Delighted to have had the opportunity to present some of my work analysing the drivers of internet search interest in 🇬🇧 biological invasions 🐜🐚🦀🌿 at the International Young Researchers Conference on Invasive Species #IyrCIS youtu.be/xVmFDupFvdM?...

Lovely to catch up with other PhD students and friends over brunch today and try out the seasonal apple pie matcha at HBW (although I feel like apple pie is an autumn seasonal flavour, not spring? 🍂🌸)

I wrote in my research notes, when Arthur did his first BES seminar introducing himself in 2024, that I would like to hear more details on his research - and now I have!

The #YellowLeggedHornet (a.k.a. #AsianHornet) has already been spotted this year in South Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire! Please report any suspected sightings via the Asian Hornet Watch App or online reporting form 👁️👁️

Anna Kurop gave a lovely seminar on research into #Quaternary sea level changes in the #OuterHebrides this week! It was especially nice to see Anna's personality and enthusiasm shining through when talking about #FieldWork experiences 👏

PhD forum prsentation featuring stylish slide #design (as always) from @parisitoid.bsky.social 😃

Really enjoyed getting to know Guillaume and finding out about his incredible free diving adventures, as well as contemplating the importance of colonial legacies in global invasive species assemblages in this afternoon's seminar!

Our most recent internal #seminar was from Esther Folorunso, who did a great job of explaining how her #research had evolved to reflect the discrepancies between theory/policy and real life scenarios of chemical #pollutants and the 'cocktail effects' produced by multiple contaminants!

Thanks @parisitoid.bsky.social for suggesting this paper!

Excited to see where else Ross will present his work, since he has a great way of explaining complex topics to non-specialists 😃

myself and the giant sampling spoon! thanks @britishecologicalsociety.org

Congratulations to Mahtab Yaghouti and colleagues for their new paper on #ClimateChange will affect #oxygen in #lakes 🎉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I especially enjoyed the opportunity to discuss #BiologicalInvasions at the #SNSC2026 poster sessions, particularly talking about surveying public perceptions of #InvasiveSpecies with Sarah Trebo of @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social! 🦔🐀

What was so interesting about Adam's research was that ways to mitigate the #LightPollution impacts of #cruise ships already exist and are used elsewhere (like in Antarctica), meaning it should be easy to improve conditions for #seabirds around Scottish islands if we just turn our attention to it!

Kirsty's Keynote was both interesting in its own right and a great opportunity for reflection on how an academic career can build up, making me think about how my future could unfold 🔮

Thanks to Eleanor for confirming that green trousers, a mushroom shirt and the exact same backpack was the correct #SNSC2026 conference uniform 😂 She's also doing some really cool work on public perceptions of wild boar / feral pigs 🐗

Very excited to have picked up a signed copy of #ASkyFullOfKites from Tom Bowser of @argatyredkites.bsky.social and had a good chat about invasive fish with @thefsbi.bsky.social at #SNSC2026! 🐟🦫

March is #WomensHistoryMonth and #vegan Victoria sponge seems like a great way to celebrate that! Thanks @jendickie.bsky.social 😊

Lindis has been involved in some fantastic projects and is always so interesting and friendly to talk to! This was a lovely hopeful way to end our social science presentation session 🙂

I loved Helen's talk, the charisma she brought to the #conference and the way she made her presentation relevant to a range of audiences! It's always fun to see what I can learn from others to use in my own #storytelling at events like #SNSC2026

So much to think about from this talk on the way we word questionnaires and how they are interpreted! I also loved Zsuzsa's dinosaur shirt 🦕

Grateful for the opportunity to share my research on what Google Trends can tell us about public interest in invasive non-native species and start some great conversations around species with a complicated place in our landscape like sitka spruce and wild boar!

Kerry and I looking cute for a photo this morning 🤩 Had a great day at Scotland's Nature Student Conference, introducing some incredible speakers and meeting some lovely people! Thanks to everyone who helped make it such a great atmosphere 😃

We are getting ready for #SNSC2026 Scotland's Nature Student Conference - welcome and arrival tomorrow at the Pathfoot Building, University of Stirling, from 10am! View the programme on our website: scotnsconference.wixsite.com/2026 We look forward to welcoming you to our event!

Thought-provoking to hear about Zoë & team's literal take on #perceptions #research (perceiving things like visual plumes, bad smells & headache pain due to pollution) & compare this to my own research. I was also impressed by how engaged Chilean citizens seemed to be with #environmental issues!

