The UK Government has committed to halting the long-term decline of species abundance and protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030. Achieving that commitment will require consideration of the impacts of climate change on wildlife and their ecosystems. Stephanie contributed to a recent Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST)Note led by Wilson Chan […]
Fish passes can reconnect species with habitats blocked by dams – here’s how they work
New article in The Conversation about fish passes by Stephanie Januchowski-Hartley, Swansea University and Virgilio Hermoso, Universidad de Sevilla Over one million dams and culverts (tunnels that encircle rivers passing under roads) block the movements of fish and other wildlife in Europe. Scientists estimate that less than 1% of catchments in the UK are free […]
Understanding Differences Between Lakes and Reservoirs
Understanding Differences Between Lakes and Reservoirs Penny Beames and I published an article today in the journal Frontiers for Young Minds where we present differences between lakes and reservoirs, and why it matters for people and nature. Our article was reviewed by students (ages 14-17) at Peru iGEM Team. The full article is shared below […]
How city roads trap migrating fish
Greater London is crisscrossed by 14,800km of public roads, each with an average width of 8m. This network accounts for 8% of the metropolitan area, and motorways and A-roads alone cross the Thames and its tributaries at least 400 times. A similar picture is seen in cities across the world. You’ve heard of, and maybe […]
Culverts – the major threat to fish you’ve probably never heard of
You probably cross rivers every day without realising it. Beneath the concrete underfoot are culverts – tunnels installed under roads and railways that allow rivers to pass from one side to the other. Like bridges, culverts allow people to cross rivers, but unlike bridges, culverts often don’t allow the fishes living in those rivers to […]
Addressing challenges at road-river crossings
Last week, FIRE Lab hosted a one-day workshop with collaborators Maria Pregnolato (Bristol Uni), and Carlos Cabo and Pipo Roces (Swansea Uni). The focus of the workshop was on bridges, particularly those occur where roads cross over rivers (what we refer to as road-river crossings). At the workshop, we shared ideas about methods and strategies […]
Mapping for the Global River Obstruction Database
Blog Post by Sayali Pawar In a previous blog post about #DamorNot, Steph mentioned that FIRE Lab collaborates on the Global River Obstruction Database (GROD) project led by researchers at the Global Hydrology Lab. Before I continue, let me introduce myself, my name is Sayali, I’m a physical geographer, and a member of the FIRE […]
Getting to know the Twitter game #DamOrNot (post 1/2)
In the summer of 2016 I thought it would be fun to share a post on Twitter about my quest to confirm the locations of different built infrastructure found on rivers in France. I asked Twitter followers whether the infrastructure in the satellite image I posted was a dam, or not. This was a question […]
FIRE LAB 