scottish natural heritage science newsletter quarterly - s… · despite the rse audience being...
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In this issue: Page
Welcome from the SAC Chair 2
Scottish Ecology, Conservation and Environment Conference (SECC) 2
Lighting and Turbines 3
Exploring new ways to control the impacts of wind farm development on water quality 4
Valuing soils – estimated the cost of soil erosion in Scotland 5
Scottish Invasive Species Initiative – Engaging people with invasive species 6
Moving Species – Endangered Species Day (May 17) 7
Conferences and Meetings 9
Announcements 9
SNH Staff Profile – Kieran Leigh-Moy 10
SNH Expert panel member – James Pearce Higgins 11
Scottish Natural Heritage
Science Newsletter Issue 28 – June 2019
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Welcome from the SAC Chair Bob Furness Welcome to the June 2019 SNH Science newsletter. Two recent events have particularly impressed me. On 30 May, Francesca Osowska delivered the RSE/SCRR Peter Wilson lecture ‘International Leadership for the Environment’ at the Royal Society of Edinburgh https://www.nature.scot/not-too-late-act-climate-change. That was an exceptionally timely opportunity to review the leadership that Scotland has given in the field of environmentalism, and to look to future opportunities. Francesca presented an excellent overview and stimulated lots of discussion. Despite the RSE audience being predominantly rather senior folk, one of the features of the talk was the role of young people, and the promotion of that within SNH. That linked well with the other recent event that I found particularly inspiring, which was the Scottish Ecology, Conservation and Environment Conference (SECC) held at Glasgow University on 2-3 April. Elle Lindsay has provided an account of part of that conference in this newsletter. My key impression of the event was of a huge number of highly motivated and enthusiastic honours students and postgraduates presenting outstanding talks and posters about their own work, and engaging passionately in all aspects of the event. The very well-deserving prize winners for best posters and oral presentations came from six different Scottish universities/research institutes, emphasising the quality of environmental research across Scotland, and the very strong engagement of young people in the environmental issues that we face. It is so good to see SNH promoting these conferences, and that many SNH staff participate in making these events so successful. And that brings me to some wonderful news: the announcement that Des Thompson is being awarded the CIEEM Medal (see details and link in Announcements section). Many congratulations to Des for this well-deserved honour.
Scottish Ecology, Conservation and Environment Conference (SECC): Glasgow 2019 Elle Lindsay and Des Thompson The SECC Conference is now a firm fixture for students working in the fields of ecology, environment and conservation in Scotland. For those yet to be exposed to its brilliance, the website https://seecc2019.wixsite.com/uofg has the background details. This was the fourth Conference in the series, held at Glasgow University during 2-3 April; it had been organised by a team of hardworking students. The Conference had invited two guest lecturers, Professor Lorna Dawson and Simon Milne, both of whom presented inspiring talks. Alongside these main events, there were a great range of talks and posters showcasing the talent of PhD students and ECRs, resulting in many prizes for both undergraduates and postgraduates: https://seecc2019.wixsite.com/uofg/award-winners This year’s Discussion Panel had the theme of ‘Moving Forward’. The Panel members were Professor Pat Monaghan (University of Glasgow, Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine), Susan Davies (CEO, Scottish Seabird Centre), Simon Milne (Regius Keeper, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) and me! This was my first Panel and it was covering a huge topic, but as I was armed with a list of questions submitted by conference delegates, I had tried my best to prepare. Nonetheless, I knew that the pre-determined questions would only form approximately half of the session and had no idea exactly which questions I would get the opportunity to address. My PhD involves studying the gut microbiota of Atlantic salmon in association with their physiology, metabolism and behaviour (hopefully through understanding the microorganisms present, I can help improve fish husbandry practices and welfare, along with enhancing aquaculture sustainability); therefore, answering questions on the state of nature and the planet remained fairly challenging. In the lead up to the conference I kept exceptionally busy to keep my nerves at bay. The distractions ran out mere hours before the panel was due to commence. This impressive Panel