Congratulations to Peter Stewart and colleagues on a new publication exploring #pest and disease occurence in UK #treescapes, identifying drivers of pest and disease burdens such as #deforestation and differences in drivers of disease between broadleaf trees and conifers 🌳🌲 doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

Really enjoyed this meeting, getting to chat with other PhDs about everything from the process of settling into a #PhD to the importance of being silly (not stupid)!

So cool to meet Josie and talk UK #Zander ( #PikePerch ) and crayfish #BiologicalInvasions as well as finding out more about her work 🐟 Lucky to get to discuss the freshwater animals in my upcoming survey on awareness and perceptions of invasive non-native species with Josie, too!

Haven't been to a #research group meeting in a while, so it was exciting to hear what everyone has achieved and to understand more about how they are analysing data 😀

Croy Langlands and Oscar Jessup also gave a fantastic BES seminar recently, introducing their work on #RemoteSensing - they showed fantastic depth of knowledge for students early on in their #PhD #research and presented confidently 👏 Brilliant stuff!

Really enjoyed watching Thiago's talk this afternoon and reflecting on what I can learn from his storytelling 😀

I don't know much about #Saltmarsh #CarbonSinks but I certainly know more than I did at the start of the week! Lovely to catch up with some colleagues from BES after the seminar as well

I've had a great time designing these bios and am looking forward to introducing some of the incredible people I have met in BES! I especially enjoy reading about people's favourite memories of BES (and seeing their pets, of course!)

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Today, we met to discuss 2025 Postgraduate Research Experience Survey results. Lots of positives, including the quality of supervision and high confidence in on-time PhD completion 👩‍🎓 We also had great turn-out, increased from last year. Thanks to everyone who came to discuss further ideas for 2026!

The life of a #PhD researcher... They can't even take you on a nice family walk without you sticking your hands in a pond to try to ID some #pondweed 😂

#ThrowbackThursday to Neil McDonald's super interactive teaching workshop, 7 weeks ago today! BES #PhD tutors and demonstrators got a lot out of it, including this masterful sculpture of the ideal teacher with flexible tentacles, listening ears and a professional tie...

Arianna's design work looking amazing on the SNSC website! Don't forget to check it out if you're a nature-focused student (at any level) and interested in attending or presenting 🍂

First day back on campus after working from the comfort of family homes! Lovely to see BES people coming together to catch up and spend an hour thinking about beavers 😍

My third PhD chapter has just been published, we assessed the impact of Himalayan balsam invasion on riverbank stability. A massive thanks to @zarahpattison.bsky.social @drchrishackney.bsky.social @dralanlaw.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Congratulations all 🎉

Worrying signs of climate change all around Norfolk with snowdrops already out in Wells and ragged robin at @hawkandowl.bsky.social Scunthorpe 🌷🥶

The festive period wouldn't be complete in my family without some mashed potato snowmen... But this year, there has been a mashed potato biological invasion! Can you identify the UK #InvasiveSpecies? 🤣⛄

I hadn't been to Five Rivers before but the mushroom chat was very tasty and it was lovely to chat to everyone - especially Neil, who made the trip from Jura to be there and had great stories about the island and about his research!

Excited to be helping organise 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 #SNSC2026 this year! Register to connect with early career environmental scientists and find out about their research 🦫 It's going to be great (and I heard there may be free pizza at the quiz... 🍕)

I had a lovely time tutoring my final undergraduate practical of the year on food webs! We used an R shiny app to visualise a coastal ecosystem food web and I enjoyed chatting to students about how they thought additional species, competition etc. would affect the model!

Super @stir.ac.uk Biological and Environmental Sciences seminar this week from now-DOCTOR Neil McDonald (congratulations! 🎉) about #ClimateAnxiety among undergraduates - an important thing to consider for anyone teaching in #HigherEducation 🎓

I especially enjoyed the discussion of how Georgina Page set up the peatland in the greenhouses (with a little help from friends!) at the University of Stirling in her recent BES seminar 🥼🪏🌱 iapetus.ac.uk/iapetus_stud...

Wouldn't necessarily have expected that one of the really engaging talks in this semester's #UniversityOfStirling BES Tuesday seminars would be about #REF but I learnt so much about how academia works from @matttinsley.bsky.social 😃 🎓

Bridget Rusk did a brilliant presentation last week at the University of Stirling about her research placement with @scottishwater.bsky.social - I really enjoyed getting the industry perspective!