#354: Saltmarshes

An interesting piece in Geographical magazine looked at the vital role that saltmarshes will play in mitigating sea level rise caused by Climate change.

I am fortunate to live in Norfolk and can be at a salt marsh within 25 minutes of leaving my home. They are wonderful places and last month came into bloom with sea lavender and other plants cloaking them in colour.

You can find their locations using the MAGIC application which I have blogged about here separately.

Image: Flowering plants on salt marsh in Norfolk, by Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license.

#221: Making Space for Sand

Making Space for Sand is a project I was made aware of recently. Sand Dunes are an important habitat, but they face a number of threats.

The ‘Building Community Resilience on a Dynamic Coastline by Making Space for Sand’ project (also known as Making Space for Sand or MS4S) is one of 25 national projects funded by DEFRA as part of the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme (FCRIP). 

The programme will drive innovation in flood and coastal resilience and adaptation to a changing climate.

The project website has an excellent section outlining the formation of Sand Dunes, particularly within the located context of Cornwall.

Sand Dunes are an important part of the coastal defences in the locations where they are found. I am particularly familiar with the dunes on the North Norfolk Coast at places like Holkham. 

I've previously carried out fieldwork on those dunes with both GCSE and 'A' level students, and also 

Atkins has provided GIS support and created some visualisations of future landscapes.

#158: Ancient Earth

Exploring the development of the world's continents and its changing tectonic history is part of the suggested specification.

Discover when you home was last under the sea with this interactive globe of the Earth's changing sea levels over the last 135,000 years.https://t.co/xfV3bnurdx pic.twitter.com/1O1BC0ew1U

— gmapsmania mapstodon.space/@mapsmania (@gmapsmania) November 2, 2023

Check out the map here.

About 300 million years ago, Earth didn't have seven continents, but instead one massive supercontinent called Pangaea, which was surrounded by a single ocean called Panthalassa.

This would go well along with the Ancient Earth map, which allows you to go back through phases of life on Earth.

This is an interesting area of the proposed specification. I will be interested to see whether this remains in the final document as it is quite a different period of natural history - when certain species emerged for the first time according to evidence in the fossil record.

#47: Natural History Podcasts #2 - Our Broken Planet

A new Natural History Museum Podcast has been made available. There are several episodes currently available.

They might be of interest to those preparing entries for the RGS Young Geographer of the Year competition with its theme of 'A Blueprint for the Future'.

Tune in for stories from the forefront of the planetary emergency. Along the way, we’ll unpack how we got here and discover solutions from science and nature that could help tackle the problems facing our world. Each episode explores one of the challenges facing nature globally, from wildfires to plastic pollution, zoonotic diseases to farming and beyond.

Join your hosts Tori Herridge and Khalil Thirlaway as they transport you around the globe to the front lines of the climate change and biodiversity crises.

Details:

Episode 1
A rising tide: Melting ice sheets and sea level rises

With:

• Selina Leem - Climate activist from the Marshall Islands
• Laura Tenenbaum - Climate expert and former NASA scientist
• Dr Mark Spalding - Senior marine scientist with the Nature Conservancy and mangrove expert
• Dr Bethan Davies - Glaciologist from Newcastle University
• Iris Moeller - Professor of Geography at the University of Dublin

Episode 2
Fire: Life in the New Pyrocene

With:

• Dr Sandy Knapp - Botanist and merit researcher of plants at the Natural History Museum
• Professor David Bowman - Fire researcher, University of Tasmania
• Nerilie Abram - Paleoclimatologist from the Australian National University
• Elizabeth Azzuz - Traditional fire practitioner from California

There are also links to related content, such as an illustrated guide to what we can do to save the planet.