Scotland's Environment & BGS information by Keith Westhead

Some twenty-five BGS information layers, including the onshore Digital Geological Map of Great Britain at 1:50 000 scale, are part of ninety-nine new Web Map Service (WMS - wiki link!) layers just released on Scotland's Environment Web portal.

This further collaboration between BGS and Scotland's Environment Web is a significant step in the continuing drive for open access delivery of information to support successful management and understanding of our natural environment. The BGS already delivers huge amounts of information openly through our own OpenGeoscience portal and the Geology of Britain Viewer - but the true power comes from seeing it alongside major environmental WMS layers from many other providers.

Scotland's Environment Web is a major European Life+ project managed by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and its partners, which aims to bring together information on Scotland’s environment in one place. The BGS is a partner in Scotland's Environment Web, along with all the key organisations across Scotland which hold data relevant to the environment (including but not limited to SEPA, Scottish Natural Heritage, Forestry Commission Scotland, Scottish Government and Local Authorities, NGOs, Marine Scotland, Universities, NHS, Historic Scotland, the Met Office and Scottish Environment LINK).

Now available on BGS website
: Geology of Britain mobile!

The aims of Scotland's Environment Web include a description of the ‘state of Scotland’s environment’, presentation of the most relevant and up-to-date information to support it, and help for the wider public to understand and engage with their environment. The latter includes the ‘Get Involved’ initiative which supports networks of citizen science projects. So Scotland's Environment Web provides organisations such the BGS with an opportunity to see our information used actively in ways that really matter for the environment.

By Keith Westhead – BGS Marine & Coastal Geologist, Digital Publishing, and Member of the Scotland's Environment Web Management Board

Getting to know you...... by Jez Everest

Your name: Jez Everest

Your job title: Project Leader: Iceland Glacier Observatory

What that means in 5 words or less: Science coordinator and general dogsbody

Date: 8th May 2013

What did you do today: Got up at 4.30 to fly to Nottingham for a day of panicked meetings to organise our Royal Society exhibition

What creature comforts from home do you travel with? iPod and a good book

What did you want to be when you grew up? Han Solo

Who’s the best movie villain? Goldfinger

And fave movie hero? Silent Bob

Pet hate? Poor grammar

Favourite geological words? Bergschrund; pingo

Hammer or hand lens? Hand lens

The Day after Tomorrow or Ice Age? Day after tomorrow

David or Richard (Attenborough): David

Hutton or Smith? Hutton

Cox or Stewart? Stewart

NASA and the Soil Testing Kit by Wayne Shelley and Steve Richardson

Last fortnight, more than 9,000 people and 484 organizations from around the world came together in 83 cities across 44 countries to engage directly with NASA at the largest hackathon ever held. Volunteers ranged from graphics designers, hardware and software developers, school teachers, project managers, database engineers and scientists. Wayne Shelley and Steve Richardson, from our Nottingham office, are advanced GIS developers and part of the team behind our app production.... such as iGeology and mySoil..... here they recount the experience of the NASA hackathon.

 

We joined the ‘Soil Testing Kit’ challenge at the Met Office in Exeter with a video link to the Growers’ Nation team at the Google campus in London:

http://spaceappschallenge.org/challenge/soil-testing-kit/

This challenge had several desired outputs:

• Hardware development to automatically detect soil parameters

• Apps to view and disseminate the results with other people

• Guidance on how to test soil parameters

The Exeter and London teams created two different hardware devices:

• In Exeter we hacked a cheap solar powered garden light to include a temperature, humidity and soil moisture sensor. These sensors were then connected up to an Arduino board and a Bluetooth transmitter.

 

•  The London team created a similar sensor device but transmitted the data via SMS.

 (

http://storify.com/marcelloseri/people-of-the-soil - LONDON)

The Ardunio software was developed to retrieve values from the sensors and transmit the data via Bluetooth. Then an Android app was developed to retrieve this information and publish it to a database in the Amazon EC2 cloud.

Source Code available here:

https://github.com/GrowersNation/SoilSensor

Our team also included graphics designer Tom Rogers. He created some really nice instructions on how to collect pH and soil texture.

The ‘Soil Testing Kit’ won first prize at the London event and was Highly Commended at Exeter. A collaborative entry will now be entered into the International finals.

Well done everyone involved. We both had a great weekend.

