic hills of Dominica to achieve great views of this tropical paradise; the white sandy coastline, crystal blue ocean and lush green landscape. Although this was challenging it was an incredibly rewarding experience as we eventually reached The Boiling Lake. This lake is created by hot volcanic magma rising to the surface giving off heat as it does so. This heat is transferred into ground water and surface water raising it to almost boiling point. The incredible sight and smell of this water was pungent with high levels of sulphur in the atmosphere. The Valley of Desolation was also visited where many steam vents allow hot bubbling water to come out of the ground and form the source of a small hot stream. This small stream was the stream that I had the opportunity to bathe in. The water temperature at first seemed too hot to get into, but as I adjusted to the new water temperature it slowly began to feel incredibly relaxing, like an outdoor sauna. We finished the hike with a visit to a local restaurant recommended by the volcanologist, Rob. I had worked up quite an appetite by this time and ate a very large meal with a few beers. The restaurant was located on the sea front with a great view of the Caribbean Sea.
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I would absolutely recommend that everyone should visit the Caribbean if they ever get the opportunity. The climate is warm and pleasant with great opportunities to explore nature at its best. Unfortunately, this area is becoming more under threat from hurricanes, storm surges and sea level rise. Hurricanes will likely become stronger in the future as warmer sea surface temperatures will generate more destructive storms, coinciding with the slow down of air currents which will make the hurricanes linger for longer and dump more rain. For this region the importance that the world reduces co2 emissions could not be more acute. If you want to get a true understanding of how hurricane Maria in 2017 affected Dominica check out this incredible story and film about a US film student who I met on the island and who got caught up in this disaster. Although this expedition was challenging at times, I feel that it provided me with a good insight into how to conduct practical academic work at a professional level, with the knowledge that the data collected would be published in a scientific paper by Ian Thornhill. This opportunity gave me the responsibility to record data in the most accurate possible way. 7
On rejection by Ian Thornhill, Reader in Ecology and Conservation
Rejection is one of life’s medicines, but it is a bitter pill to swallow. I recently (29th October) received a rejection from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) for a large grant (with Co-I Mike Hannis and several other institutions), which is the latest in a line of setbacks for both funding and publications. In this case, we had very positive initial reviews, and so after months of hard graft to submit the proposal in March, we were cautiously (foolishly?) optimistic. This of course, made the outcome hard to take. The point I want to make here though is not one of sour grapes, but to outline a process of reflection, maybe offer some insight, and to try and turn a negative situation to a positive one. I began the process of reflection with a small rejection celebration; naturally there was cake involved. But why celebrate? Because positivity is the only course of action after a setback. Rejection is an opportunity for constructive reflection. It is an opportunity to take stock, learn and improve. This should be a worthwhile endeavour for several reasons. First, writing proposals in any industrial sector is hard; there is a lot of process, you must engage with contemporary research, cost every element, weigh up risk and coordinate with your 8
team of investigators. It takes a lot of time and more often than not you will have to do large chunks in isolation and outside of work hours. The rewards can be great (in what other walk of life can you be given money to indulge your own ideas?), but the downsides are equally tough and include impacts to social life, late evenings and exposing yourself to criticism (note ‘imposter syndrome’). So it is worth making sure that your next attempt is better! Here is my current account. Since October 2017 I have applied for six external grants as lead investigator. I’ve applied to NERC and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) twice each, National Geographic and the British Academy. Thankfully, one of the largest bids was successful (RESPiRES), making my current (BSU) success rate 17% (as lead), which is actually the same as my publishing success in 2020. The remainder of manuscripts seem trapped in a perennial state of ‘ping pong’ between the authors, reviewers, and potentially a second or even third choice journal. From the funding perspective, the 2018 success rate for all NERC and ESRC in response to calls was 20% and 17% respectively. So, for every success there were four
