A great new BBSRC Phosphorus Team!

Untitled, a photo by Soil & Water Science on Flickr.

This week I was privileged to host a brand new team meeting at Lancaster to tee off the new BBSRC project on better utilization of soil organic P. It was a first coming together with staff contributing from Africa, China, Brazil, Scotland, England and the USA! It's going to be a good one folks! Here are a few photos of the gathering. A video will follow!

Sharing experiences on catchment change

Originally uploaded by Soil & Water Science

We recently ran a workshop in the River Eden valley, at the Crown Inn in Morland to share catchment, climate and land use change experiences, in living memory. The meeting was introduced by guest speaker Dr Peter Falloon from the Met Office Hadley Centre in Exeter, who set an interesting tone presenting the data and uncertainties in weather and climate patterns in the Eden over recent years. It was enthusiastically attended by farmers from the Lune and Eden Valley, as well as academics and other stakeholders. One observation by one of the more experienced farmers was a note that the big changes he had witnessed over his lifetime were (1) mechanisation and (2) the influence of genetic innovation, particularly for dairy animals. A few snaps from the evening - including a dinner of stew and chips and a couple of pints - are here.

Team 'NUTCAT' visit EdenDTC

Originally uploaded by Soil & Water Science

Recently a number of us from the new NERC 'NUTCAT' funded project had a tour of the EdenDTC, with a particular focus on Morland. The NUTCAT Project is concerned with 'helping to understand and improve water quality in our rivers - present and future' and you can learn more about the project here and view a few of the wet and wintery scenes here.

LEC's RGS Ambassadors

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Originally uploaded by Soil & Water Science

Here is a 'selfie' taken last week with the impressively bearded Simon Faulkner from the Royal Geographical Society, together with Lancaster Environment Centre's stalwart Geography Ambassador, Dan Flanagan. Dan, trained by Simon, has been out and about in the schools around the country spreading the word about Geography. Last week Simon, aided by Dan, trained another enthusiastic bunch of LEC ambassadors and the cycle starts again. Nice job everybody!