Cheers

Wayne Shelley and Steve Richardson

Being an apprentice at NIGL by Dr Jonathan Lewis

I began my isotope apprenticeship with NERC Isotopes GeosciencesLaboratory (part of the British Geological Survey) in September 2011, following completion of my PhD thesis at Loughborough University.  

The post provided training in several aspects of stable isotope geoscience. I started out on sample preparation for organics and bulk carbonate isotope analysis. After several weeks of sample preparation I was trained on the carbonate line for extracting the isotopes and mass spectrometer for the actual analysis. The carbonate line provided essential training on manual analysis before I moved on to more automated advanced mass spectrometry. I gained experience in both organic and inorganic analysis, data that is heavily used in palaeoclimate/ palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. 

The NIGL isotope apprenticeship was a fantastic, enjoyable experience and I would certainly recommend this position to any early career researcher with an interest in isotopes in environmental science and wishing to pursue a career either within academia, or in any environmental science laboratory. The job is excellent for career development, particularly for honing old, and learning new laboratory and research skills. I personally feel that I have greatly expanded my knowledge of stable isotope application in environmental change and have gained invaluable experience working as part of a highly skilled team in a professional laboratory (and friendly group) that processes thousands of samples yearly. Special thanks to the Stable Isotope Group within NIGL, especially Chris, Hilary, and Carol for the patient hours invested in training and helping me throughout. Finally, the British Geological Survey at Keyworth must be acknowledged. It’s world class facilities, excellent research reputation, welcoming atmosphere and numerous employee benefits (e.g. on-site gym, social club, canteen etc.) make it an extremely impressive institute and attractive workplace for future geologists. 

I now have started a three year post doctoral position at LoughboroughUniversity  working on a Leverhulme funded project titled “Stories of subsistence: People and coast over the last 6,000 years in Denmark”. This project examines links between environmental change in coastal Denmark with changes in human diet within the Neolithic time period. I will be primarily involved in reconstructing past environmental change using a multiproxy approach (diatoms, foraminifera, sediments, isotopes) from sedimentary archives collected from Danish estuaries.

Dr Jonathan Lewis (J.P.Lewis@lboro.ac.uk; @lewis_jp)

Here are my outputs during my time at the British Geological Survey:

Leng, M.J., and Lewis, J.L. (submitted) Carbon Isotopes and C/N ratios in Esturies. DPER book series, in review.

Lewis, J.P., Ryves, D.B., Rasmussen, P., Knudsen, K.L., Petersen, K.S., Olsen, J., Leng, M.J., Kristensen, P., McGowan, S. and Phillipsen, B. (submitted) Environmental change in the Limfjord, Denmark (ca.5,500 BC – AD 500): a multiproxy study. Submitted to Quaternary Science Reviews.

Philippsen, B., Olsen, J., Lewis, J.P., Rasmussen, P., Ryves, D.B., Knudsen, K.L. (in press). Mid- to late-Holocene reservoir age variability and isotope-based palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in the Limfjord, Denmark. The Holocene.

Lewis, J.P., Rasmussen, P., Ryves, D.B., (submitted). Land and sea at Norsminde Fjord and human-environment interactions between ca. 7,000-2,000 BC: a synthesis. To be published in ‘The Norsminde shell midden, the landscape and the fjord. An interdisciplinary study of a Stone Age environment, 7000-2000 BC’ (S. Andersen, ed.).

Iceland fieldwork #4, and getting to know...Leanne Hughes

We’re getting towards the end of this Iceland field campaign: only tomorrow left now to finish everything we want to do, but it looks like our work might be cut short. The forecast for tomorrow is for really high winds – so much so that Oli, our landlord, has warned us to batten down the hatches and plan to stay in the house. That’s Iceland weather for you! So we’ve brought inside everything that might blow away and are watching and waiting...

In the meantime, here’s another 20 (ish) questions, this time answered by Leanne Hughes, who’s been finding out more about the amazing volcanic geological history of the rocks around and underneath the glacier we’re studying.

Your name: Leanne Hughes

Your job title: Survey geologist
What that means in 5 words or less: Mapping rocks and glacial deposits.
Date: Saturday 27 April
What did you do today: Found a nye channel, which is where glacial meltwater has cut right into the bedrock, and discovered a continuation of basalt behind the Virkisjokull icefall. And roped up to cross some scary crevasses!