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served only to increase my apprehension: their collective resume showcased global knowledge, achievements, experience and expertise. Not only that, the session chair was Sally Thomas (Director of People and Nature, SNH), adding yet another intimidating name to an already remarkable line-up. As a 3rd year PhD student, my ‘imposter syndrome’ was strong… I felt as though I had no real right to offer my opinion amongst those of the others. Frankly, I would have been fortunate just to attend and listen! I took my seat between Pat and Susan. I had become slightly star-struck (and therefore tongue-tied) during brief introductions immediately before the panel commenced, and I felt slightly dazed as I looked around the lecture theatre filling with conference attendees. The others spoke confidently, and a few questions passed before I had to speak. In spite of my nerves, I found myself simply in awe of the position I was in and therefore truly enjoying the session. Within half an hour, we were able to cover most of the initial questions, with each being addressed to a different panel member seamlessly by Sally. I listened attentively to the articulate responses and found myself nodding along in agreement with all the points raised – is a fellow Panellist supposed to do this?! Though billed as a ‘debate’, no disagreement or challenges arose - we mainly spoke with the same voice: promoting environmental protection, agreeing more pressure must be put on the government, and recognising that everyone in society has a role to play. Pat spoke passionately about government, legislation and the importance of environmental commitments being upheld in spite of Brexit. Susan highlighted the importance of the natural environment and ensuring people stayed connected with nature. Simon, a former Lt. Colonel in the Royal Marines and 16th Regius Keeper (i.e. The Queen had to approve his appointment) of RBGE (which will be 350 years old next year!) remained as steady as a rock. He offered much needed positivity in this currently tumultuous period of time. Meanwhile, I focussed mostly on outreach and a young scientist’s responsibility to engage with wider audiences. Suddenly the hour was up! There was almost a sense of community at the end, as we were all speaking out for one cause. It ignited something within me; giving me hope that perhaps we could, as a society, shape beneficial change. The debate and the accompanying two-days were both motivational and memorable, receiving excellent feedback from attendees. Special thanks go to Tiff Armstrong, Julie Miller and Lucy Cotgrove and their band of supporters for running the conference, and to Professors Des Thompson and Dan Haydon for support. The tweets give a sense of the buzz of the event: https://twitter.com/2019seecc?lang=en Information: [email protected] @ElleBell1601
Lighting and Turbines
Andy Douse It has been known for many years that birds are often attracted to lights. This is especially true of some taxonomic groups (e.g. petrels and shearwaters) and many migratory species (especially passerines). The reasons for such attraction are poorly known, though some authors posit navigation by moonlight or (for some seabirds) attraction to phosphorescence as a root causal factor. The consequences of attraction to lights can be catastrophic and involve mass kills, for example at lighthouses, oil & gas platforms, in towns and cities, and at communication towers. The consequences for bird populations are less well understood, though for many migratory species, mortality during migration is a significant proportion of annual mortality. Collision risks are elevated on moonless nights, during poor weather and poor visibility, though kills can occur under almost any conditions.
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The effect of wind farms on birds has been widely reported on, but the effect of lighting has received relatively little attention. However with an increasing move to taller turbines that will require lighting under aviation regulations, the potential for this to act as an attractant, increasing the risk of collision is an issue that requires further consideration. Much of the research on lighting has been undertaken in the United States, and has focused on communication towers and other lit structures. Monitoring of migration kills at towers in the US has assessed factors affecting collisions such as the nature of lighting (colour); lighting mode - steady, flashing or strobe lights; and the position of lights on towers. Evidence suggests that steady burning red lights show the strongest attraction of migrants. Flashing red lights significantly reduce attraction and subsequent kills. White lights appear to be less attractive than red lights and towers with no lighting are least attractive. It has been hypothesised that red lights interfere with magnetoreception in migrating birds. When skies are clear birds may be able to use stars to navigate; in cloudy or foggy conditions, such cues are not available, which may explain why birds are more likely to collide with towers and turbines during foggy/cloudy nights.
