Geology Jenga

Towards better quantifying human impacts: Looking back on the PAGES Workshop in Leuven

Daniel Schillereff February 24, 2014

Firstly, I’d like to express my sincere thanks to Dr Jennifer Clear (Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague) for her input to this blog article.

The first week of February saw dozens of scientists arrive at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven for the PAGES Focus 4 Workshop. This event brought together geomorphologists, soil scientists, palaeoecologists, archaeologists and palaeolimnologists to discuss how we can better quantify past human impacts on the landscape. It became clear this is a research question of great importance for the present-day management and conservation of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, as those tasked with the job must be well-informed of what actually is the ‘natural state’ of a particular environment. However, climatic fluctuations and human activity have modified the landscape to an enormous degree throughout the Holocene (the past ~10 000 years) and beyond. Depending on how far back in time you look, the assessment of the local ‘natural’ condition is highly variable and may well be very different from the landscape observed today. Improving our estimates of human-driven land cover change was therefore the focus of this Workshop, although the approaches and the timescales of interest vary considerably, as we saw during the first two days of oral presentations and poster sessions. For those interested, the book of abstracts is available here and the full line-up of speakers is listed here.

The schedule of the conference saw two full days of talks and poster sessions, followed by a field excursion on Day 3 and finished with two days of detailed small group discussions around specific topics. The breadth of talks was remarkable; those with impressive visual animations really stick in my mind, such as Dan Penny (University of Sydney) showing aerial LIDAR images of Angkor Wat (Linked to recent paper in PNAS). These images are acquired using lasers capable of penetrating dense forest cover; a remarkable pattern of roads, canals and building outlines was revealed after the vegetation cover was computationally removed. Simulations of global land cover changes through the Holocene from Jed Kaplan (many of his animations are available on the ARVE YouTube channel and Kees Klein Goldewijk were really impressive and many impressive vegetation reconstructions across Europe using various models to interpret high-resolution pollen data were also shown. Other case studies showed the dramatic effects of the agricultural revolution on sediment flux and changes in vegetation around the world. Integrating these local datasets to see more of the regional or global picture of land cover change, often termed up-scaling, arose as a focal point of discussion throughout the week and remains a key area of future work.

I was delighted to have been invited to give a talk illustrating how lake sediment sequences can contribute to our understanding of human-environment interactions on various timescales. Examples in my talk included a dramatic spike in sediment flux during the mid-Holocene linked to local human occupation and demonstrating how volumetric assessments of sediment and heavy metal fluxes can be calculated accurately by extracting multiple cores across a single lake basin. My slides are available on FigShare for anyone interested.

The field excursion on Day 3 was a wonderful exploration of the River Dilje catchment, where many of the Workshop organisers have invested considerable time and effort in recent years to establish a comprehensive sediment budget spanning the Holocene (for example, Notebaert et al., 2009). Other stops included a neat site where a chain of large gullies, most likely formed during the Roman occupation in the area, have been preserved beneath forest regrowth (fossilized, in essence), and the L’abbaye de Villers, one of the most impressive ruined Cistercian Abbeys I have visited. We were also treated to a coffee (and cake) stop halfway through the day from a mobile van; something I am keen to introduce to future field work expeditions here in the UK!

L’abbaye de Villers. Photo: D. Schillereff

The discussion sessions over the final two days were an eye-opening and invaluable experience for me. I’d been advised by experienced colleagues to get involved as much as possible and I certainly felt rewarded for doing so after some of the fascinating debates and knowledge shared from others, especially in the session focused around limnic (lake-derived) and marine sediments. As far as I can recall, I only said one stupid thing where everyone in the room looked at me quizzically! Engaging in the discourse for brainstorming future grant proposals, including identifying opportunities within the new PAGES structure and Future Earth initiative was exceptionally useful, both in terms of possibilities for opening future doors and better understanding the input required to put together large project proposals.

Some final personal observations then… I was surprised by the modest number of delegates whose research focused on lake sediments, because palaeolimnologists investigating records spanning the Holocene or more recent time periods almost always must consider humans as a possible driver of environmental changes captured in the sediment cores. I see many opportunities for further engagement with geomorphologists and soil scientists investigating catchment sediment budgets to link their assessments to lake-based reconstructions. Real progress seemed to be made during this Workshop in terms of sharing data and methodologies between disciplines, which is a great success. After my experience last week, I certainly believe all opportunities for fostering inter-disciplinary conversations on topics of mutual interest should be grasped.

