Wednesday 15th December: Bake a cake and bring it along!

Next Wednesday will be the last session of this term. Friday 17th Dec. is the end of term.

Why not celebrate your remarkable achievement of making it through your first term by baking a cake and bringing it along to share with fellow students and starving/underfed staff?

I will bring along some mince pies (sadly not homemade - but I will have some brandy butter).

Mark

EGS Seminar Tuesday 14 December 2010

Tuesday 14th December, E0.05 from 1.00-2.00 pm.



Lunch, and an opportunity to chat with the speaker, will be in room E402 from 12:30. All are invited!

Dr Susan Page, University of Leicester


‘Tropical Peatlands : A Burning Issue’



Peatlands are important terrestrial carbon stores and vital components of global carbon soil-atmosphere exchange processes. In this regard, tropical peatlands, most of which occur in Southeast Asia, are particularly important. These are carbon-dense ecosystems which contain around 89 Gt carbon , i.e. as much as 19 % of the global peatland carbon store. At the current time, however, tropical peatlands are vulnerable to destabilisation through both human and climate induced changes. Anthropogenic land use changes include poor forest and land management practices, large-scale conversion to plantation agriculture and settlement; these reduce the peatland carbon store and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, whilst compromising other valuable ecosystem services, e.g. biodiversity support and hydrological regulation. Climate induced changes include an increased susceptibility to drought-impacts, particularly during ENSO-events, with indications that regional climates in some areas with extensive peatlands are experiencing reduced rainfall.

This talk will review the current understanding of carbon-climate human interactions on tropical peatlands. It will focus on the main causes of land use and land cover change (deforestation, drainage, fire) and will consider the risks that these pose to the peatland carbon pool and the scale of the resultant carbon emissions. It will also address the main drivers of peatland degradation, particularly conversion to oil palm and pulpwood plantations. The talk will conclude by considering likely responses of tropical peatlands and peat swamp forests to a changing climate and the scope for mitigative action, e.g. through ecosystem rehabilitation and upcoming initiatives to support avoided deforestation and reduced emissions.

Student Natural Selection and Room Changes

Hi All,
I noticed that due to the cold weather, only about half of you managed to make it in this week - survival of the fittest (or those with best transport) allowed a small number of you to make it in.

Please note that new units started...EG7517 Air, Water and Land: Science and Policy (with Prof. Kevin Taylor) and EG7518 The Sustainable City (with Dr Steve Millington). If you missed the start of these new units, you may want to fire off an email to the relevant tutor to ask if there is anything you need to do to catch up - or have any handouts kept for you for next week:
Prof Kevin Taylor: k.g.taylor@mmu.ac.uk and
Dr Steve Millington: s.millington@mmu.ac.uk

Please note that the new teaching room is now E201 (so please don't go to E412 any more).
The rooms will change again after Christmas - so please refer to the year planner you were given back in September.

Cheers
Mark (Ho ho ho!)

EGS Seminar Tuesday 07 December 2010

Tuesday 07th December, E0.05 from 1.00-2.00 pm.
Lunch, and an opportunity to chat with the speaker, will be in room E402 from 12:30. All are invited!

Professor Chris Perry, MMU

‘Fish as a Newly Discovered Source of Carbonate Sediment: Their Role in the Tropical Carbonate Factory’



This talk will focus on the recent discovery that marine bony fish (like barracuda, flatfish and grouper, collectively known as 'teleosts') excrete high volumes of calcium carbonate from their guts and that this represents a major, but previously unknown, source of fine-grained carbonate sediment. Teleosts precipitate this carbonate within their guts as a by-product of continuously drinking Ca- and Mg-rich seawater, excreting the ingested marine Ca and Mg as insoluble carbonate within mucus envelopes. Our recent research, funded through a NERC small grant in 2008, lead to a series of novel findings regarding the significance of fish-derived carbonates within tropical marine environments, and which have potentially major implications for the field of carbonate sedimentology.