Why is this of concern to SNH? Given the increasing height of turbines, especially as wind farms are repowered, the potential for birds to be attracted to turbines is an issue that requires further consideration. A recent workshop held by SNH with key stakeholders, confirmed the existence of a potential issue but the significance of it remains unknown. Given all the uncertainties, it may be preferable to focus on minimising impacts while maintaining aviation safety. At the moment CAA (2016) Regulations [CAP764] only permit steady burning red lights on turbines. A move to flashing lights could partially mitigate potential impacts. An alternative approach is to only switch lighting on when aircraft are near. There are a number of systems that react when aircraft approach operational turbines. For example, the FAA approved Obstacle Collision Avoidance System (OCAS) is designed to alert pilots if their aircraft is in immediate danger of flying into an obstacle. SNH is in discussion with CAA about use of proximity warning lighting systems and are hopeful that these may, to some degree, mitigate possible bird strike incidents as well as landscape and visual impacts. Information: [email protected]
Exploring new ways to control the impacts of wind farm development on water quality Andrew Coupar, Kate Heal and Susan Waldron
Wind farms can help to mitigate increasing atmospheric carbon emissions, but as with all types of development activities, land disturbance during construction can have unintended consequences on the quality of the wider environment. In Scotland, many wind farms have
A lit turbine at Neilston with 200cd light visible over 20km away.
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been located on peatlands because these sites are typically windy, remote and of low return for other uses of the land. On such ground, soil disturbance for wind farm construction can be intense and spatially variable and balancing carbon storage and support to ecosystem services can be challenging. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) in collaboration with Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) funded a PhD project with the University of Edinburgh and of Glasgow, building on their existing research since 2006 monitoring Whitelee Wind Farm development (East Renfrewshire, Scotland). The PhD student, now Dr Antony Phin, investigated over a 31 month period which wind farm development activities on peatland affect water quality and to what extent. Aspects of this have recently been published in Ambio (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01200-2). This work looks at the variability of the landscape disturbance across nested catchments and the relationship between water quality (dissolved organic carbon (DOC), soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP)) at different stages of development, the types of disturbance and the time scale for recovery of the water environment.
Timber harvesting for wind farm construction close to a water course. ©Antony Phin
Overall river water DOC and SRP concentrations increased significantly from upstream to downstream during construction, but differences between sub-catchments were observed depending on the nature of the activities recorded. Forest-felling, during construction was associated with increased DOC and SRP export. The source of DOC is likely to have been both brash (tree branches and small logs), and exposed and disturbed soils. SRP was considered leached from brash and not retained by peatland soils, which have a low mineral content. Wind farm infrastructures (borrow pits, track and turbines) and their density, also influence water quality as they require soil excavation, but are a less significant influence than forest-felling. This research found that borrow pits (temporary on-site quarries) can contribute to poor water quality. The removal and reinstatement of the material in the pits, no matter how carefully conducted, appears to have impacts attributed to creating new land surface conditions. Good practice guidance is available to minimise the longer-term consequences of wind farm development and associated forest-felling on peatland and the water environment. The specific practical implications arising from this research relate to i) limiting within individual catchments the proportion of simultaneous tree-felling and infrastructure construction, ii) phase wind farm construction and timber harvesting and iii) ensuring that the siting of borrow-pits takes into consideration potential impacts on water quality as well as construction logistics and transport impacts.
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Valuing soils – estimated the cost of soil erosion in Scotland Tom McKenna and Patricia Bruneau Understanding and quantifying the values of soils and the costs incurred by lost soils now and for future generations is a problem that has been puzzling soil scientists, economists and land managers alike. Soils provide a really wide range of benefits; however, untangling these benefits and values is a complex task. Human derive a wide range of benefits from soil, either directly through flood protection or carbon sequestration or indirectly through the ecosystems or food systems they support. There are also cultural and existence values provided by soil. The ecosystem service (ES) and Natural Capital (NC) approach provide means to describe and account for these values. We can value soils for what they are as a nature asset and their abilities to provide benefit now and into the future (Natural Capital approach) or we can value soils for what they deliver now (ES approach). The NC and ES approaches both take into account economic (market) and non-economic (social and environmental) benefits to provide a fuller and more true overall value. The inherent values of soils are usually accounted for as part of the Cultural ecosystem services value – i.e. values that are derived by humans, generally without extracting or placing a strain on the environments themselves, these benefits often occur within our own consciousness. Mechanisms to assess the market values soils and their derived benefits have often being driven by sectorial interest (agricultural values of soils as a growing media or soil as a carbon repository). These services can be quantifying relatively easily by considering the return on investment associated with soil use. In this context, soil degradation is widely recognised as a major threat to natural habitat and biodiversity health. