What's New
What's new...
July 2009
'What's new' items from:
Nigg Bay Coastal Clean-up
31 July 2009
Aberdeen City Council and the East Grampian Coastal Partnership are holding a beach clean on Saturday 8th August 2009 between 11am and 3pm at Nigg Bay, a recognised and designated valuable community and natural space.
Meet at the Nigg Bay Car Park where all clean up equipment will be supplied.
Recent storm puts equipment to the test
23 July 2009
A series of short, sharp rainfall events were dramatically recorded by the Institute's environmental monitoring site at Sourhope. Rainfall during the last couple of weeks culminated in a particularly heavy and prolonged down pour during Friday 17th and the early hours of Saturday 18th July. The weather station record shows that 126mm of rain fell in around 28 hours.
The result was a deluge of water down the usually benign burn and a substantial amount of material washed into the gauging station. "We are still digging to uncover the entrance to the stilling well", said Gordon Common, site caretaker. "We haven’t yet recovered the data but hope that the sonic depth sensor is unharmed and that we will have a complete record of the event".
Down the valley the approach road to Sourhope has been washed out and the repair work, only just completed after last years flood, has unfortunately suffered significant damage.
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Damage to the road on the approach to Sourhope, in the Bowmont valley
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Monitoring equipment on the Rowantree Burn.
Images courtesy Gordon Common.
New Mushroom Species Discovered
21 July 2009
Dr Andy Taylor, a leading fungi expert at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, has been recognised for his role in the recent discovery and description of a new species, Xerocomus silwoodensis by the International Institute for Species Exploration.
This new mushroom species was discovered on Silwood Campus, a campus of Imperial College, London, as was named accordingly. The new species is a non-edible relative of the famous Penny Bun (or Cep, Boletus edulis) commonly used in French cuisine.
The mission of the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) is to inspire, encourage and enable the advancement of taxonomy and exploration of earth’s species and each year the IISE announces a list of the Top 10 New Species for the preceding calendar year.
The new finding was described in the journal Mycological Research by Andy Taylor and his colleagues, Alan Hills, Giampaolo Simonini, José Muňoz and Ursula Eberhardt who share the award. Other notable top ten winners are a 75-million year old giant duck-billed donosaur, a shocking pink millipede and a venomous snake. Read the full list for 2008.
ACES Studentships
20 July 2009
The Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability is offering a number of studentships. The deadline for application is 17th August 2009.
For more information, see the Aberdeen University website.
Guide to Septic Tanks
15 July 2009
A guide to septic tanks created by the Dee Catchment Partnership has been so popular that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has funded the national distribution of the guide.
From 1 April 2006, significant changes to regulations controlling sewage discharges mean that all septic tanks and sewage discharges from domestic properties must be registered with SEPA.
The Big Green Septic Tank Guide explains why regular maintenance is essential to keep septic tanks system safe and working properly and offers tips to keep septic tanks in working order, reducing the number of times they have to be emptied, protecting the environment and saving householders money!
"If your property is not served by a public sewerage system, then your sewage and waste water is likely to be treated by a septic tank or other form of treatment system", explains Dr Susan Cooksley, Project Officer with the Dee Catchment Partnership. "This system retains sewage solids and usually discharges treated liquid effluent to a soakaway where it is further treated by the soil. Effluent can contain chemical residues from household cleaning products which are a major pollutant of watercourses or if systems are not maintained properly, the effluent may also contain dangerous levels of harmful bacteria from the faeces in the tank."
The Dee Catchment Partnership aims to ensure that activities in the River Dee Catchment area do not have a negative impact on the quality of the water in the river. The high quality of the water in the River Dee gives it great value as a habitat for wildlife, for drinking water, as a recreational environment, as a basis for tourism and salmon fishing, and as a central asset underpinning much of the rural economy.
Dr Cooksley continues, “Although the River Dee is regarded as one of the least contaminated of the larger Scottish rivers, contaminants entering the catchment’s water courses from small, separate sources have a major collective impact. In particular, sewage effluent is a major pollutant”.
A copy of the Septic Tank Guide can be downloaded from: www.theriverdee.org
More information on changes to the control of small private sewage discharges can be found on the SEPA website.
Student Bursary Winners Chosen
23 July 2009
Congratulations to Emma Woodham, a 1st year Biochemistry student at the University of Aberdeen and Diana Feliciano, a first year PhD student studying Greenhouse Gas Budgeting and Management with the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, the two winners of the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute student bursary to attend the British Science Festival in Guildford in September.
See the Student Bursary pages for more details.
Read Diana and Emma's blogs from the festival:
You can find more stories about the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in the latest edition of our newsletter, in-land.
News about upcoming events can be found here.
Media releases can be found here.
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Updated: 23 Jan 2024, Content by: CN
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