Firstly, we generated the first data on the compositional and morphological characteristics of the carbonates produced by any marine fish, showing that tropical fish produce a diverse array of fine-grained, mainly high Mg-calcite crystals, and that crystal morphologies fundamentally differ from those associated with all known biogenic and abiotic sources of marine carbonate. These carbonates are thus highly relevant to the controversial issue of where tropical carbonate muds are sourced from. Secondly, using our own newly measured fish carbonate production rate data from the Bahamas, combined with fish biomass data based on existing ecological surveys, we made the first regional-scale estimates of fish carbonate production in the tropics. Our data indicate that fish produce ~6 million kilograms of carbonate sediment each year across the Bahamas (equivalent to ~14 % of estimated total carbonate mud production, and up to 70 % in particular habitats). Thirdly, we have made the crucial observation that the crystals produced by fish occur commonly in the finest sediment fractions of surface sediments from all sedimentary environments examined in the Bahamas, thus demonstrating that such material does indeed represent both a novel and quantitatively important source of marine carbonate sediment. This presentation will discuss our current understanding of this recently discovered process and consider major areas of future research interest arising from this work.

Research Seminar: Conservation & Biodiversity

Thursday 9th Dec. (13.00-17.45). All Saints LT, 3rd floor All Saints Building.
This should be of interest to all EMSD students....


PROGRAMME:



13.00 Welcome

13.05         Ecology & Conservation of the Kipunji (Rungwecebus kipunji) in Southern Tanzania. Claire Bracebridge PhD student, MMU

13.35         Molecular tracking of Black Rhinoceros in Chyulu NP, Kenya. Bradley Cain PhD Student, MMU

14.05          Factors associated with abundance and extinction risk in hoverflies.  Ali Mansour PhD Student, MMU

14.35      Ecological release and the Taxon Cycle an island paradox.Danny Norey PhD Student, MMU


15.05 Tea & coffee



15.45          Habitat suitability modeling for Black Grouse in Perthshire, Scotland. Matthew Greary PhD Student, MMU

16.15                    Conservation triage and protecting the Tree-of-Life.
Dave Redding Post Doctoral Fellow, MMU
          
16.45         Conservation of the rarest crocodile: a Philippine case study. Merlijn van Weerd University of Leiden, Netherlands.  

17.30 Close

From: Careers & Employability Service
Date: Fri Nov 19 15:18:28 2010
Subject: MMU Professional Passport deadline this Wednesday

The deadline for applications for this year's MMU Professional
Passport is Wednesday this week. Please encourage your students
to get their applications in by 5pm on Wednesday 24th.

The MMU Professional Passport is our highly successfully
employability award, which is available to second, third and
taught masters students. It is a stand alone programme which
replicates a graduate recruitment process and it will equip
students to compete in the ever-increasingly tough graduate
labour market. Successful students receive the award at their
degree ceremony.

Our research has shown that students value the opinion of
academic staff and that most participants have been encouraged
to undertake the Passport by their tutors, so your help in
promoting the Passport is essential. Publicity material is
available in Student Information Points and Student Life Offices
or from the Careers & Employability Service.

Should you wish to promote the Passport in induction talks,
PowerPoint slides are available at
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/careers/staff/resources

For more information visit http://www.mmu.ac.uk/passport

Thank you in advance for your support.
The MMU Professional Passport Team

Budding Film Producers Wanted!

Would any of you be interested in helping to produce a YouTube promotional video for the MSc courses?

This would entail using film recording equipment loaned by MMU and editing a finished promo video for wider distribution. Short talking-head interviews with current fellow students and some alumni (organised my myself to come in and meet you to discuss career prospects etc)....and the film footage from the MSc field trip available from myself and John R etc.. I will ask Media Services to make the editing suite available and provide some training...it could be some useful experience if you have an interest in new media.

Please drop me an email if you are interested.

many thanks
Mark

EGS Seminar Tuesday 16th November 2010

Tuesday 16th November, E0.05 from 1.00-2.00 pm.



Lunch, and an opportunity to chat with the speaker, will be in room E402 from 12:30. All are invited!


Dr Steve Boult, University of Manchester


Spinning Out and Spinning Out of Control – Taking Environmental Research to Market



Environmental impacts previously regarded as externalities are being brought into the market and, therefore, the market for environment-related goods and services is growing. This talk focuses on whether this expanding market coincides with environmental research and, if so, how and where. Concerns particular to developing and marketing a product to the environmental sector are discussed, as are issues related to developing a University spinout (rather than any other business model).

