In conversation with Joanne Norris, PGR Coordinator at the Cabot Institute
What is your role at Cabot Institute?
I am the Postgraduate Research Coordinator for our Master’s by Research in Global Environmental Challenges. My role works with both current and prospective master’s students, but also involves communicating with academics and the Professional Services teams across the University’s Faculties.
How long have you been part of Cabot?
I joined Cabot in January 2019, just as the master’s had been approved and was beginning to be put together. It has been a busy but exciting couple of years since then!
What is your background?
I have a degree in English Literature and had never expected to find myself in an environmental research institute but am delighted that life has brought me here! I spent much of my working career in marketing agencies but left that world to find something more fulfilling. I had always believed that an environmental career wouldn’t be open to me because I’m not a scientist, but one of the things I’ve loved most about working at the Cabot Institute is seeing real world examples of interdisciplinarity research and learning how I can use my own skills to contribute to an issue that will affect each and every one of us.
Why did you want to join the team?
I was aware of the Institute from having attended a past Annual Lecture, and initially joined via the TSS (Temporary Staffing Service). When the job advert was sent to me the first thing, I did was watch the videos on our homepage, and had a very emotional response to them (and I still do when we play them to students!). Reading about the Institute’s research and public engagements really inspired and excited me, and I was utterly thrilled when my position became permanent. It’s a truly wonderful team and a real pleasure to be a part of it.
What do you think is the biggest environmental challenge facing us today?
It’s such a difficult question because everything is so interconnected – nothing happens within silos and that’s something that the Institute’s research themes illustrate really well. Food security is something that particularly stands out – the impacts of global warming both as increased droughts and sea level rise both have catastrophic impacts on food security and will impact the areas that are already suffering the most.
I truly believe that one of the most important things that both we as individuals and governments worldwide need to address is that our poorest and most marginalized communities are already seeing the effects despite contributing the least to global emissions, and it will only get worse – so the pressure must be applied to those most resource-rich to make tangible change now.
What is your favourite part of your job?
I absolutely love hearing our students talking about their research projects! They are so diverse, and you can learn so much. It’s a real privilege to see them at the beginning of their careers. The same goes for our academics – through our events and working with supervisors for master’s projects you can meet so many different people and get an insight into their work, which will never get boring.
What are you most looking forward to over the next 10 years of Cabot?
In 10 years, I hope that the master’s programme has grown even bigger and better! I’m very much looking forward to seeing it change and adapt with each new cohort of students. I also hope that following this year’s COP26 we will start to see policy changes being made, creating even more opportunities for our academics to connect with the public.
As the UK prepares to host the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 (31 October – 12 November) and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 takes place online (11-15 October), I have been looking back over a decade of urban pollinating in Bristol.
One of the four COP26 goals is ‘adapt to protect communities and natural habitats’ which includes Nature Based Solutions (NBS). These are answers to global environmental challenges which are created or inspired by natural processes based on or utilising the functions of nature. For this purpose, the Urban Pollinator Project established first here in Bristol, demonstrates perfectly how natural resolutions can benefit our ecosystems on a local, national, and global scale.
Urban Pollinators
Before 2011 an extraordinarily little amount was known about the ecology of urban pollinators in the UK. Despite pollinators maintaining a vital role in protecting our biodiversity and upholding crucial ecosystems, their role in our ever-expanding cityscapes had yet to be examined.
Only a few plants are able to self-pollinate, and as a result they are reliant on insects, birds, bees, wasps, wind, and water to keep the cogs of pollination turning. Yet, since the 1930s 97% of wildflower meadows, home to many the many species of pollinators, have been lost. As a result of this drastic loss of habitat, a recent report found that a quarter of known bee species have not been sighted since the 1990s. Certainly, an increase in urbanisation and expansion of cities and towns into wilder areas has contributed to such a dramatic decline. And so, the question was posed – how can we make pollinating insects more resilient and adapt to our increasingly urban landscapes?
In 2011 Dr Katherine Baldock, a researcher at the University of Bristol, set out to answer these questions. Leading teams from the University of Reading, Leeds, Edinburgh, and Bristol they embarked on a four-year nationwide initiative researching insect pollinators in urban habitats in the first study of its kind – The Urban Pollinator Project.
Findings
In Bristol, university researchers from the project examined the introduction of wildflower meadows alongside the M32 in July and August 2011. Over half of the species on Bristol’s Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species List are in fact pollinators, and so not only was the Urban pollinators research unique, but vital to the future of our city’s ecology.