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or five failures. For papers, a review of 61 ecology journals identified an acceptance rate of 35% [1], but for top quartile journals this may be less than 20% [2]. These numbers provide some comfort, but this is not constructive reflection – only consolation. Collating my rejection feedback I discern a few themes i) my proposals are often too ambitious, ii) my proposals or papers are not always a perfect fit to the journal or funding scope, iii) reviewers are not always clear how the research will generate ‘impact’. Hard as it is to accept such criticism, it does provide guidance for future work. On the plus side i) my proposals are ambitious (!), ii) they are methodologically sound and well costed, iii) they always contain novel components. These are the elements I must maintain. Rejection is a necessity. As we embark on our career paths, we will surely meet with it. This may be in applying for jobs, promotion, funding or indeed, for publication. It may equally be in our personal lives, and always it can be an emotional rollercoaster. Quotes abound for dealing with failure (for example), but suffice to say that if you are striving for something worth having, it
isn’t going to be easy. You may not be striving for funding or publication, but you may be striving to achieve personal or professional goals to which this equally applies. Rejection gives us context, it reminds us we are human, and points us towards more fruitful paths. It makes the victories (no matter how small) sweeter. Embrace these, and why not embrace the rejections too. ...And, when I think of any of this I am always comforted by a story I heard from a very senior professor and friend at the University of Birmingham who, upon submitting a manuscript to Nature he went to make a well earned cup of tea when, upon his return, he had already received the rejection!
[1] Salinas, S. and Munch, S.B., 2015. Where should I send it? Optimizing the submission decision process. PLoS one, 10(1), p.e0115451. [2] Nuñez, M.A., Barlow, J., Cadotte, M., Lucas, K., Newton, E., Pettorelli, N. and Stephens, P.A., 2019. Assessing the uneven global distribution of readership, submissions and publications in applied ecology: obvious problems without obvious solutions. Journal of Applied Ecology., 56(1), pp.4-9. 9
Au revoir to Dr Iain Haysom
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SPECIAL FEATURE 4
The School of Sciences said au revoir to Dr Iain Haysom, Senior Lecturer in Food Safety and Microbiology and School Academic International Placements Coordinator at a drinks reception hosted via Google hangouts on 9th November. He is relocating to Christchurch, New Zealand where he will be working as a Senior Scientist in one of the government labs responsible for food and water safety. He will be overseeing the running of this lab, ensuring the safety of the food supply system and getting involved with research projects relating to microbial contamination of food, water and the environment. Iain has worked at the University for 19 years and has been instrumental in the development of microbiology and food safety, as areas of specialism in the Biology subject area. He has always been interested in the public
understanding of science and enjoys public engagement to disseminate information and try to dispel some myths about bacteria and other microbes. He has run sessions for schools and the public, and appeared on radio and television discussing food microbiology and safety issues. This included working with Channel 4 on a television series called “Food: what goes in your basket?”, to set up a ‘rotting room, where foods were deliberately left to spoil (which was exactly as smelly as you imagine) and he appeared on screen each week discussing food spoilage and food poisoning associated with different categories of food. We are sure you will join us in wishing Iain all the very best in his new chapter in New Zealand, and to thank him for his service and dedication to Bath Spa University.
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NEWS FROM THE COURSES Biology and pathways Samantha Lane Biology BSc is still basking in the glory of recent excellent National Student Survey (NSS) scores, with over 94% overall student satisfaction, which given the ‘somewhat’ disrupted year is especially pleasing and is down to the the huge amount of work that the academic team have put in, as well as being testament to the resilience of our students, who were also able to secure employment or further study upon graduation despite the challenges they faced. We were also pleased to be listed in the Guardian University Guide 2021, top 30 Universities in the ‘value added’ category. This year we see the first cohort of our newest specialist pathway, Biology (Microbiology), move into Level 5 and recruitment increase at Level 4. We can also announce that we will be offering an exciting new degree programme in September 2021 - Wildlife Conservation; this will be led by Ralph Thompson (r.thompson@bathspa.ac.uk) and will offer a multidisciplinary approach to the study of Conservation, with a focus on human-animal interaction.