The above is illustrated by reference to Salamander Ltd, a spinout from the University of Manchester that has developed a range of products – Hydraclam, Chloroclam and Gasclam – for monitoring extensive assets, including the natural environment. Many examples are given of how not to design products and target markets. I will also give advice on protecting intellectual property and acquiring funding.

Placement Fair

Hi all. This might interest you although it clashes with classes unfortunately.
cheers, Mick

Date: Wed Oct 27 16:23:22 2010
Subject: MMUBS Placement Fair & Career Development Day

MMUBS Placement Fair & Career Development Day

Wednesday 17th November 2010
12.30pm - 3.30pm
John Dalton Building, Oxford Road (opposite the BBC)

This event is open to students seeking placements, internships,
vacation work and graduate positions

Find out more and pre-register online now at:
www.business.mmu.ac.uk/placements/placementfair

EGS Seminar Tuesday 09th November 2010

Tuesday 09^th November, E0.05 from 1.00-2.00 pm.  

Lunch, and an opportunity to chat with the speaker, will be in room E402 from 12:30. All are invited!

Dr David Redding, MMU

‘Big Bird Trees, Bar Codes and Conserving the Tree-of-life’

There are limited funds available for an increasingly large number of threatened species. ‘Conservation triage’ is the young science of deciding which threatened species we cannot afford to let go, rather than simply attending to species in order of their threat of extinction. To achieve triage, however, we have to decide on other ways to value species relative to one another.

Raw genetic code is one possible unit of biodiversity, indeed one that is not biased by historical taxonomic decisions. If we accept this as our unit, it is logical to aim to preserve the greatest possible amount of genetic information with the fewest species, given our remit to conserve biodiversity with limited funds.

Each species contribution to conserving genetic information is not equal, with some species having, for instance, a much greater amount of unique evolutionary history than others. Consider the ostrich and the common crow: the crow has several hundred species that it could consider close or medium-close relatives, while the ostrich has none and, moreover, it split off from the evolutionary tree of birds roughly 40 million years ago (compared to the crow's 1-2 MY). In the last 40 million years, the ostrich is likely to have accrued many genetic changes that are found nowhere else in the evolutionary tree of birds.

In this talk, I demonstrate two novel ways to measure how many close relatives a species has, thus quantifying a species’ possible contribution to conserving genetic information. I also show how we can include a measure of this evolutionary isolation into current conservation policy, as recently demonstrated by the EDGE project (www.edgeofexistence.org). As part of the next phase of the EDGE project, I will discuss how we will use a newly-developed phylogeny of the world’s birds to establish the EDGE birds list. Finally, to extend this conservation approach into less well-known taxonomic groups, I show that we may be able to use the increasingly large amount of genetic barcode data becoming available to isolate those invertebrate species that may be important contributors to conserving the tree of life.

Masters Poster Invitation

Hi All,

Your predeccesors (mostly 2009-10 Masters Students) are presenting their dissertation topic posters for examination this week - and will mark the end of their MSc/MA.

You are invited to view the posters and chat with the 'old lags' before they go for good. The posters will be on display along 'the street' (by the Chester Road entrance to the JD Building near the JD Refectory). You can go between 11am and 12:30pm this week (Thursday 4th Nov).

Cheers
Mark

EGS Seminar - Tuesday 02 November 2010

Tuesday 02nd November, E0.05 from 1.00-2.00 pm.


Lunch, and an opportunity to chat with the speaker, will be in room E402 from 12:30. All are invited!

