Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/N019067/1
A skills framework for delivering safe and effective fieldwork in the polar regions
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Dr JA Crame, NERC British Antarctic Survey, Science Programmes
- Grant held at:
- NERC British Antarctic Survey, Science Programmes
- Science Area:
- Earth
- Marine
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Marine
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- Climate & Climate Change
- Community Ecology
- Systematics & Taxonomy
- Glacial & Cryospheric Systems
- Polar ice
- Abstract:
- The principal aim of our NERC ATSC entitled "A skills framework for delivering safe and effective fieldwork in the polar regions" is to equip NERC PhD students and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) with the necessary skills to undertake a wide variety of fieldwork in the polar regions. The course is designed for participants ranging from first year PhD students to experienced ECRs, and fieldwork topics across all the main branches of earth system science. The course will be of value to both those who have already obtained fieldwork funding and those who wish to go on and develop new proposals and grant applications. The course is devised and run by a consortium of experienced staff members from the British Antarctic Survey Operations Group and Science Programmes. It draws very heavily on their extensive fieldwork in both the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as a considerable track record of lecturing and teaching to both professional and amateur audiences. The course comprises three days residential study at Madingley Hall, Cambridge followed by four days at the NERC Arctic Station in Svalbard, Arctic Norway. The second part of the course gives students a unique opportunity to live and work in the high polar regions. At Madingley Hall we introduce the students to the essential concepts of developing a field plan, health and safety, risk assessments, and environmental best practice. This part of the course is fully interactive with the students being set some challenging, but fun, exercises in all sections. We then move on to more scientific matters with an introduction to satellite images and mapping, including a GPS exercise in the grounds of Madingley Hall. It is not our intention to cover every possible area of polar science but simply to highlight two key, and contrasting, themes: glaciology/ glacier geophysics, and marine ecology. Drs Ed King and Simon Morley give broad introductions to these topics in the first of two presentations, and in the second give more specific details of the fieldwork in Svalbard. The final part of the Madingley Hall training involves the participants in preparing full field plans for the next four days. Safety training is paramount upon arrival at the NERC Arctic Station, Ny-?lesund, but once completed we are straight into the glaciology fieldwork. A reconnaissance survey is undertaken of the Midrelovenbreen glacier, following which the students develop detailed plans for the next day. Expert help is of course available but in essence the students then conduct their own radar survey of the glacier, including processing the results. In the next two days we move offshore and use a small launch to conduct a series of planktonic and benthic trawls. The students have to design their own survey grid and back in the lab devise a simple plan to link biodiversity patterns to either water column properties or substrate type. Over the seven days of the course the students learn to safely and effectively plan a field programme from the earliest stages, and then put it into practice in the field. The skills learnt will be of real value for working in any remote and potentially dangerous region.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/N019067/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Doctoral Training
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Advanced Training
This training grant award has a total value of £60,302
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Other Costs |
|---|
| £60,302 |
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