Environmental Management Ian Thornhill October marks a changing of the guards on the MSc as we begin to say goodbye to our 2019-20 crop of students and welcome the new cohort. To those soon to be leaving us, please don’t be strangers! And perhaps join our new LinkedIn group. Thank you all for your efforts over the last year under such challenging circumstances. This year we welcome an eclectic mix of students to the MSc, reflecting the nature of the degree itself with backgrounds spanning from journalism and business management, to human geography and environmental science (and more besides). Amongst them we also welcome Commonwealth Shared Scholar Rasheed Akinleye Hammed from Nigeria. During Welcome Week we also joined forces with the MA Environmental Humanities and Heritage Management for an online get together - the first we hope of many coming togethers of like minds over the next year. Despite the circumstances, it promises to be a rewarding year ahead!
Environmental Science Samantha Lane Environmental Science BSc has been popular with students taking a PPY (professional placement year) in the last year, with 60% of placement students in the Subject from this Programme. These students are now returning from organisations such as EDF energy, Change Agents UK and Nature Bureau Ltd, to complete their final year, bringing additional skills and confidence with them from the workplace. Students from any of our programmes with an interest in the professional placement year should contact Anil de Sequiera (a.desequeira@bathspa.ac.uk). Following easing of lockdown we were very pleased to be able to access the natural laboratory offered by our beautiful Newton Park campus again, which is particularly important to our Environmental Science students; and this was celebrated by a series of campus bat walks organised by our Conservation and Ecology Lecturer Stephanie Greshon. We are now planning other wildlife encounters through hedgehog and badger surveys. 12
Food with Nutrition Anil de Sequeira Exciting times lie ahead for the Food with Nutrition programme which was accredited by the IFST, the UK’s leading professional body for those involved in all aspects of food science and technology in January 2020. The course continues to train and educate for professional life. We welcomed our new cohort of students to the first year and welcome back our second and third years. Several students from the programme who completed their second year in July are currently on placement and we wish them all the best in their placement, as they put the knowledge and skills they have gained from the two years in University into practice. We continue to work closely with the IFST in offering student focussed activities, one notable example being the Career Launch Pad event which has gone online. We are all learning to deal with the pandemic and if there is anything we can do to improve please let us know via your course representative.
Human Nutrition Tracey Lewarne It is a pleasure to welcome the new first years onto the course and welcome back the second and third years. I am looking forward to our inaugural virtual ‘journal club’ to strengthen our ‘nutrition’ community. In 2019 we petitioned for a Royal Charter for nutritionists. This has now proceeded to the next stage and if approved a protected title of Chartered Nutritionist will be approved. I am also pleased to report that we did well in the National Student Survey. We are keen to make sure you have the best student experience possible and so if there is anything we can do to improve, please let us know via your course representative. It’s great to report that we have a number of students doing project work and placements with local charities, health and wellbeing groups and dietitians. We have another exciting year and I thank you for your engagement with the online sessions and participation with in-person classes - they’re going well as we all learn together. Read about Phoebe Michaelides’ recent award-winning Bath Sparks ‘Explore It!’ endeavour here. You can follow her journey on Instagram @phoebesvegansnack
Wildlife Conservation Ralph Thompson September 2021 will see the start of our new BSc in Wildlife Conservation. This new missionfocussed programme has been designed to encourage creative solutions to the complex problems of conservation using an interdisciplinary approach. The programme is rooted in biology with branches extending into many other areas of study, showcasing some of the very best of what Bath Spa has to offer. It will include existing modules from Biology, Environmental Science and many other areas of the University, and new modules specifically developed to help students acquire a range of important skills. We will have modules that encourage students to apply their knowledge and experience of the natural world in creating expressive works, taking the initiative in finding creative ways of communicating their concerns. Fieldwork will be embedded across the three years of study, with an international field course in the final year proving both an educational and social highlight. 13
Life, Health and Sustainable Environments (LHSE) • The LHSE Seminar Series (full programme here) coordinated by Ian Thornhill and Lori Bystrom, got off to a great start with the launch on 6 October and was attended by more than 30 staff and students. Our own Dr Iain Haysom and external speaker Dr Erica McAlister from the Natural History Museum delivered a thought provoking seminar on “The little things that do all the work - microbes and flies”. A recording of the seminar is available through Biology Core Documents. • Matt Baker took part in several conferences over the summer as part of his Data Fellowship with the South West Creative Technology Network (SWCTN). His work focuses on those areas of light that the body can sense in a non-visual way and how this might influence how we then describe or remember it. The events included a talk as part of the Pervasive Media studios Bristol seminar series (see presentation here, 9:10) as well as a SWCTN data sharing event in late October where he outlined patterns in the data he had collected. • Sarah Hobbs, Ian Thornhill and RESPiRES colleagues have had an abstract accepted for the British Ecological Festival of Ecology event this December. Sarah will present an oral presentation on the novel participatory video methods being used to understand how people value urban blue spaces (e.g. ponds, rivers, lakes). • We welcome PhD candidate Julie Askew to the university, who is being co-supervised by Charlie Tweed (Centre for Media Research) and Ian Thornhill. Julie will be assessing visual patterns of environmental change within water droplets. Her PhD will be a bridge between science and art ‘SciArt’.