‘ As Found: Contested (re)appropriations within the ‘left-over’ spaces of the city’
In this talk Jo will discuss ‘informal,’ left-over spaces which are intrinsic to the planning system and the ordering, zoning and separating of the urban landscape. Such interstitial, dis-used and marginal geographical spaces emerge in various urban locations and punctuate the staged and controlled official public sites and the everyday, ubiquitous spaces of the contemporary city. According to De Sola-Morales (1995: 120) these ‘strange places exist outside the city’s effective circuits and productive structures,’ and from an economic point of view represent places ‘where the city is no longer.’
Their qualities are overlooked, and in various discourses from the realms of architecture, planning, design and urban theory, they are depicted negatively. Represented on official maps as ‘a white mark’, they remain ignored until planners, architects and developers realise their real estate value. As places once used but now abandoned, to an authoritarian viewpoint they represent unacceptable socio-economic abandonment, contrary to the ideal image of the city. Yet, Jo suggests, they also represent a ‘domain of unfulfilled promise and unlimited opportunity’ (Cupers and Miessen 2002: 83). Over time these non prescriptive, liminal spaces acquire and express multiple and shifting social, aesthetic, political and economic meanings as opposed to clarity of function and distinct identity. They provide the context for instances of ‘pure potentiality’ (Anderson: 2010) to unfold, allow for alternative readings of space and offer a temporary context for activities normally prohibited. Jo proposes that policy makers and city officials could learn from the transient qualities of these spaces and the activities that enliven them, rethinking them as a resource rather than a hindrance to the city.

IMPORTANT: message from Liz Price

Dear Student,

Please take some time NOW to familiarise yourself with the Exceptional Factors Submission
Guidance in the Faculty Student Handbook available at:

http://www.sci-eng.mmu.ac.uk/students/handbook/except_factors_sub_guide.pdf .

In particular, please note that if you experience exceptional factors that affect an
assessment you should hand in an Exceptional Factors Form to the Student information
Point (SIP) either before, or on, the deadline of an affected assessment. Further
important information is provided in the guidance notes.

Best wishes,

Liz

* * *Faculty Staff-Student Liaison Meeting* * *

***EMSD Staff - Student Liaison Meeting***

Hello all,

This coming Wednesday is the Staff-Student Liaison meeting for EMSD at 3pm. As we have a self study week and I will not be see you before the meeting, I am having to ask for views over the blog/email.

Do you have any issues you would like to raise with staff - Negative or Positive?

Any comments you would like to be addressed?

If you could please email me your views/issues that I can take forward and hopefully they will be resolved and/or addressed ASAP

My email is

siobhangibbons@msn.com
or 07129283@stu.mmu.ac.uk

All feedback will be anonymous and would appreciate the email before Weds at the latest.

Thanks guys

Siobhan

Research Seminar

Tuesday 19^th October, E0.05 from 1.00-2.00 pm.  

Lunch, and an opportunity to chat with the speaker, will be in room E402 from 12:30. All are invited!

Dr Scott Smithers, James Cook University, Queensland Australia

'Coral microatoll records of sea-level change in the Indian and Pacific Oceans'

Coral microatolls are intertidal corals with morphologies that can accurately record sea level position at high resolution and with high fidelity.  They occur in mid-ocean settings, where long-term instrumental sea level records are scarce, where geophysical models predict important evidence of 'far-field' sea level trends during the postglacial transgression should be located, and where many low-lying islands likely to be directly affected by projected future sea level changes are concentrated. 

This seminar presents an overview of microatolls as sea-level indicators before presenting the results of several sea level investigations using microatolls in both the Indian and Pacific Oceans.  The focus in on key debates to do with the occurrence and elevation of a mid-Holocene highstand in the Indian Ocean, and the reality or otherwise of oscillating sea level during the late Holocene in the Pacific, as advocated by other researchers.  The seminar concludes with an account of some recent research in Papua New Guinea, where the inhabitants of an extremely remote low-lying atoll are being pressured by the government to migrate due to sea level rise issues, but where microatolls suggests there has actually been relative sea level fall.

IMPORTANT: Your Student Representatives

Hi All,

I am pleased to say that we now have a student representative for both EMSD and SA:

EMSD:

Ms Siobhan Gibbons (SIOBHAN.GIBBONS@stu.mmu.ac.uk)

Sustainable Aviation (SA):

Mr Andreas Pericleous (ANDREAS.PERICLEOUS@stu.mmu.ac.uk)

These student Reps will represent you all at the regular Faculty Staff-Student Liaison Meetings.

If you have any issues you would like to raise - and bring to the attention of the Faculty - please get in contact with your Rep.

Congratulations to both Siobhan and Adreas.....and thanks!

Cheers

Mark

UPDATED: University Regulations

The revised versions of the Assessment Regulations for


Undergraduate and Taught Postgraduate Programmes 2010-11 are now

available on the CASQE Website:
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/academic/grad_regulations.php

Summaries of the revisions to the regulations, their appendices

and the criteria for Boards of Examiners are also available

through this website.