The findings from the study were able to report no significant difference between an abundance of pollinators and rare species in these urban wildflower meadows when compared with farms, wild areas, and nature reserves. They were also able to locate “hot spots” of pollinator diversity in cities and most importantly they were able to provide practical advice to the government, wildlife organisations, city councils and local individuals as to how to increase and improve pollinator biodiversity in urban habitats. (report)
In 2014, researchers from the Urban Pollinators Project went on to work alongside the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) using their findings to provide practical advice to the UK as part of the National Pollinator strategy, using Bristol as an example of where urban pollinating strategies had already been implemented.
Local impact
Locally, the team of urban pollinators have left a big impression on the Bristol community. The research conducted by the urban pollinators has gone on to have a significant impact on local wildlife trusts, businesses, individuals, and policies, influencing and advising on many successful conservation initiatives across the city.
At the University of Bristol, students in 2012 and 2013 planted wildflower meadows across the campus, creating a 30 square metre pollinating zone which in addition to its ecological benefits, looked great too. Many other organisations followed suit and urban wildlife zones cropped up across Bristol localities making room for pollinating insects and raising awareness for their protection throughout different communities.
In 2014, the Get Bristol Buzzing initiative was formed in yet another first of its kind. In a partnership between Avon Wildlife Trust, Bee Bristol, Bristol City Council, Bristol Friends of the Earth, Buglife, South Gloucestershire Council and the University of West England they all united, dedicated and determined to protect and increase pollinating habitat across Bristol. Similarly, they committed themselves to raising awareness for the importance of insect pollinators and spread the word around local communities, organisations, and businesses. (report)
In 2015 the University of Bristol led “The Greater Bristol Pollinator strategy” which in 2017 was able to report an increase in pollinators in the Greater Bristol area.
Global impact
The decline in pollinating insects is occurring globally, and at a rapid rate. To help to protect global biodiversity the blueprint established in Bristol could certainly provide a nature-based solution in the face of future global environmental challenges.
Today the impact of pollinators is no longer just being investigated in urban environments across the UK. Current project-lead and original member of the Urban Pollinators Project Professor Jane Memmott has recently been examining the role of pollinators in protecting food chains in Nepal. Her dedication to improving ecological networks and pollinating systems has most recently led her to a pioneering discovery that pollinating animals can improve nutrients in food in developing countries.
The project today
This year, continuing their excellent work, Professor Jane Memmott and the Urban Pollinator Project discovered that urban gardens are vital for protecting pollinating insects. Published in the Journal of Ecology, this research found that city gardens account for an impressive 85% of nectar produced in Urban areas generating the most nectar per unit area of land. With 29% of land in cities made up of domestic gardens, it truly is vital that we seek to cultivate thriving urban environments to protect our pollinating ecosystems.
Thanks to these dedicated ecologists it has been a remarkable decade for the Bristol bees, hopefully the next decade will be even better.
So, what can you do to turn your garden into a pollinating haven?
(1) Plant for our pollinators:
Bees, wasps, butterflies, and other pollinating insects love nectar and pollen rich flowers and trees. Try filling your garden, allotment, porch, windowsill, or any available space with the flowers they love!
(2) Leave areas to go wild:
Save yourself from gardening and allow plants to grow freely, the wilder the area the more pollinators it will attract.
(3) Ditch pesticides:
Many pesticides can be harmful if not kill pollinating insects. Abandoning pesticides will increase the chances of making your area a pollinating zone!
(4) Mow your lawn less:
Research published in the Biological Conservation Journal found that by mowing your lawn once every two weeks instead of one increases the number of bees in that area by a huge 30%.
(5) Make a bee house:
Make a bee house of bamboo sticks to give your local bees somewhere to lay their eggs and protect themselves from harsh weather conditions.
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This blog is written by Lois Barton, Cabot Institute for the Environment Global Environmental Challenges Master’s student and temporary Comms Assistant. Lois’s research explores the role of the arts in ecological movements in Chile, specifically surrounding how visual culture increases visibility for environmental causes.
Interested in postgraduate study? The Cabot Institute runs a unique Master’s by Research programme that offers a blend of in-depth research on a range of Global Environmental Challenges, with interdisciplinary cohort building and training. Find out more.
Volunteers packing shopping. Image credit: We Are Bristol
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought hardship to many people across the UK, both in terms of the direct health impacts of the virus and the economic and social consequences of lockdowns. However, it has also demonstrated the resilience of our communities, and the importance of strong social infrastructure in responding to crises. Within hours of the first lockdown being announced, community organisations took rapid action, with many completely shifting their models of service delivery to meet the changing needs of their communities. This extraordinary response has been one of the good news stories of the pandemic, as many more people and local governments have realised the value of services provided by community organisations. My research sought to build an understanding of the experience of the community sector in Bristol during the Covid-19 pandemic to determine what allowed them to coordinate such an effective response, and how they can be better supported to respond to future crises.
Why study community resilience?