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) recently reported on how soil degradation is fuelling climate by impacted on soil carbon stock and GHG emission. Soil erosion is a natural process but excessive erosion due to extreme weather patterns and management practices will lead to overall decline in soil heath, biodiversity and bare economic cost to individual land manager and society. Since the publication of the 2006 State of Scotland Soil report, research activities under the RESAS program have help understand the process driving soil erosion in Scotland and led to improved models of soil erosion risk. However, we are still lacking transparent and robust economic analyses of the costs of soil erosion in Scotland. Tom and I have been engaged on the steering board of a new Scottish Government CRF funded project looking at developing a method to estimate soil erosion costs in Scotland. The project led by of Cranfield University (Prof Jane Rickson) in collaboration with the James Hutton Institute (Dr Allan Lilly) and is due to be complete in late 2019. These costs are incurred by land-based businesses where soil erosion occurs, and by wider society where soil is deposited ‘off-field’ or ‘in-stream’. Understanding the impacts and costs of soil erosion will inform policies designed to value the soil resource. Information: [email protected] or [email protected]
Footpath erosion on Mount Keen,
Grampian Area ©Lorne Gill
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Scottish Invasive Species Initiative – Engaging people with invasive species Callum Sinclair and Vicky Hilton As well as working to control key target invasive species the core objective of the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative is to engage people with invasive species issues to enthuse them about our work, encourage their active involvement and volunteering and to help control the introduction and spread of new invasive species infestations. There are two threads to this work; engaging with people in local communities and recruiting them as project volunteers, and undertaking education and awareness raising work with the wider public. The recruitment and building of skills of volunteers is crucial to the sustainability of invasive species control. By enthusing, training and equipping local people we will leave behind an army of skilled, enabled people to carry on working on managing invasive species in their local community long after the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative finishes – a true legacy to the project. The Scottish Invasive Species Initiative has got off to a fine start, by the end of the first year 195 volunteers had adopted mink rafts and/or traps and 342 volunteers taken part in plant control work. Of these 48 volunteers had achieved formal qualifications (mostly pesticide spraying tickets) through the project. Raising awareness of the environment and of invasive species is also critical to the long-term future of any invasive management program. People who are engaged with, and care for, their local environment and who understand the serious impacts that invasive species can have are more likely to get involved and support the work of invasives species removal on an ongoing basis. This understanding is essential as the control of animals and plants can, at times, emotive due to concerns in respect of chemical use and animal welfare.
The recent national Invasive Species Week (13-17 May) provided the perfect opportunity for us to go all out to highlight invasive species, their impacts and how people can help. We started our “week” (we actually extended it to around 10 days!) by hosting a visit from Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment, Mairi Gougeon, to the River South Esk at Finavon. The Minister was really interested in hearing how volunteers were getting involved and she gamely got stuck in setting up a mink monitoring raft and trying out the spraying kit.
Over the week much was written about invasive species - we wrote five blog posts for other partner organisations and projects about invasive species, articles for newsletters and we went into overdrive on our social media channels.
1Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment, Mairi Gougeon, (left) meets Scottish Invasive Species Initiative staff,
Callum Sinclair (centre) and Mark Purrmann-Charles (right) and helps set up a mink monitoring raft.
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But most importantly we were out and about on the ground - running events, meeting people, talking, demonstrating and recruiting more volunteers of course! Over the space of the week our project officers and our fishery trust partners delivered; seven conservation volunteer sessions removing invasive plants, two guided walks, one illustrated talk, three pop-up stalls at events, garden centres and libraries and completed activities with eleven school groups. All in all, during just one week, we talked and worked with 303 real people, not to mention the hundreds of ‘cyber’ people who interacted with us via social media and read our blogs. A great success but all in a day’s, or rather a week’s, work for the project. We are now straight onto planning for the next batch of awareness raising events which will be running during Volunteers Week (1-7 June)! If you’d like to get involved – adopt a mink monitoring raft, treat invasive plants, carry out survey work – just get in touch, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] or visit www.invasivespecies.scot (where you can also sign up to our newsletter) or follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter & Instagram).