Mark.

Attention: Overseas or English speakers with low confidence

There is an approved, intensive English language course to help those of you who need more confidence with written and spoken English - specifically tailored for environmental sciences. This is especially important given the need for advanced English language skills at postgraduate level:

Direct link to their page is HERE

Mark

Milk for 3-4pm coffee break

Hi Folks,

There is a fresh pint of milk in the fridge in E402 for you all to use during the 3-4pm coffee break.

Do PLEASE put it back in the fridge - it was left out last week without the lid on - and I had to throw it out!

Thanks
Mark

Student Reps Needed

Hi Folks,

It is university policy to have a student representative assigned for each degree course. I therefore need a student Rep for EMSD and Sustainable Aviation. Francis will probably be chasing the Countryside Management folks separately.

If you would like to be a Rep, please email me and I can draw up a shortlist for the rest of you (there are only a couple of you studying SA!).

This is an impoprtant role - you would be asked to sit on a couple of staff-student liaison meetings throughout the year (coffee and biscuits provided). You would be representing your fellow students and raising any issues (good or bad) you want to bring to our attention. It can be quite useful for the CV later - a position of responsibility!

Thanks
Mark

Microsoft Office Professional: Special Price

Hi Everyone,

I mentioned at induction that you are all entitled to get the top version of Office 2010 for under 50 pounds - using your mmu.ac.uk email address to register. No media - it is a download and you can install it on TWO machines. The link is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/student/office/en-gb/default.aspx

Cheers
Mark

EG7532 Research Methods Unit

Hi folks'

Mike Bennett has asked me to tell you (full-timers) that there will be NO session at 12pm tomorrow (wed 22nd) for Research Design and Methods- the unit kicks off properly NEXT WEEK.

Mark


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Academic Writing Workshop Resources

Hi All,

The Academic Writing and Plagiarism session will be on Tuesday 21st September at 9am in room E322.

There is an MMU Harvard Referencing Handbook which can be downloaded HERE.

A Video podcast of the presentation will be available on iTunes.

Cheers
Mark

WELCOME to new MSc Students

Your Student Support / Student Services Resources

Exceptional Factors – disclose via the SIP Office



Faculty Student Support Officer – Emma Rayner (e.rayner@mmu.ac.uk)


Student Union - http://www.mmunion.co.uk/


Student Services - http://www.mmu.ac.uk/academic/studserv/


Student Information Points (SIPs) – http://www.siphelp.mmu.ac.uk/


Regulations – http://www.mmu.ac.uk/academic/quality_assurance.php


Student Reps (3) – 1 from CM, 1 from EMSD, 1 from SA - to be appointed !


If in doubt, contact Mark Cresswell (m.cresswell@mmu.ac.uk)

EG4313 Masters Project Session

Hi All Full-Time Masters Students,

Your last timetabled session is tomorrow (Wednesday 26th May) with Dr Steve Hoon - talking about your Project dissertation (1pm in the usual room E303).

This is also the final coffee session with biscuits in E402 at 2pm :-(

PLEASE ATTEND - it is very important !

Thanks
Mark

A Sustainable Future for Water and Sanitation? Postgraduate Workshop

Dear all
I am planning an informal workshop in London on Thurs 17 June 2010 for
academics and postgraduates working on water and sanitation issues. An
outline of the workshop is below. I hope to have around 3 short
presentations by academics and 6-8 short presentations by postgrad
students, with plenty of time allocated for discussion.

Apologies for the quite late notice, but it should be a great
opportunity for discussion.

A Sustainable Future for Water and Sanitation? Postgraduate Workshop
10.30am – 5pm, Thurs 17 June 2010
@ 11 Bedford Square, Royal Holloway, University of London

This informal workshop will be an opportunity for academics and
postgraduate students to present and discuss ongoing research on water
and sanitation. Two sessions will be held: one focusing on the
sustainability of water and sanitation interventions, and the other
discussing the relevance of academic research in water and sanitation
to policy and practice. The workshop will have a limited number of
participants to encourage discussion and help create an informal
network of postgraduate students researching water and sanitation.

