The long grind

 

 

 

Back during my undergraduate days my good friend Ed worked at a well known coffee chain (no endorsements on this site).  He would often come home at the end of a day with an air of disappointment after his boss had been complaining that he wasn't making the required quota of 40 SPH (Sandwiches Per Hour), only averaging around 34. One day he came bounding in

The sediment core and the noisy geese



Sediment core collection from large naturally vegetated pond near Ellington, Northumberland.

Having spent much time up at Druridge Bay over the past few years I have come to view the region with peaceful tranquility, looking forward to escaping the busy streets of Newcastle for a days sampling. As you visit a place on a regular basis it is the little seasonal changes you notice, most prominently for me the sounds. Spring is filled with the bleating of lambs, late summer with the ceaseless engines of combined harvesters, but more often than not an eerie silence fills the air.

 

An ecologist, an environmental geochemists, an environmental biogeochemist, a molecular geochemist, a palynologist, a GIS specialist, an environmental systems scientist, a reclamation specialist and two PhD students walk into a bar....

From left: Ulrich Salzmann, Mike Deary, Dave Cooke, Scott Taylor, Mike Jeffries, Paul Mann, Pete Gilbert, Mike Poremba. Abscent from photo: Geoff Abbott, Bruce Carlisle, Peter Glaves

Little over three years ago I was faced with the challenge of choosing a topic for my MSc dissertation, a truly difficult task to produce something original, interesting, meaningful and of environmental significance. Mike J. has been studying the bio-disparity of a region of ponds and wetlands along Druridge Bay, Northumberland, since the early 1990s (http://pondstimeandplace.blogspot.co.uk/) yet it appeared their true significance was being overlooked.