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Recent publications Winton, D.J., Anderson, L.G., Rocliffe, S. and Loiselle, S., 2020. Macroplastic pollution in freshwater environments: Focusing public and policy action. Science of the Total Environment, 704, p.135242. Marazzi, L., Loiselle, S., Anderson, L.G., Rocliffe, S. and Winton, D.J., 2020. Consumer-based actions to reduce plastic pollution in rivers: A multi-criteria decision analysis approach. PloS one, 15(8), p.e0236410. Downey, H., Amano, T., Cadotte, M., Cook, C.N., Cooke, S.J., Haddaway, N.R., Jones, J.P … Greshon, S., Thompson, R., Thornhill, I et al. (2020) Training future generations to deliver evidence-based conservation and ecosystem management. Ecological Solutions and Evidence. Pauly, M., Helle, G., Büntgen, U., Wacker, L., Treydte, K., Reinig, F., Turney, C., Nievergelt, D., Kromer, B., Friedrich, M. and Sookdeo, A., 2020. An annual-resolution stable isotope record from Swiss subfossil pine trees growing in the late Glacial. Quaternary Science Reviews, 247, p.106550.
Notes from the field by Stephanie Greshon This summer I have been involved in some monitoring of a Lesser Horseshoe (Rhinolophus hipposideros bat roost in our village in the east Mendips. The Mells valley is known to be a ‘hotspot’ for bat species and in particular the rare and local species Greater and Lesser Horseshoe bats (R. ferrumequinum). Interestingly, it is the local geology of limestone that has influenced the primarily south west distribution of these two bat species, as they need limestone caves at constant humidity and temperature for their winter hibernation roots. In the summer, they are less fussy but tend to be found in old buildings, associated with lofts and roof spaces. They also feed on insects associated with grazed pasture and it is in the south west of Britain where many of these important habitats have escaped cultivation. I met Dan the ‘bat man’ on a balmy evening in June where he had staked out a spot and set up his cameras to capture the bats on film as they emerged from their maternity roost, in the roof space of a listed farm building in the village. You can check out Dan’s wonderful posts and bat
photos on Instagram at @danielwhitbybatman. Dan is a specialist bat consultant, researcher and surveyor and has worked all over the world, monitoring, photographing and researching bats. He was working in March this year in northern Ecuador, one of the most biologically diverse places in the world and home to more than 200 species facing extinction (not just bats!). In the Mendips though, Dan is counting, photographing and tagging lesser horseshoe bats to follow their foraging and commuting routes to identify their main feeding areas and the key ecological features in the surrounding countryside that are essential for their continued survival. It was my privilege to accompany Dan on this occasion and get some close up encounters with these wonderful animals. Watching their flight activity on the screen of the night camera, seeing them dodge our shadowy forms as they set off for a night’s feasting on moths, midges and spiders, before returning to nurse their young left back in the maternity roost, gave us a fascinating insight into their nocturnal world which is normally shrouded in darkness. 15
NEWS FROM ALUMNI Thomas Williams Food with Nutrition Graduate 2020 I recently graduated with a 2:1 from the IFST accredited BSc (Hons) Food with Nutrition course at BSU. After graduating I managed to successfully acquire an internship/voluntary based role with Plant-Ex ingredients ltd. After one month in this role I was offered a contract in a newly created role as a Development Technician for Food Protection Systems (FPS). This involves the development of natural preservatives for ingredients that we supply. The modules that I have found to be of particular use to me within this role are level 5 and 6 modules in Future Food - Food and Nutrition in the 21st century, Food product development, Food analysis, Applied microbiology, Global trends in food preservation and packaging, Food safety and Food and nutrition in practice. I am keen to return to the university virtually or in person, when I am further qualified within my role to help provide experience to students that wish to progress into the food industry specifically.
