A busy summer!
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It has been a busy summer so far and will continue to be over the next few weeks. Ezra has been collecting lots and lots of data on wooded and open pavements, while Sophie has been out surveying bryophytes. Hannah, meanwhile, has been trialling methods ready for more intensive data collection next year. I have been collecting data on areas of fenced pavements as well as conducting monitoring at some of our experimental sites.
We have had some exciting developments. The Quarry Life project with Heidelberg Materials at Horton Quarry is fully set up, and we now have a grazing experiment which will allow us to investigate how the timing of grazing is impacting limestone pavement vegetation and invertebrates. The sheep have already been grazing in the field, and there are clear differences between the plots.
You may have seen from our blogs and social media that we have been travelling. Hannah and I visited Sweden to look at their limestone pavements, and Ezra visited Scotland to look at some pavements where trees have been removed. I will visit the Isle of Man in a couple of weeks’ time where there is work to conserve limestone pavements.
We have also heard that we have had a successful funding application to JNCC to investigate how nitrogen deposition is impacting limestone pavements. Working with Zeke Marshall in the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, this will involve extensive use of existing data to undertake new analysis and modelling. It will also involve setting up a new experiment where we will add nitrogen and monitor changes over time.
Carly has received funding from the British Ecological Society and Lancaster University Faculty of Science to work with photographer Oana Bakovic to showcase pavements and we will have an exhibition in South Lakes libraries in the autumn. Carly has also secured funding from the Royal Society and Philip Welch to work on two podcasts. Watch this space for details!
Finally we have also secured funding from JNCC for a new Master's by research on limestone pavement soils. Please do have a look at the Master's by research announcement if you're interested in applying to it!
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