Seismologists must leave their comfort zone: A Guest post by Steve Hicks

Laura Roberts-Artal February 17, 2014

Scientists studying earthquakes should be prepared to put themselves forward to reduce the risk of earthquake damage. This was one conclusion from a meeting of scientists and engineers in London last week.

Picture yourself here. You are an earthquake scientist. Years of research conclude that a capital city lies close to active fault that has the potential to generate a large earthquake. The local government fails to act on your finding. Speaking at a meeting of the British Geophysical Association, Prof. Eric Calais (ENS, Paris) describes to fellow scientists how he found himself in this situation in 2008.

Predictable damage

In January 2010, that damaging event finally happened: a magnitude 7.0 earthquake striking Haiti. The earthquake killed 320,000 and displaced over 1 million people.

The earthquake was unpredictable; the damage was foreseeable. In Calais’ eyes, the combination of corrupt government and poor building codes was fatal.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, Calais joined the UN’s Development Program to advise on future geohazard policy in Haiti.

Image from: Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (Flickr username: uusc4all)

Connecting with policy makers

Calais says that communicating science is difficult in a country that has sustained political and socio-economic problems. Scientists need to reach across a plethora of interested parties – from government and the private sector, to NGOs and foreign aid donors. Keeping lines of communication open is difficult where poverty is rife and public exposure to science is minimal.

By tuning into the objectives of those who write policy, scientists can help to reduce the risks from geohazards. Here is an example to illustrate. Geophysicists often deploy networks of seismometer and GPS instruments to better understand earthquake hazard. To a scientist, this monitoring sounds like a good idea, but policy makers have a different focus. The monitoring network could be adapted into a primitive early-warning system operated by a civil protection agency. From the government’s viewpoint, such an initiative will allow the country to take on responsibility for risk reduction.

The Italian effect

Calais maintains that a gap exists between the makers and users of scientific products. To close the gap, scientists must be the ones to step forward to engage with policy makers and governments.

More researchers are becoming trained in public engagement. Yet there is little emphasis on actively engaging with policy and governance, leaving many scientists without the confidence and skills to stand up for their research at times when it is needed the most. More worrying is the recent prosecution of seismologists in Italy that may cause some geoscientists to disconnect altogether from policy makers, narrowing their comfort zone to an all-time minimum.

The manslaughter conviction was wrong on all levels, yet there are lessons to be learned. With better training for scientists, we are entering a new era for geohazard risk communication. New projects such as Geology for Global Development and Earthquakes without Frontiers plan to set a new precedent for risk communication by combining earthquake science with the social sciences. Because of such initiatives, we can be hopeful that geoscientists’ comfort zone will continue to widen and important science will reach those who need it the most.

Earthquakes: from Mechanics to Mitigation was a meeting organised by the British Geophysical Association at the Geological Society of London on 13^th and 14^th February 2014.

Stephen Hicks is a Postgraduate Research Student in Earthquake Seismology at the University of Liverpool. His current research involves making 3D images of the earth’s subsurface in order to understand what factors may control large earthquakes in subduction zones. He is currently heads an outreach project supported by the British Geophysical Association that makes information about significant global and UK earthquakes available to the public. His Twitter handle is @seismo_steve.

The Earth’s protective shield

Laura Roberts-Artal February 11, 2014

Credit: Wikimedia Commons,
Author: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI

I came across this video, which very clearly explains how the Earth’s magnetic field protects us from Solar Storms. It then goes on to explain the link of these phenomena to our planet’s climate. The added bonus is that the images are very cool and I think the voice over is done by Liam Neeson…. Does anyone else think so? Anyway, I digress…

For a written account of what is discussed in the brilliant video by NASA, head over to the guest blog post I wrote on Geosphere on how the Earth has an amazing protective shield.

10 Minute Interview – Finding the right path

Laura Roberts-Artal February 7, 2014

It turns out, I’m not so great at keep the promises I make our blog readers… I AM working on the next post for the Making the most of your PhD series.

