The alpine zone supports some of Scotland’s most natural habitats. Complex topography interacts with snow cover and climate to create gradients in water availability and temperature, resulting in a mosaic of plant communities variously dominated by dwarf-shrubs, grasses, or mosses.
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the world's most economically important food crops and holds major significance for future food security. Global potato production has increased steadily from 267 million tonnes in 1990 to 370 in 2019. Despite the importance of potato as a global crop there are still many gaps in knowledge concerning the complex processes involved in potato development from initial growth in the field to long term potato storage.
The alpine zone supports some of our most natural habitats and provides ecosystem services including carbon storage, nutrient cycling and water quality.
Climate change is reducing snow cover duration and is predicted to lead to prolonged droughts in summer. Some alpine habitats are adapted to experiencing frequent drought periods while others typically have wet soils year-round. It is likely that these habitats will respond differently to scenarios of increasing drought and their differing responses will impact on the ecosystem services that we derive from them.
Maria works as a veterinary epidemiologist (species-expert for pigs) at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) since 2020. Her main interests are pig health and welfare, with a focus on its interconnections with veterinary public health. Maria’s main interests are animal health and welfare, with a particular focus on its interconnections with veterinary public health. She combines data analysis and visualization with her veterinary expertise to generate and interpret useful information for farmers, stakeholders and national authorities.
Racomitrium heath is a moss-dominated alpine habitat which is widespread and covers extensive areas in oceanic alpine regions. It is important for the rare bird species that it supports, and the ecosystem services it provides, including carbon storage and regulation of water quality.
Body condition scoring is a rapid way to assess fat coverage of livestock. In cattle it is scored on a 1 (lean) to 5 (obese) scale. Scottish beef cows typically gain body condition when grazing and lose some of this condition during the winter before calving in the spring.
Previous Scottish Government funded work suggested that only a minority (~4%) of farmers used the recommended condition scoring approach and that there was wide variation in body condition of pregnant cows.
Risk assessments of plant pests/pathogens rarely account for potential impacts on biodiversity associated with the affected host. We study the co-occurring trees ash and oak affected by ash dieback and acute oak decline, respectively, and show that declines in both these trees would impact on 512 associated species that don’t use any other UK tree species. This cumulative impact means 141 (38%) more affected associated species than when the trees decline individually.
Across the globe the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how people work, communicate, socialise and learn. As an active person who is always out and about doing things, I personally have found this a great challenge. I am missing the simple things in life that I have always taken for granted. Popping into my mum’s for a tea and a chat, meeting friends for coffee (or wine!), or finding a new hill to climb. During the week I am now confined to a little desk in the corner of my kitchen, it is a nice kitchen, but that desk is become tiresome.
The Cryptosporidium oocysts have a tough outer waxy shell, composed of lipids and glycoproteins that enables the parasite to survive in the environment over a wide temperature range (-220C -600C) for several months. As a result, Cryptosporidium parasites are a real problem for the water industry as the parasite survives extremely well in water and is resistant to chlorination.