Moving Species! – Endangered Species Day (May 17th) Martin Gaywood and Des Thompson
To mark Endangered Species Day on the 17th May 2019, Martin Gaywood and Des Thompson were asked to write a blog for the Royal Society of Edinburgh about conservation translocations and the work going on in Scotland. You can find it at https://www.rse.org.uk/moving-species-endangered-species-day-may-17th/ but we’ve copied it here in full: The Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services published earlier this month was a sobering read. Three-quarters of the land on our small planet has now been significantly altered by human actions, and 1 million species are threatened with extinction. However, tucked away at the back was a list of some of the actions that can and do work in helping to save species – including ‘translocations’. Conservation translocation is a term used to describe the moving and releasing of species where the primary goal is a conservation benefit – the best known examples are reintroductions – returning a species to an area from which it has disappeared. There are a range of methods in the conservationist’s toolkit that can be used to help a threatened species such as habitat restoration, designating and managing special sites, and putting in place effective legal protection. Conservation translocation tends to get used when these options might not be enough on their own. Translocating species is usually not easy, and projects can require ecological expertise, animal husbandry or plant cultivation skills, consultations with stakeholders, communication skills and so on. And of course resources are needed, in terms of both people and money.
All of this means there are risks associated with such projects, in biological and socio-economic terms. The reintroduction of a predator, for example, may present real and perceived risks to people’s livelihoods, whereas the reintroduction of a plant to a woodland is unlikely to be so contentious, but could involve addressing extremely complex biological requirements. The good news is that the art and science of conservation translocation
Pine Marten ©Lorne Gill
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are improving all the time, and there are internationally agreed guidelines produced by the IUCN. In Scotland we’ve developed some pioneering approaches now being copied by other countries. A ‘Scottish Code for Conservation Translocations’ has been produced, the first of its kind in the world – put together by the National Species Reintroduction Forum which includes representatives from the land management as well as the conservation sectors. The reintroduction to Scotland of species such as red kite, white-tailed eagle and Eurasian beaver, and the reinforcement of the south Scotland golden eagle population, have received a lot of media attention. These projects have demonstrated some of the challenges in trying to bring back a species but at the same time taking account the effects the reintroduction might have on the people who now have to live with them. However there are many other fascinating Scottish projects that have received far less fanfare – for example, reintroductions of woolly willow, alpine sow-thistle, freshwater pearl mussel, pine hoverfly, vendace and others. And we now export our species too! Ospreys, pine martens, and beavers have all been provided to other countries for their own conservation translocation projects. More radical ideas are now being considered, such as ‘assisted colonisation’ which involves moving species to places where they have not previously been recorded. Assisted colonisation could help species with poor dispersal abilities that are running out of climate space as our environment changes. Indeed, we’ve already tried this in Scotland by moving a rare mountain-top lichen to other mountain tops. The threat to our biodiversity is now critical. Conservation translocation is, ultimately, a desperate measure – but one that is likely to be used more and more. However, by using the type of best practice approaches we’ve developed in Scotland, the chances of success, in terms of the species themselves but also for the people that live with them, can be much improved. It’s a small win at the global scale, but one worth celebrating.
Information: [email protected]
Conferences and Meetings Sea Scotland 2019 – Sea, Soul and Society: Adapting to climate change, 19th June 2019, Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation – the theme is marine and coastal climate change adaptation. Further information: http://www.seascotland.scot/ CIEEM Scottish Conference Climate Change: Its Impact on Scotland’s Wildlife and Landscapes, 24 September 2019, Stirling Court Hotel – the conference will highlight key issues for Scotland to provide practical advice for delegates when they are considering climate change in their current ecological and environmental management practices. Further information: http://events.cieem.net/Events/EventPages/240920190000002019ScottishConferenceClimateChangeItsImpactonScotlandsWildlifeLandscapes.aspx
Announcements SNH’s Principal Advisor of Science, Professor Des Thompson FCIEEM FRSE, has been awarded the 2019 Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) Medal. This is CIEEM’s highest accolade and is awarded annually in recognition of an outstanding single or life-long contribution to the field of ecology and environmental management. Congratulations Des! Full press release: https://cieem.net/scottish-ecologist-awarded-professions-highest-accolade/ SNH’s Kate Holl has won the Neil Findlay Award from the Royal Scottish Forestry Society for writing an article ‘Beech and sycamore in Scotland’s native woods – a way forward’, for a
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publication called Scottish Forestry. Kate wrote her article in response to a paper published by researchers at the University of Stirling and Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture in July 2017, claiming that they had scientific evidence that beech trees should be considered native to Scotland, thus rekindling the long-running debate over the place of this species within Scotland’s native woods. Well done Kate!
