Planet Earth Is NERC’S Quarterly Magazine, Aimed at Anyone for Subscriptions Or Change of Address Please Interested in Environmental Science
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www.planetearth.nerc.ac.uk Ocean acidification How is marine life coping? Also Much ado about moths For peat’s sake Scouring Bangladesh Impact Awards 2015 Follow us on About us NERC – the Natural Environment Research Council – is NERC is a non-departmental public body. Much of the UK’s leading funder of environmental science. We our funding comes from the Department for Business, invest public money in cutting-edge research, science Innovation and Skills but we work independently of infrastructure, postgraduate training and innovation. government. Our projects range from curiosity-driven research to long-term, multi-million-pound strategic Our scientists study the physical, chemical and biological programmes, coordinated by universities and our own processes on which our planet and life itself depends – research centres: from pole to pole, from the deep Earth and oceans to the atmosphere and space. We work in partnership with British Antarctic Survey other UK and international researchers, policymakers and British Geological Survey business to tackle the big environmental challenges we face – how to use our limited resources sustainably, how Centre for Ecology & Hydrology to build resilience to environmental hazards and how to National Oceanography Centre manage environmental change. National Centre for Atmospheric Science National Centre for Earth Observation Contact us Planet Earth is NERC’s quarterly magazine, aimed at anyone For subscriptions or change of address please interested in environmental science. It covers all aspects of email: [email protected] NERC-funded work and most of the features are written by or write to us at Planet Earth Editors, NERC, Polaris House, the researchers themselves. North Star Avenue, Swindon SN2 1EU. For the latest environmental science news, features, blogs and Editors the fortnightly Planet Earth Podcast, visit our website Planet Adele Walker [email protected] Earth Online at www.planetearth.nerc.ac.uk. Tom Marshall [email protected] NERC-funded researchers should contact: Not all of the work described in Planet Earth has been [email protected] peer-reviewed. The views expressed are those of individual authors and not necessarily shared by NERC. We welcome Science writers readers’ feedback on any aspect of the magazine or website Tamera Jones, Harriet Jarlett, Alex Peel and are happy to hear from NERC-funded scientists who Design and production want to write for Planet Earth. Please bear in mind that we Candy Sorrell [email protected] rarely accept unsolicited articles, so contact the editors first to discuss your ideas. ISSN: 1479-2605 Front cover: David Liittschwager In this issue Spring 2015 John Redhead John 2 News from the science community 10 The pull of charisma Why underdog species deserve more of the limelight 12 Plain wonderful The secrets of Salisbury's unique ancient grassland 14 The failure of genomics Why DNA sequencing isn’t enough 16 Impact Awards 2015 The winners of NERC’s 12 inaugural Impact Awards tiglat/Thinkstock 18 For peat’s sake Take the pledge to help save our vital peatlands 20 Ocean acidification Investigating how marine life will cope 22 Live from a landfill 18 Measuring methane emissions from our rubbish 26 24 Scouring Bangladesh Revealing the hidden landscapes of Bangladesh’s riverbeds 26 Much ado about moths Citizen science and the importance of Britain’s moths 28 Put to the test: carbon capture and storage A unique experiment Giorgio Caramanna Giorgio measures the effects of a 20 Peat James carbon leak PLANET EARTH Spring 2015 1 News Lunar Mission One Editorial kicks off elcome to the first Planet Earth of 2015 – and to NERC’s 50th anniversary year. The Natural WEnvironment Research Council was created by Royal Charter in 1965 and over the year we’ll be marking half a century of exciting and world-leading science – science that reveals how our planet works and helps us live healthier and more prosperous lives while we manage our environment responsibly. The first anniversary event this year was in January – our inaugural Impact Awards. These recognise and reward the Ltd Missions Lunar researchers whose work has made the biggest difference to the UK’s economy, society, wellbeing and international reputation. Physicist and broadcaster Jim Al-Khalili hosted the awards ceremony and you can read about the winners’ brilliant work here in Planet Earth. Other features in the magazine range from the unique The science funding model grassland ecosystems of Salisbury Plain to the importance of has been turned on its head the UK’s peatlands and one simple action we can all take to by crowdfunding platform help preserve them. From farther afield, researcher Mark Kickstarter which has passed Vardy tells us how the hidden landscape of riverbeds impacts its first funding milestone to the complex relationship of the people and their rivers in put a lander on the Moon by Bangladesh. 