Trivia

What creature comforts from home do you travel with?  Jelly babies, and cake mix!

What did you want to be when you grew up? A teacher
Who’s the best movie villain? The penguin out of The Wrong Trousers
And fave movie hero? Hornblower
Pet hate? Technology failures
Favourite geological words? Scoriacious

Quick fire finale

Hammer or hand lens? Spade!

The Day after Tomorrow or Ice Age? Ice Age, definitely!
David or Richard (Attenborough): David
Hutton or Smith? Mary Anning
Cox or Stewart? Stewart

Leanne Hughes on Virkisjokull

 

Getting to know you...by Andrew Finlayson

Next up on the hot seat (or cold seat - we are on a glacier after all) is Andrew Finlayson, who's been towing a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) system around Virkisjokull for the last week, trying to map out the base of the glacier and large scale structures within it.

Your name: Andrew Finlayson

Your job title: Quaternary geologist

What that means in 5 words or less: Geography, and breaking geophysical kit.

Date: Friday 26 April

What did you do today: Explored new heights on Virkisjokull, and felt smug when Verity's steam drilling proved there is pressurised water in englacial thrusts.

 

Trivia

What creature comforts from home do you travel with? 'Best Served Cold', lent me by Emrys

What's for dinner? Ask Jez - he's cooking again!

What did you want to be when you grew up? Don't know, but something in the outdoors (still applies!)

What's your favourite band? Incubus

Favourite movie hero? The Dude (Jeff Lebowski)
Pet hate? Fibre optic cable

Favourite geological words? Made ground

Quick fire finale

Hammer or hand lens? An ice axe is more useful on the glacier!

The Day after Tomorrow or Waterworld? Waterworld...

David or Richard (Attenborough): David
Hutton or Smith? Who?
Cox or Stewart? Cox



Andrew on Virkisjokull

 

Dama International- The Fallow Deer Project by Holly Miller

The Project

The Fallow Deer Project is an AHRC-funded multi-disciplinary study looking at the cultural history of Dama dama dama, the European fallow deer. The project is being led by Dr Naomi Sykes, an archaeologist from the University of Nottingham, Prof. Rus Hoelzel (a geneticist from the University of Durham) and BGS’s Prof. Jane Evans. The team are working with researchers from a number of fields and institutions up and down the country- from archaeologists and art historians, to musicians and deer stalkers. 

Why Fallow Deer?

Of all the world's deer none has a closer relationship to people than the European Fallow Deer. Ever since the Neolithic, humans have selectively transported and maintained this elegant animal, taking it from its native, restricted range in the eastern Mediterranean across Europe where it is now an established icon of stately homes. Wherever fallow deer have been introduced they have altered the physical and psychological landscape and their distribution is a direct record of human migration, trade, behaviour and worldview. Given their impact and significance, fallow deer have the potential to provide cultural data of the highest significance to a range of disciplines and audiences.

Holly Miller processing samples at BGS

British Geological Survey and the NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory (NIGL)

One aspect of the project is the investigation of the biogeography and management of fallow deer through history. For this we are using a combination of isotope analyses (C, N, Sr, S, O) to look in depth at the archaeological remains of ancient and modern fallow deer populations. Stable isotopes, chemical signatures retrieved from the bones and teeth of archaeological and modern deer, effectively record traces of what and where individual animals were eating at different points in their lives. This can help us to look at questions related to the importation of animals, founding herds and changing management practices. This part of the investigation is being undertaken at the BGS NIGL facility in Keyworth by the projects Co-Investigator, Professor Jane Evans, Isotope Geochemist Dr Angela Lamb and me: Post-Doctoral Researcher Dr Holly Miller.

'analysis by BGS has shown that this jaw bone,
came from an animal that was imported to
the Roman Palace at Fishbourne (Sussex)

The results of the project are being disseminated through a range of different media for a variety of different audiences –academic papers, magazine articles, exhibitions and also films that will be uploaded to the websites of various heritage organisations. Just the other week, the team were filming at BGS for a short documentary on fallow deer that will be linked to an exhibition at the internationally renowned Fishbourne Roman Palace Museum in Sussex.

Project Website; http://www.fallow-deer-project.net/home

Tweet us @DeerProject

by Holly Miller 

ED: Check out the website for their great work... and to read ''The Pooping Deer of Belton' a poem by Ione Jones.