Ed Tripp
From Inverness to Lundy Island
The last few months has been spent travelling from one end of the UK to the other in order to find heathland sites.
I can't use just any sites. I want to study whether soil fertility is affected by nitrogen pollution. This pollution can come from factories, cities or farming, and too much of it can cause heathlands to disappear. My heathland sites must have a certain nitrogen deposition (fertility), they can't have too much rainfall, they can't be too high up, they can't contain plants which affect nitrogen concentration in the soil...the list goes on.
But I have found 26 great sites so far, from near Inverness in Scotland, to The Lizard in Cornwall, to Lundy Island! The next step is to start collecting soils.
Here I am surveying one site in the East Midlands! In the background you can see one plant which affects nitrogen concentration in the soil: Ulex europaeus, more commonly known as gorse.
- Day to day life of a scientist
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Diversity and Sustainability of Heathlands
My name is Ed, and I am a scientist doing research at the University of Nottingham. My part in the OPAL project is to look at heathland habitats in the UK.
Heathlands are made up of heather, and other shrubs (see picture). If it is a nice heathland, there will be very few types of grasses or trees. Heathlands only grow well on soils with very low fertility, and heather is well adapted to grow in these conditions. But heathlands are disappearing. Because of landuse change, a lot of heathland is being converted into grassland or woodland, and we have lost over 90% of our heathland in this way.
I will keep you posted on my research every step of the way. There will be really exciting times, and some less exciting times. There will be some happy moments, where everything works out exactly the way I planned. There will be some stressful moments when I wonder why I ever wanted to become a scientist.
You can follow my research, and even leave comments which might give me some new ideas! More next time.
- Day to day life of a scientist
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