In the mean time, this 10 minute interview actually fits the theme of the Making the most of your PhD series quite well. This week, I bring you Hayley Dunning, of the Natural History Museum, London. Whilst Hayley’s current role is as a science web editor, the route to finding her path and career wasn’t straight forward. It is sometimes difficult to see how a love of science can be continued into a fulfilling career that does not involve academia and research. Hayley embarked on a PhD and decided it wasn’t right for her. As a science web editor she has been able to combine the two things she loves most, science and writing. I talk about PhDs a lot in Geology Jenga, but actually, the whole point of the 10 minute interviews is to highlight the unsung heroes of science (in the traditional academic sense) and Hayley is most certainly one of them!

Vital Statistics

You are: Hayley Dunning
You work at: The Natural History Museum, London.
Your role is: Science web editor

Q1) What are you currently working on?

Right now I’m building pages about the Museum’s cetacean strandings program. They have been recording details of stranded whales, dolphins and porpoises around the UK for 100 years, and now they want to the public to be more involved in reporting and identifying strandings.

I also write news articles about whatever new research is published by the Museum’s scientists; today it’s about meteorites (as it often is!).

Q2) What is a typical day like for you?

If there’s a journal article coming out, I’ll read the paper and call the scientist to find out more about it. Often I’m looking for a nice colourful anecdote – something the national media wouldn’t get. It’s fun to learn about the scientist’s personal adventures.

If there’s no news that day I’ll make web pages, usually about the research that goes on behind the scenes, the massive collections the Museum houses or something that the public are thinking about. For example, the other week I wrote up pages about the false widow spider in the UK, trying to allay some of the undue panic!

Q3) Does your job allow you to have any academic outputs?

I don’t write academic papers, but since I decided to go this route I’ve written a lot of articles for magazines and other publications. I used to be on an academic path, working towards a career as a volcanologist, but I found it too narrow in the end. Since, I’ve written articles about intelligent machines, body clocks, meteorites from Mars, drugged mummies and everything in between.

Hayley with Sir David Attenborough, or at least the bit she was able to keep!

Q4) What has been the highlight of your career so far? And as an early stage researcher where do you see yourself in a few years time?

At the Museum, the false widow spider report was a highlight. I just heard today it helped make October one of the most successful months ever on the website.

A long article I wrote about fracking in Canada was a personal achievement. I like writing about all sorts of different things every day, but it’s also nice to get a deep expertise in something. I guess I’m still at scientist at heart!

In a few years I’d like do more features and long-form science writing, bringing an art back to the joy of discovery. Non-fiction books would be great, but as long as I’m still learning I’ll be happy.

Q5) To what locations has your research taken you and why?

Volcanology took me to Canada, Alaska, Mexico and Japan, for which I am very thankful! At the Museum, the fun stuff tends to come to me instead. Working for such an old and renowned public-facing science organisation has its perks – last week Sir David Attenborough and Bill Bailey unveiled a statue of Alfred Russel Wallace at the Museum. I grabbed a random postcard from my office and managed to get an autograph from Sir Dave!

Q6) Do you have one piece of advice for anyone wanting to have a career similar to yours?

Go for it. Here’s the silly fact about me: I have three Masters degrees. Two are in Earth sciences; the second started out as a PhD (the third is in journalism). I’d always liked writing, and it was honestly a lightbulb moment when I realised I could marry science and writing as a career. I thought long and hard about giving up my PhD – I’d never get to call myself Dr Dunning! But I realised in the end it wasn’t giving up, it was not wasting time and effort on something I ultimately didn’t want, and wasn’t going to use. I’m not suggesting it was a sudden decision that anyone should take lightly, but if there’s something you really want to do, don’t let a seemingly pre-determined career get in your way.

Q7) If you could invent an element, what would it be called and what would it do?

I’d love to create an element with the power to make me less sleepy or to make things float, but practically it would be nice to have a radioactive element that would act as a powerful and relatively clean fuel source. I think I’d call it Infinitum (although it’s chemical symbol would be Hd – I want some glory!)

Hayley did an MSci in Environmental Geoscience at Bristol where she spent a year abroad in Iceland. She then did an MSc in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta, and finally a Masters in Journalism at the University of British Columbia. Now she’s not a student any more, she’s trying to figure out what to do with all this spare time that isn’t filled with assignments and deadlines!