Newsletter from the Freshwater & Coastal Sciences, and the Aquatic Ecology by Research MSc programmes at Queen Mary University of London

1. FACS & AER Review… July’12
The latest... Where are they now?
• Congrats to Theresa Douthwright (AER 10-11)
on the completion of her MSc slightly out of
phase! She worked on a Welsh Assembly
Government funded project on the efficacy of
agri-environment schemes.
• Kev Wood (FACS 08-09) recently presented
his PhD work on mute swan grazing in chalk
streams at the Freshwater Biological Association
meeting in Glasgow.
• Former AER student (10-11) Matteo Dossena
Sharing the love... of mud! Danny Sheath (L) & Jodie Simmons has just presented an extension of his MSc thesis
(R, AER) help Laurence Nair (C, FACS) to set-up his (now funded by AXA for his PhD) at a workshop
experimental mesocosms to examine crayfish engineering
in Boston, USA
Everybody has their head down with project work
now.... and in the case of Pooja Patel, quite • Murray Thompson (FACS 09-09) is taking a
literally, as she grappled with and eventually lost short break from his PhD to help out with
out to Essex saltmarsh mud last month while electro-fishing surveys of Welsh rivers with Fran
hunting for crabs and their burrows. Talking of Arru on the DURESS project.
mud, Laurence Nair has been shifting a fair
amount (with the help of friends) into 20
experimental ponds: he is measuring impacts of • Rebecca Bromley (FACS 08-09) is working on
crayfish bioturbation such as turbidity, dissolved aquatic ecotoxicological projects with ADAS
oxygen and methane concentration.
Francesca Arru is seeing a lot of Wales (and Welsh • ….and last but not least, Dr Katrin Layer-Dobra
weather) for the intensive fieldwork on trout and (FACS 04-05) will be returning to the fold and
ecosystem services as a part of the large NERC starting a NERC-funded post doc working along
funded project, DURESS: http://nerc-duress.org/. with Mark Trimmer & Guy Woodward on aspects
Meanwhile, Alex Seeney is plugging away at the of drought on river ecosystem functioning
samples he has on the lab bench before he
disappears to Iceland to participate in the climate Many of our graduates are now popping up with
change work of Dr Eoin O’Gorman. profiles on social media such as LinkedIn or
The AER students who have been beavering away Academia.edu. Easier to keep tabs on them now!
on projects since January are mostly winding up
field / lab work. News from Maaike Milligan’s field
site in Kenya... the freshwater input is now so great
that crocs have been spotted in the lake for the
So… What’s new?
first time in 20 years!
Plans are afoot to revamp the Aquatic
Ecosystems: Science, Policy & Management
module with the retirement of Prof Alan
Hildrew. I have begun talking with Dr Stephen
Perriss of the Environment Agency who may
contribute a Case Study on the EU Water
Framework Directive with practical input from
our River Communities Group based in Dorset.
Fine use of blue safety gloves.... when handling ferocious elvers! A sister programme, Ecology & Evolutionary
Biology MSc has recieved Part 1 approval and will
Many of the current MSc students have attended soon be promoted on the web to recruit in 2013.
the training course and involved themselves with
the Citizen Science project eel monitoring on the
R. Lee run by the. Zoological Society of London The latest versions of the Handbook for 2012-13
in partnership with Thames21. Follow this link for are available to download from the FACS & AER
details web pages.
Compiled by Dr Jonathan Grey Type ‘FACS field trips’ into YouTube and see what you get!
E-mail: j.grey@qmul.ac.uk Follow on Twitter @drjongrey Web: www.sbcs.qmul.ac.uk/