Climate change has made it more important to understand how we respond to major shocks and disasters, as they are likely to increase in both frequency and severity in future. While the physical infrastructure required to respond to different shocks – such as floods, heatwaves and pandemics – varies greatly, building strong social and community infrastructure strengthens resilience to many different events. A recent report from the national community network Locality discussed the case of Calderdale Council, which has faced three major flooding incidents in the last eight years. The knowledge, networks and partnerships built through coping with floods in the past made Calderdale more resilient and responsive to the Covid-19 crisis, despite being developed for a different purpose. Understanding the strengths and vulnerabilities of Bristol’s community infrastructure when exposed to a crisis is key to building long-term community resilience.
Community organisations in a crisis
To understand the strengths and weaknesses of community resilience in Bristol, I interviewed thirteen people working across the sector.
I found that community organisations were very well-placed to respond to this crisis. Those interviewed discussed how they could act quickly to meet community needs because their decisions weren’t subject to the same bureaucracy or hierarchical decision-making structure as local governments. The highly localised nature of community organisations also meant that they could deliver solutions and services that were tailored to the needs of the populations they served, like culturally appropriate meals or shopping for older residents.
Community organisations also had access to informal networks within their localities which allowed them to coordinate with local businesses, residents, and other voluntary organisations to deliver necessary services. In Easton, for example, there was coordination across community groups and businesses which allowed each organisation to focus on the service they were best placed to deliver, even if it meant ceding responsibility for their normal functions to another organisation who could deliver it more effectively. Up Our Street, for example, focused on providing resources for children, such as milk, nappies, and activity packs to their communities, identifying that this was a necessary role that they were well-placed to fill. Community alliances were particularly effective at this coordination, especially those who had access to physical spaces to use as community hubs for service delivery.
There were, however, a number of barriers which community organisations faced. Every single interviewee from the community sector raised the importance of funding sources. Due to central government cuts in recent years, many organisations became reliant on traded income and fundraising to deliver their services, sources of income generation which disappeared quickly during the lockdown. This meant that community organisations had to furlough staff and work on reduced incomes when the need for their services was at an unprecedented high. In contrast, those organisations with access to flexible, long-term grant funding emphasised how valuable it was to their response. A key message was that many organisations may not survive to respond to the next crisis without more resilient funding models.
Effective communication with local government was also cited as a challenge. Many Bristolians, particularly vulnerable members of the population, did not have direct access to information about the evolving crisis and relied heavily on community organisations. Improving communication between local governments and citizens, particularly through faith-based organisations, such as gurdwaras, mosques, and churches was recommended. More generally, many organisations felt communication and coordination with local government needs to be improved in future, given the depth of local knowledge and networks such organisations can offer to help improve services.
Indeed, the most effective community responses were achieved where Bristol City Council sought to enable and support the existing work being undertaken by community organisations. For example, the City Council’s Can Do platform and “We Are Bristol” helpline become important mechanisms for urgent recruitment of volunteers. BCC also removed a lot of superfluous red tape and bureaucracy, trusting organisations to act in the best interests of their communities and take greater responsibility. The Council became more reliant on the efforts of the community sector than before, and the trust built between them has provided community organisations with more “soft power” to influence decision-making. Continuing this trusting and enabling relationship will be key to recovery, and ensuring that community resilience is enhanced moving forward.
Key lessons
Building resilient community and social infrastructure is key to safeguarding Bristol’s sustainable future. Community organisations are vital first responders in a crisis and have the necessary networks and knowledge in their communities to understand and deliver what their communities need. By supporting these organisations, through promoting their long-term financial stability and including them in community decision-making, it is possible to create a more resilient Bristol which will be able to respond to any future shocks.
September 2020 saw the arrival of the latest cohort on the MScR in Global Environmental Challenges. This year, we have students representing four Faculties, and six Schools; each with a unique independent research project that focuses on some of the most pressing challenges faced today.
With projects ranging from using chemistry to create clean air to artistic expressions of activism in Chile, we are delighted to introduce to you some of our new students below.
Harry Forrester
Can glacial flour stimulate N cycling in croplands? – School of Geographical Sciences
This research involves an investigation of the effects of glacial flour as a stimulant of microbial nitrogen cycling in cropland. Through this study, I aim to establish myself as a well-rounded Biogeochemist and explore interdisciplinary collaborations throughout the academic community. I hope to gain insight into environmental policy making, preparing me to enact effective change.
Lauren Prouse
An analysis into the ability of CMIP6 models reproducing the Sahelian droughts and what impact this has on their future climate predictions – School of Geographical Sciences
After completing my undergraduate dissertation here in the Geography department, I wanted to continue working on something similar. My undergraduate dissertation investigated the climatic impacts of the Great Green Wall of Africa – a forestry initiative implemented following the droughts across the Sahel region. Working with my supervisor Paul Valdes, we devised an idea of examining the ability of CMIP6 models to represent the Sahelian droughts of the 1970s and 80s, and whether their ability to do so affects their future climate change predictions for the Sahel. This is particularly important because the IPCC has recognised this region as a hotspot for the impacts of climate change, so researching potential future impacts will be useful for mitigation planning.