Attendance at the workshop is free but registration is required and
places are limited. Please email Stephen Jones (s.d.jones@rhul.ac.uk)
to reserve a place, with a sentence summarising your research
interests.

Students interested in making a short presentation at the workshop
should email an abstract of 150 words max to Stephen Jones
(s.d.jones@rhul.ac.uk) by Friday 4 June 2010. Presentations should be
clearly targeted within one of the two sessions.

Word Cloud

I thought you might like to see a word cloud of the content of this blog so far. This is easily done at http://www.wordle.net/ - fantastic! Dawn

List of Dissertation Supervisors Allocated to Students

Hi Everyone,

Both Mick Hillman and myself were expecting a good turnout this Wednesday - and to discuss your supervision arrangements (for those of you who did not know who your supervisor is). Only two of you turned up to the coffee break - and both of them already knew who their supervisor was !!

You can find out who your superviser is (if you don't already know) by downloading an Excel file here:
http://www.ukscience.org/Masters_Supervision_List_2010.xls

Dissertation Topics PLEASE!

Hi folks,

In spite of repeated requests.... to those of you who have not yet been allocated a supervisor... to send me details of your desired dissertation topic...I have only had one reply !!

We need to know what you want to do in order to match you to a supervisor. PLEASE email me ASAP if you don't yet have a supervisor - with your desired research dissertation topic (and try to give as much detail as possible - rather than just a brief vague title)

Thanks
Mark

MSc Review Event: Thursday 29th April

Hi Everyone,

Following on from my earlier email to you all on April 6th (copied to you again today) - I now need confirmation of your attendance so I can notify the Faculty of who is coming.

A couple of you have already emailed me back to confirm your presence (thanks) - but I need the rest of you to do that ASAP.

If I do not receive an email from you, then I will assume you cannot come for legitimate reasons. We hope that all full-time students will be able to attend.

This is a VERY important event - and will only take an hour or so of your time - but we will be most grateful for you being available for that time.

I look forward to hearing back from you by email (if I haven't already) by Monday (26th) afternoon




Thanks
Mark

Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES)

Hi Folks,

Some of you will have received an email from the university (sent on 16th April), inviting you to participate in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES). Please check your MMU email to read the invitation and follow the link to the online survey page:


https://my.mmu.ac.uk/Pages/postgradsurvey.aspx

(you will need to login with your MMU network login credentials)


Thanks
Mark

First EG4316 Lecture THIS WEEK

Hi Folks,

The first EG4316 lecture (Methods for Environmental & Geographical Research) will take place at 1pm in room E303.

I will be standing in for Jane this first week as she is away at a jolly conference. The support documents and Assignment are available from WEBCT.

Mark

Statistics Video Tutorials

Hi Folks,

As you hone your skills for working on your research topic - one area you will need to think about is statistical analysis. Jane Boygle can provide advice (or your supervisors) - but in case you have not used SPSS before there are a series of SPSS video tutorials available to view at:

http://www.ukscience.org/videos.html

(scroll down to 'Part 3')

You can get a copy of SPSS (Windows only) from the University Library

An invite !

Hi folks,

I would like ALL of you to be involved with this blog - so you should be getting an invitation to be a blog author shortly. You will need a free Googlemail account -but you probably already have one when you set up your online CV (right?).

Mark


-- sent from mobile device

Video Podcasts on iTunes

Hi,

I will be putting a series of video podcasts on iTunes for you all - mainly skills and useful information.
Go to the Podcast area of the iTunes Store and put 'MMU MSC' or 'MMU MA' into the search-box (you will get exactly the same page - all MSc and MA vid podcasts are together).

It's a bit boring at the moment - just a how-to video on how to access online journals !!
You can also access the feed directly from the link on the right hand side of this page.

A free MARS BAR to the first person who identifies the creepy intro music I have used in the podcast !!

Cheers
Mark

Welcome Folks !!

Hi everyone,

I intend to use this blog as a means of communicating with all of you... and with staff. It is probably more efficient than email.

I will be using the blog as a means of announcing important news - so please check regularly.

Remember that there are many distance leaner and part-time students that 'miss out' on the social scene that you full-time hedonists enjoy... so please try to keep them in the loop here.

That is all from me....for now ;-)

Mark