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Scientific ResearchPractical Outlines for Term 1 and Term 2

As part of Scientific Research you will each complete 2 practical projects,

each lasting 4 weeks. The 1

st

practical project will run for the last 4 weeks ofterm starting on Monday 22nd November. You will carry out your secondpractical after Christmas (first 4 weeks of next term).You have a choice of 1 practical from 4 on offer this term and, again, a choiceof 1 from 4 practicals on offer next term. I have included in the list below all 8practicals that are on offer. The first 4 will run this term, the second 4 will runnext term.

Please sign up for the practical that you want to do this term by Friday19th November at 12.00, the signing up sheets are displayed on theGeography 2nd year notice board along the bottom corridor in the

Geography Department.There is a maximum of 24 people allowed on each practical, the practicals willbe filled on a first come first served basis. The sheets will be taken down onFriday 19th November at 12.00. Anyone who has not signed up for a practicalby this time will be allocated to one.Also please make a note of the time and place of your first practicalsession and make sure you turn up to the correct location.

Scientific Research Practicals running this term (numbers 1 4)

Practical 1. The recognition and use of planktonic foraminifera inpalaeoceanography and climate reconstructions.

Supervisor: James Casford1st session: Monday 22nd November, 9.00 12.00 room CM219

This project will look at the use of micropalaeontology in studies of past marinecirculation and climate variability.

You will be introduced to the major species of

modern planktonic foraminifera and their favouredhabitats. This information will then be used tointerpret different faunal assemblages using lightmicroscopes. The practical element of this projectwill be based on the identification of a number ofdifferent individual species and the use of thisknowledge will be applied to a number of unknown

samples to determine the probable climate/circulation regimes they represent.This will be followed by a detail analysis of a foraminifera based faunaldataset. The project will is comprised of an initial introductory briefing, asupervised - microscope based - laboratory session and allocated time for the

data analysis.


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Practical 2. Data analysis with StataSupervisor: Nick Cox1st session: Monday 22nd November, 9.00 12.00 room (computer roomopposite GRC)

This project will provide further training on graphical and statistical analysisusing Stata. A variety of data sets, mostly from physical geography, will beavailable, and there is scope for students to work with data sets of their ownchoice where suitable. The assessed work will be a report on a modellinganalysis of a geographical data set.

Practical 3. Vegetation history from Northern EnglandSupervisor: Jim Innes1st Session: Tuesday 23rd November

In this project you will gain experience in pollen identification and also the

interpretation of pollen data. During the transition from the Last GlacialMaximum to the Holocene and, subsequently, during the Holocene there havebeen significant changes in vegetation patterns across the UK. Thesechanges can be linked to changes in climate and also to anthropogenicinfluences. In the project you will identify and count the pollen spectra from asite in Northern England. Using this data and by comparison with otherpublished records you will interpret the changes in vegetation history throughtime from this sequence.

Practical 4. Landscape reconstruction: Devensian Ice Sheet history inNE EnglandSupervisor: Dave Roberts1st Session: Thursday 25th November, 11.00 14.00, room CM219

The NE coast of England was extensively glaciated during the last ice age,with ice sheets from northern Britain occupying the east coast as far south asthe North Norfolk coast. Previous work has shown there to be a series oflandforms and sediments in the Durham area which detail the glacialprocesses which took place during the Devensian and which allow us tounderstand how our landscape was shaped.This practical will include one days fieldwork (Saturday 27th November) and

follow up practical sessions aimed at the reconstruction and understanding ofthe glacial history of the Durham and Northumberland coasts. The field trip willobserve the glacial geomorphology and glacial sedimentology of the area andintroduce students to the field techniques used to describe, analyse andinterpret ice sheet behaviour in order to reconstruct a glacial landscapemodel.

Scientific Research Practicals running during the 2nd term(numbers 5 8)


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Practical 5. Dam failures and flooding impacts on the formation of theUllswater Glenridding Lake Delta.Dr Jeff Warburton

Ullswater is the second largest lake in the Lake District and in common with

many other Lake District catchments has suffered the environmental impactsof lead mining. These impacts include the delivery of contaminated sedimentto stream courses and indirect effects such as failures of dams resulting inflooding. In the Ullswater catchment the Green Side lead mine is the mostimportant and this was affected by three separate dam break floods in 1877,1927 and 1931. The aim of this project is to assess the impact of these eventson sedimentation in Ullswater and the development of the Glenridding LakeDelta. You will be provided with a survey of the topography of the lake deltaand a series of short sediment cores collected across the delta and out intodeeper water. The cores will be analysed using an automated multisensorcore logging system and sub sampled for heavy metal analysis and grain-size

determination. Results will be used to document the onset of mining activity inthe catchment, the occurrence of the three major flood events and thesignificance of these events on sedimentation.

Practical 6. Holocene Relative Sea-level Changes in the UKSupervisor: Jerry Lloyd

An understanding of past sea-level change is critical in improving our ability topredict future sea-level change. During this project you will reconstruct therelative sea-level history from a site in NW England based on a series ofmodern saltmarsh samples and a core collected in recent years. You willidentify the foraminifera living in the modern environment across a transectfrom saltmarsh to mudflat. You will then investigate the changes inforaminiferal fauna through a sediment core covering the last severalthousand years. The modern data set will then be used to reconstruct pastchanges in sea level from the sediment core. You will then investigate thesignificance of this data by comparison with published data from the region.

Practical 7. Advanced Soil AnalysisSupervisor: Mike Alexander

A common problem in many areas of physical geography is one of analysis ofmaterials for a particular property or range of properties, the key questionbeing how can property 'y' in material 'x' be determined? This question is ofparticular importance in soils, wherenumerous physical, chemical andbiological properties often have to be determined before the soil can beclassified or its fertility assessed. Frequently there are several recommendedmethods of analysis for a particular property, for example; plant availablephosphorus can be determined by at least fifteen different procedures andparticle size analysis can be determined using the hydrometer, pipette or laserparticle sizer. If several methods are recommended, this raises two criticalquestions, which procedure should be used and how comparable are the

results? Using the same soil samples, this practical will investigate these twoquestions. The practical will involve the comparison of the results obtained for


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plant available phosphorus (PAP) by the application of eight differentanalytical procedures on a number of soil samples. By comparing results,participants will be able to assess the effectiveness of different methods ofdetermining PAP, the reliability of the different methods and their use inassessing fertiliser needs.

Practical 8. Alpine glaciers and their future.Supervisor: Ian Evans

Where will your grandchildren be able to see glaciers in the Alps? Startingfrom an inventory of late-twentieth-century glaciers, changes can be predictedfrom glacier altitude, aspect, gradient, size and type. A given warming raisesthe snowline (Equilibrium Line Altitude) and leads to smaller glaciers. Thusanalyses of the present distribution can be used to predict which glaciers willdisappear, and how large the remaining glaciers will be. Students will be

taught how to apply multiple regressions, how to analyse aspect data withcircular statistics and graphics (within stata), and how to cope with missingdata. Unfortunately there can be no field trip; this is essentially an applieddata analysis practical. Inventories can be supplied (and used) for othermountain ranges if requested.

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