Dora Young
What would a “just transition” in Bristol look like? – School of Geographical Sciences
I’m a geography graduate from the University of Manchester. My academic interest areas are critical cartography and public participatory GIS. My experience studying Indigenous research methodologies in Australia and environmental humanities at undergraduate level also inspired me to develop research techniques that demonstrate a multiplicity of situated, embodied knowledges for democratic land use planning.
I’m excited to join the City Futures theme and its inspiring cohort. I hope to build on my skills of research design to produce a useful map-based participatory planning tool for Bristol and, potentially, other urban areas. It’s my intention map and visualise qualitative and quantitative spatial data, gathered as a collaborative community project, in order to inform both academic institutions and political governing bodies as they embark on ecological transitions and actualise shared futures.
I’m also interested in the diverse ways that people ‘read’ the messages expressed by their landscapes – natural and built – and how we form ‘cognitive maps’ of our surroundings. This is particularly interesting to me as we navigate radically shifting environments. I have some (limited) experience working across disciplines; my sister – a neuroscientist at the Charité University, Berlin – and I hosted a virtual spatial navigation workshop earlier this year. We explored the impacts of lockdown and modern life more generally on our spatial navigation capacities, cultural histories of navigation and how they relate to neural development, and how navigating can help combat eco-anxiety. We are currently working on a collaborative book chapter exploring the latter theme with two German authors; one GIS specialist and spatial anthropologist from the Universitaet Goettingen and a futures studies master from FU Berlin.
Fanny Lehmann
How is the global water cycle responding to climate change? – School of Geographical Sciences
I am a graduate mathematics student from the Ecole Normale Supérieure. I come from Grenoble, a city in the French Alps surrounded by mountains. I am naturally passionate about mountains, a place where climate change is so undeniable that it impacts our sporty lives. I see mathematics as a tool to model the world and help to predict its evolution. My Master’s by Research project focuses on the impact of climate change on the water cycle as part of the Global Mass project. I am delighted to start this year in such a vibrant community and hope to make the most of it to determine the research area of my PhD.
Helen Sheehan
Machine learning for wind flow modelling – School of Civil, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
I graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2016 with an MEng in Aerospace Engineering, and since then I’ve worked for a consultancy in Bristol as an engineer within the energy sector, primarily in nuclear power and offshore wind. I’m back at university to undertake Cabot’s MScR programme, with a project on “Machine Learning for Wind Flow Modelling”, which combines my interests in low carbon energy and software development. Although it’ll probably be a very different university experience for the first few months at least, I’m excited to take on this new challenge, gain new skills at the cutting edge of energy technology, and meet researchers from across the Cabot Institute!
Lauryn Jones
Eco-innovations for sustainable consumption: Bringing refill stations into leading supermarkets to reduce household plastic consumption – School of Management
During my time at Cabot I hope to gain lots of new insight into environmental challenges around the world and meet new people with innovative ideas. My personal research will be focussing on bringing refill facilities into supermarkets in order to reduce single use plastics, as well as looking at possible impacts the coronavirus pandemic may have had on people’s perception of the use of plastics.
Adam Chmielowski
Change: environmental, cultural, technological change and the stories of sustainable futures – School of Management
I’m thrilled to be starting my MScR at Cabot. My research topic is “Change: environmental, cultural, technological change and stories of sustainable futures” and I’ll be exploring different ways of thinking about change, asking what forms of change are conceptualised in environmental campaigns and how effective they are in helping people transition to a more sustainable society. I’m fascinated by the role of culture in enabling or constraining human behaviour, storytelling and the role of future visions to inspire action, and how you create change at a systemic or cultural, not just individual, level. My research will run parallel to my day job which is running a strategy and insight agency called Starling (I’m awe-struck by murmurations!) where we help brands innovate and communicate better by analysing culture. In the spirit of cross-disciplinary collaboration, I believe there is much more that the business world and academia can learn from each other to help tackle environmental challenges, so I hope I can help advance that effort.
Over the next year, we look forward to sharing their work and providing opportunities to mingle with the wider Cabot Institute community. Our very first cohort will also be graduating soon, so stay tuned to hear more about them and share in their success!
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This blog was written by Cabot Institute MScR Coordinator, Jo Norris. You can start the Cabot MScR at any time of year and there are plenty of incredible earth-saving projects to dive into. Find out more on our website at bristol.ac.uk/cabot/postgraduate-opportunities/cabot-masters/