Isaac Parr Biology Graduate 2018 I work as a Digital Learning Designer for the National Institute for Health Research. The role of the NIHR is to support health research in the UK in a variety of settings from hospitals to schools. It is often described as the research arm of the NHS. My job is to help meet the online training needs of our research community in the south of England. Using technology I create learning opportunities to give our researchers the skills they need to meet the demands of the everchanging research landscape. My role is a mix of educator, animator, video producer, web developer, scientist, project manager and graphic designer - I love it. Work at the moment is hectic and a constant challenge. As an organisation, we are supporting around 30 Urgent Public Health studies for COVID-19. In my region, we are leading on around 6 of those studies including the now well-known RECOVERY trial and the vaccine trial. With new trials come new training requirements. Myself and my colleagues have been working flat out to train staff, particularly those working on the vaccine trial and staff working in the Nightingale Hospitals. We’re constantly adapting to meet needs. It normally takes many months to set up a clinical trial, now we are doing it in days and weeks. Being adaptable means stepping up to new challenges. If the need for my current role decreases then it is likely my science background will be put to use and I will be deployed to one of the many labs or research teams in need. I feel privileged work for the NIHR and to be able to help and support our NHS colleagues at this difficult time.
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Science Art by Julie Askew - PhD Student Natural science and traditional art share some fundamental basics: they both rely on good observation skills, developing knowledge and communication. Art has enhanced science throughout history. Scientific illustration has been around since Leonardo Da Vinci’s meticulous drawings. Expeditions like Cook and Akley’s, employed expedition artists whose work was used to identify and document new species for scientific record and to visually communicate new sights and species to the public. Scientists benefit from learning drawing skills as a tool for improving their observation and communicating their findings. Artists can offer different perspectives to scientists opening up new directions of research. Through learning the science, artists can develop better scienceart that communicates findings benefiting both science and educating the public. As a painter who comes from a scientific illustration background, creating artwork that communicates conservation and science stories has become my own focus. My PhD is a natural progression within my work. I am visualising water for polar and glacial science, by studying the patterns of dried water drops from the length of ice cores. I will explore if the resulting patterns indicate climate change through history, thus potentially providing a new visual tool for polar scientists.
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Help us name the newsletter! If you’ve got a great idea for the name of our newsletter that represents all that we do as staff, students and alumni, please give us your suggestion here. The winner will be revealed in the next newsletter and be given the opportunity to provide their own Special Feature.
Recording wildlife at Bath Spa University: take part! Step 1) Download iNaturalist smartphone app Step 2) Your records will be collected on Bath Spa Observer. (click to visit)
#ExploreBathSpa If you need a break from your studies or you're having a difficult day, our beautiful campus grounds offer the perfect escape. More information here.
How would you prefer to commute to Bath Spa University? A third year project with the BSU Sustainability Team is aiming to assess staff and student travel preferences to inform how the University can reduce its carbon emissions. Take part here.
Call for photography entries The Royal Photographic Society has issued a call for entries to the 2020 Science Photographer of the Year competition. Closing date 4 December.
Do you care about recycling?
Perhaps you can take a few minutes to take part in a survey to identify how the University might improve its recycling rates. Take part here.
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