SNH Staff Profile Kieran Leigh-Moy
Kieran started a Graduate Placement with SNH in September 2018. He’s working on a project aiming to understand why populations of freshwater pearl mussel in the upper River Spey (a designated feature of the SAC) are not recruiting and help develop strategies to improve the situation. Kieran’s first introduction to the Scottish Highlands came from spending a year working as a research assistant at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in Edinburgh, where he contributed to a diverse range of research projects and learnt of the conservation issues facing Scotland. Following this, he went on to
study a 2-year MSc in Forest & Nature Conservation at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, focusing on forestry science. As part of his MSc, he completed a 7 month thesis where he lived in a remote part of Mexico to analyse the sustainability of forest management practices by working with landowners to conduct surveys and developing models to project populations of harvested species. Upon graduating, Kieran spent a short period working at the Bavarian Forest National Park where he conducted research analysing the impact of deer on forests -some of the results of which have recently been submitted to a peer-review journal. Kieran then decided to return to Scotland and, after several more short-term contracts, eventually took up his current role at SNH. Kieran’s role involves reviewing scientific literature and liaising with scientists throughout Europe to develop and undertake a protocol that will help SNH to understand why freshwater pearl mussel populations in the upper River Spey are not recruiting. This has required transitioning from his forestry background to gain knowledge of hydromorphology, water chemistry and freshwater ecology. Freshwater pearl mussel is a globally endangered species and Scotland is considered a remaining stronghold. They are long lived with a complex lifecycle, which includes spending nearly a year living in the gills of salmonid fishes and at least 5 years buried in riverbed substrates. Their role as an umbrella species means they’re the target of conservation action across Europe, as it is argued that conserving them will maintain the functioning of oligotrophic river systems generally. There is broad consensus that constraints on the post-parasitic phase of their lifecycle, in which juvenile mussels are buried in substrate, is the primary reason behind the widespread lack of recruitment across Europe. Post-parasitic juveniles require well-oxygenated riverbed substrate to survive, which are threatened by high inputs of fine sediment and nutrients. As such, Kieran’s protocols are primarily focused on assessing the suitability of these riverbed substrates for juvenile mussels. However, freshwater pearl mussels face numerous possible threats which Kieran is also trying to assess. This includes considering the past and future impact of climate change- for which recent evidence has demonstrated may be among the causes of the widespread extinction process. It is hoped that Kieran’s work will help identify strategies to
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improve the situation for pearl mussel in the upper River Spey, which may involve undertaking reintroductions to areas identified as suitable habitat.
SAC Expert panel member profile Dr James Pearce Higgins
Dr James Pearce-Higgins is Director of Science at the British Trust for Ornithology and has been in his current role since July 2014. He is responsible for the strategic leadership of the science, manages a department of 50 staff, and is a member of the Senior Leadership Team. Despite being born and bred in Suffolk, via a Zoology degree from Nottingham University in 1994, and PhD from the University of Manchester in 2000, where he studied the ecology of golden plovers in the Peak District, James ended up specialising in the ecology of upland birds. He worked for the RSPB in Scotland for 11 years, being based in Edinburgh where he was responsible for a wide-range of upland research projects including examining the effects of grazing, recreational disturbance, climate change and wind farms on upland birds, including waders.
James’ move to the BTO in 2010 was to lead the Trust’s research on climate change, where he managed a range of collaborative and government-funded projects that documented impacts of climate change, modelled projections of the future and informed conservation responses. He continues to act as the BTO’s climate change lead, where a current priority is informing the evidence around climate change adaptation. James written over 120 peer-reviewed scientific papers and contributed to multiple other book chapters, reports and conference proceedings, including co-authoring a book on Birds and Climate Change, published by Cambridge University Press in 2014. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Reader at the University of East Anglia. He is a committee member of IUCN Climate Change Specialist Group, Vice-chair of the Energy Task Force of the Convention on Migratory Species and member of board of trustees of A Rocha UK. SNH Science newsletter Editor: Lynne Clark, [email protected]