2024. Lydia Bach tells us why some overlooked creatures deserve The lander will drill a borehole more of the limelight – in science as well as the media – and to retrieve and analyse samples from 100m below the lunar another feature reveals how this bias has led us to overlook south pole. what moths can tell us about biodiversity and the effects of Kickstarter exceeded its goal of $1 million (£600k) by environmental change. 17 December, with more than 7,000 backers on board. In return, Jason Hall-Spencer describes his work investigating investors get the chance to preserve a little bit of themselves in a the effects of carbon dioxide on our oceans, by studying time capsule that will fill the borehole. underwater volcanoes where CO bubbles up through the 2 Europe has never sent a lander to the surface of the Moon and sea floor. Meanwhile our Podcast Q&A talks to researchers no nation has ever visited its south pole – permanently shadowed who purposefully pumped CO into the sea floor to see what 2 craters there are thought to contain water. would happen as it leaks out, The project will use pioneering technology to drill to at least testing the potential of carbon 20m below the lunar surface, reaching rock as old as 4.5bn years capture and storage facilities for which could answer countless questions about the Moon’s history. mitigating climate change. It could also reveal the relationship of the Moon with planet Earth We hear from Mark Viney on and improve scientific understanding of the early solar system, the the critical next step in genomics formation of our own Planet and the conditions that enabled life on that will mean we can finally Earth. understand the DNA we’ve RAL Space, part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, been reading for so long. And will be project managing and advising on the technical requirements Grant Allen tells us how he for the mission as well as advising on the technical issues and risks eschewed exotic fieldwork phases of the project over the next year. NERC’s British Geological locations to spend two weeks Survey (BGS) has staff on the mission team and the science team, in a landfill site, measuring and early concepts of the lunar drilling system are based on BGS’s how much methane it was sea-floor drilling system. emitting. Dirty work, but Public engagement will continue to be critical to the mission and someone has to do it. the project will be launching a community section on their website: www.lunarmissionone.com 2 PLANET EARTH Spring 2015 Daily updated news @ www.planetearth.nerc.ac.uk Deep-sea asphalt mounds found off west African coast Scientists have discovered a large area of the deep seabed off the Angolan coast Tar on the ROV arm. strewn with mounds of asphalt hosting rich animal life. The discovery – the first in the southern hemisphere and the first time the creatures living around them have been studied in detail – arises from a long-term collaboration between energy company BP and scientists at NERC's National Oceanography Centre (NOC). The researchers found at least 21 kinds of deep-water creature living around the tarry structures, including octopuses, blobfish, sea stars and coral-like sea fans. 'It seems to be a very rich animal community – the asphalt provides a hard surface for them to attach themselves to, so animals like sponges can get a foothold,' says Dr Daniel Jones of NOC, lead author of the open access study in Deep Sea Research 1. These rare habitats may be important for animal distribution across the ocean floor, perhaps acting as stepping stones for species to move into new areas and enable genetic material to flow across widely-dispersed Brisingid sea star on an asphalt mound. populations. BP experts first noticed the structures while searching the seabed for signs of energy deposits and closer investigation with remotely-operated subs revealed more than 2,000 mounds, some just centimetres from side to side, others hundreds of metres across. The BP staff alerted researchers at NOC who examined the geological data and the images from BP's robots. 'We get access to BP's high-quality data while BP gets information that can support its efforts to improve the environmental management of its operations,’ says Jones. The mounds form when heavy, tarry hydrocarbons ooze up from beneath the sea floor and harden into asphalt much like the stuff that's used to surface roads. They are related to cold seeps – best known as places on the seabed where lighter hydrocarbons like methane leak into the water. PLANET EARTH Spring 2015 3 News Fur seal evolution outpaced by climate change Antarctic fur seals are struggling to evolve quickly enough to keep up with the effects of climate change, according to research published in Nature.