'Back in buzziness'

Awareness of the plight of bees and other insect pollinators, both across the UK and globally, has grown in recent years. One of the main contributing factors is habitat loss and the decline in flowers that provide nectar and pollen, which are vital resources for pollinators. This was highlighted by research conducted by Mathilde Baude and colleagues from the University of Bristol, which featured on the cover of the journal Nature this February (Baude et al., 2016).

Image courtesy of Nature.

Facilitated by generous support from the Alumni Foundation and a Grow For It Award grant, a group of students at the University of Bristol initiated a project to address this issue. Using recycled scaffolding planks from the Bristol Wood Recycling Project, they constructed two raised beds to be sown with a highly diverse mixture of native wildflowers.

Raised beds created at the University of Bristol behind the Biomedical Sciences building using recycled scaffolding planks and native wildflowers.

Get Bristol Buzzing assisted in selecting the seed mix, which is made up of annuals and perennials of thirty-seven species (including some rare species). When complete, the planters will create over 30 m2 of rich urban pollinator habitat.

In June 2016, student volunteers prepared one of the planters with topsoil and recycled construction material from the local area. The meadow, which occupies a previously open concrete space behind the Biomedical Sciences building, is in now in bloom and buzzing with bees.

Next year, a group of student volunteers will prepare the remaining bed, ready for the summer. There are also plans to organise other events and workshops to continue to raise awareness amongst students, while sharing information on practical ways in which individuals can contribute to creating more pollinator habitat. Student volunteers will also be responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the beds.

The diverse meadows not only create habitat for pollinators and other insects, but also provide food for seed-eating birds and shelter for small animals. As well as promoting biodiversity within the campus, the meadows are sure to contribute positively to the wellbeing of staff, students and members of the public who use this space.

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This blog is written by Harry Wells, from the Bristol Hub, a student-led group offering practical volunteering, skilled placements, project incubation and events to help you shape a better world.

Converting probabilities between time-intervals

This is the first in an irregular sequence of snippets about some of the slightly more technical aspects of uncertainty and risk assessment. If you have a slightly more technical question, then please email me and I will try to answer it with a snippet. Suppose that an event has a probability of 0.015 (or 1.5%) of happening at least once in the next five years. Then the probability of the event happening at least once in the next year is 0.015 / 5 = 0.003 (or 0.3%), and the probability of it happening at least once in the next 20 years is 0.015 * 4 = 0.06 (or 6%). Here is the rule for scaling probabilities to different time intervals: if both probabilities (the original one and the new one) are no larger than 0.1 (or 10%), then simply multiply the original probability by the ratio of the new time-interval to the original time-interval, to find the new probability. This rule is an approximation which breaks down if either of the probabilities is greater than 0.1. For example

1-in-200 year events

You often read or hear references to the ‘1-in-200 year event’, or ‘200-year event’, or ‘event with a return period of 200 years’. Other popular horizons are 1-in-30 years and 1-in-10,000 years. This term applies to hazards which can occur over a range of magnitudes, like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, space weather, and various hydro-meteorological hazards like floods, storms, hot or cold spells, and droughts. ‘1-in-200 years’ refers to a particular magnitude. In floods this might be represented as a contour on a map, showing an area that is inundated. If this contour is labelled as ‘1-in-200 years’ this means that the current rate of floods at least as large as this is 1/200 /yr, or 0.005 /yr. So if your house is inside the contour, there is currently a 0.005 (0.5%) chance of being flooded in the next year, and a 0.025 (2.5%) chance of being flooded in the next five years. The general definition is this: ‘1-in-200 year magnitude is x’ = ‘the current rate for eve

Coconuts and climate change

Before pursuing an MSc in Climate Change Science and Policy at the University of Bristol, I completed my undergraduate studies in Environmental Science at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. During my final year I carried out a research project that explored the impact of extreme weather events on coconut productivity across the three climatic zones of Sri Lanka. A few months ago, I managed to get a paper published and I thought it would be a good idea to share my findings on this platform. Climate change and crop productivity There has been a growing concern about the impact of extreme weather events on crop production across the globe, Sri Lanka being no exception. Coconut is becoming a rare commodity in the country, due to several reasons including the changing climate. The price hike in coconuts over the last few years is a good indication of how climate change is affecting coconut productivity across the country. Most coconut trees are no longer bearing fruits and thos

Cabot Institute for the Environment blog

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