Hi everyone, headwaters apprentice news coming right up!
Winter is upon us, and in a biologists world this often means moving into the warmth for some indoor activity!
So as the electrofishing season has come to an end and all samples have been collected, on cue the gales and snow commence. But fear not I will be in my aromatic lab sorting and identifying those little invertebrates and writing up.
But first I must backtrack and update from the past month or two…
In September I had my first encounter with the Prince’s Trust gang. I met Heidi Quinn, Volunteer Development Officer for BTCV and her crew, who have to complete a short course aimed at the young and unemployed hoping to improve their prospects. The day took us to Hamilton to a pond and surrounding area designated as a SSSI. Some of the all boy group chose to fix a wooden walk-way and the rest came on the pond dip with Heidi and I. Unfortunately the water was far too deep to go in, but alas that did not hamper the attempts of the Prince’s Trust team to wade on in and instead of getting to learn some invert ID almost all of the guys just ended up with wet feet! The day finished with some branch removal, as some of the trees were blocking the view of the bird hide. What is it with young men and a bow-saw? I’m surprised there were any trees left! (Joking). Last month I helped out again with Heidi and a new group of young people, this time we were on our local river, the Kelvin. New Riverfly Partnership Riverfly Officer (former Riverfly Apprentice) Louis Kitchen 😉 was also in on the activity day as well as Friends of the Kelvin (FORK) Deputy Convenor Charles Thompson. We took the group to a few sites on the river to demonstrate some kick sampling and Charles explained the history of the Kelvin; current problems and improvements that have taken place.
As I mentioned, the electrofishing season has finished; the licence expires at the end of October, this is because the trout begin to spawn after this time and we don’t want to disturb them. For the Clyde River Foundation this meant that the race was on to get all their work done before this cut off point. As part of my training, whenever headwaters needed surveying I was there to get my eye in and become a competent electrofisher! This has also made me more familiar with my place of work, the Clyde, and has taken me to numerous sub-catchments including the Kype, Duneaton, Arnesdale, Camps, Snar and Glasgow Burns.
September also included the Freshwater Biological Association AGM and Water@Leeds conference titled “New insights into disturbance and stressor effects on aquatic ecosystems.” OoooOooh! Meryl (Invasive Species Apprentice) and I set off on the 04.30 train to Leeds to make the conference. I was particularly interested in one talk by Gary Rushworth (Environment Agency) – A pragmatic approach to scoping the impact of abandoned metal mines upon two rivers in the Lake District. All the talks were so good, but it was really great to have a chat with Gary and make contacts. Equally good was meeting one of the UK’s leading river diatom experts Prof. Martyn Kelly.
On another happy note my project has finally got off the ground. I’ve had really helpful feedback on my proposal from Prof. Susan Waldron (Biogeochemist at the University of Glasgow) and have done a few tweaks here and there to my methodology and a couple of re-drafts have been necessary so it scientifically made sense, but I’m getting there! At the end of October I went out to take my samples. 30 surber samples, six kick samples, six biofilm/diatom samples. In a sentence I’m hoping to investigate the ecology of headwater streams draining abandoned metal mines. 
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This will involve comparing a stream assumed to be affected by mine drainage with a control “unaffected” stream, thought to be free from heavy metal. The fieldwork all went to plan, apart from the bap hand and five fat sausage fingers I managed to acquire on my right hand cause of the rain and freezing temperatures!!! Lab work has since been underway, with still plenty to go. Susan has been assisting me in the lab, demonstrating some new techniques and looking over my shoulder from time to time, which I’ve been really grateful for. I’ve freeze-dried some predators and collector/gatherers (invertebrates with different feeding functions); analysed biofilm for chlorophyll α (primary production) and lastly diatoms have been digested and mounted onto slides for ID and counting in the new year. Dr. Andy Henderson has helped me with the diatom work to date and will mentor me with ID when the time comes.
All we apprentices were called to give a hand with the Live & Deadly CBBC event in Aberdeen. This was hard work but also loads of fun! Collecting pond inverts in October or just leaves as was mostly the case, scrambling round and sometimes “in” rock pools at dusk in preparation for six hours of “this is a pond skater X a million” whilst smelling a stinkhorn (ALI)! Ah it was all worth it though as we DID NOT make it onto the TV show on Saturday morning!!! Haha! It was worth it though really…cause we got to see Steve Backshall! 🙂
The start of November spelled the time of the Highlands International Biodiversity and Climate Change Conference in Inverness. Meryl, Gwen, Suzie, John and I attended. Some talks were extremely interesting and I felt were relevant to me, others admittedly were way over my head. Nevertheless a good time was had by all and lots of issues relating to biodiversity loss and climate change were highlighted that I would never even have thought of. Whilst up north I took the chance to have a chat with Dr. Montserrat Auladell-Mestre who works at the SEPA lab in Dingwall. She did her PhD on the Impact of mine waters and their treatment systems on aquatic communities. Yay! As well as check out the work of Gwen and Meryl, lots of fun!!
So I’ve got to go as I’ve got tens of samples to attend to, must not forget to mention Kylie our volunteer who has been helping with some sample sorting (Thank you) she calls it therapeutic, we’ll see how long it takes for the therapy to lose its effect…
Thanks for reading!
Lesley