This discussion is presented in five parts. First, I will provide a background to this discussion, including its research group. Second, an explanation will be provided regarding data collection, data management and data modelling. Third, the motivations for climate activism are identified relevant to the stakeholders in this project. Fourth, examples of relevant climate activism are identified. Finally, future questions are considered, including the use of enhanced inclusiveness among women, young people aged 18 – 25, and people of faith. The overall aim of this discussion is to explore the ways in which climate activism in the Felixstowe area is inspired, developed and expressed. It is hoped that this work will inspire other communities to also develop an agenda of climate activism.

Part 1: Background

This project was developed by the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group (FCSG). They were founded in April 2018 with the principal aim of conducting impact analyses on their local community nature reserve. However, in addition to that core activity, FCSG has addressed a broad range of other citizen science projects. Their Facebook page shows that work. Throughout 2025, FCSG has become increasingly interested in climate activism and the ways it is inspired by greatly valued local environments. Most of the work this year has focused on the River Deben estuary and Landguard Nature Reserve in Felixstowe, UK. Both those environments have been appreciated by research interviewees as therapeutic environments. For local people of faith, they are also widely regarded as local pilgrimage destinations i.e. locations where those individuals can reflect, meditate and / or pray to their chosen deity.

The River Deben estuary is also recognised here as a liminal environment. That is, it is constantly in transition as a consequence of tides, seasons and weather. The estuary is also appreciated as a sanctuary away from the causes of stress and anxiety. Equally though, it is seen as a sanctuary within which scientific, creative and community-based activities can be reflected upon and developed.

Part 2: Data collection, modelling, management and modelling

The River Deben estuary and Landguard Nature Reserve in Felixstowe are recognised by FCSG as examples of complexity. That is, they are environments which are appreciated by FCSG as being complex systems with many interconnected parts, non-linear relationships, feedback loops, emergent properties, and adaptation / evolution. Visitors to these environments also recognise their ecological features, as well as their social, cultural, aesthetic, psychological and spiritual dimensions. FCSG therefore adopts a Systems Thinking approach to those complex environments (Ramage and Shipp 2009).

A combination of ethnographic interviews and telephone interviews has been employed by FCSG throughout their research (Cooper 2025). The benefit of doing so has been to try and achieve a depth and breadth of understanding. Interviewees for both methods have been randomly selected from the 1,700 membership of Felixstowe’s Community Nature Reserve. Ethnographic interview groups have never exceeded twelve members. Those ethnographic interviews are conducted during guided walks which have taken place, at least once a month, since the start of 2025. Telephone interviewees have averaged one hundred randomly chosen individuals. Regarding those telephone interviews, 25 members of FCSG volunteer to each contact four nominated interviewees – the contact details for whom are allocated to them by FCSG leaders. In that way, a sample of 100 telephone interview responses are quite easy to organise within no more than five working days. The results of both forms of data collection are added to a shared document on One Drive cloud storage service.

An example of telephone interviews in this context may be taken from the beginning of 2025:

Telephone interviews with people of faith concerning experiences of local pilgrimage destinations may be illustrated with an example from February:

Ten forms of AI have been used to enhance the experience of taking part in the guided walks. They are: (i) Windy.com (for weather and climate modelling); (ii) ClimateCentral.org (also for climate change including sea level rise and coastal flood risks); (iii) Merlin Bird ID (for bird identification from sound, but also pictures); (iv) iNaturalist (for plant identification); (v) Seek by iNaturalist (for younger people); (vi) Pl@antNet (also for plant identification); (vii) GlobalForestWatch.org (for changes in land use); (viii) NASA World View; (ix) Google Earth; (x) Zooniverse for global comparisons.

Basemaps for the collaborative map making have always been created using Leaflet (JavaScript Library). This has aligned FCSG’s work with other forms of Geographical Information System (Longley et al, 2015; Bolstad, 2022; and Bernhardsen, 2002). However, while other forms of GIS develop their work using layers, FCSG has consistently felt frustrated in not being able to find layers which accommodate the multiple data types which their research encounters. That is because FCSG deals with ethnographic data which includes experiences drawn from the five physical senses: sight, sound, fragrance, touch and taste. In addition, FCSG has encountered significant discussion among interviewees on therapeutic aspects of local environments. Among people of faith, FCSG has encountered discussions of locations which have been described in terms of them being local pilgrimage destinations. To overcome these frustrations among FCSG with the limitations of current GIS facilities (eg Arc GIS and QGIS), they choose to locate their base maps surrounded by side panels of information relevant to each data type. An example from March 2025 illustrates this form of presentation:

A different form of presentation with ethnographic data on local pilgrimage destinations may be taken from work in April 2025:

Part 3: Motivations to take part in local climate activism

Data collected from ethnographic interviews and telephone interviewees identified five sets of motivation among people in the Felixstowe area to participate in community-based climate activism. These may be summarised as follows:

1. Scientific motivations – Although no interviewees used the term ‘Anthropocene’, it is clear from their discourse that they are significantly aware of the following environmental problems. It is equally clear that these problems motivate participation in local climate activism: (i) biodiversity loss; (ii) alterations to biogeochemical cycles (eg carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles); (iii) changes to soil and atmospheric chemistry; (iv) land-use changes; (v) the accumulation of human-made materials (eg plastic, metal, concrete and glass); (vi) techno fossils (eg plastic particles, aluminium and synthetic chemicals); (vii) global infrastructure networks (eg roads, cities and data systems); (viii) Pollution (eg air, water, soils, persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals); (ix) geological and stratigraphic markers (eg black carbon from fossil fuel combustion);  (x) Ocean acidification; (xi) Feedbacks (eg melting permafrost releasing methane which amplifies human influence).

2. Aesthetic motivations – Research interviews also showed that interviewees felt motivated to take part in local climate activism because they felt the environmental beauty of the River Deben Estuary and Landguard Nature Reserve is under threat. When these interviewees talk about environmental beauty, they do so consistently with reference to sights, sounds, fragrances, touch and taste experiences.

3. Community-building and educational opportunities – Interviewees also described the River Deben estuary and Landguard Nature Reserve as “community-resources” for walking, education, family events, creative writing, art, music composition, individual scientific projects (eg bird watching and recording, botany, finding evidence of the Anthropocene) and citizen science. Again, where these environments are viewed in this way, and environmental threats are also appreciated, motivation to take part in local climate activism is inspired and increased.

4. Therapeutic motivations – The River Deben estuary and Landguard Nature Reserve are consistently recognised among interviewees as being places of healing – both for mental and physical health challenges. From the ethnographic interviews, it has been possible to unpack interviewees’ ways of defining therapeutic environments:

(i) Physical characteristics – places where people feel safe, comfortable and calm.

(ii) Emotional characteristics – places which people trust and which will always be accessible to them.

(iii) Social characteristics – places where helpful, intimate and confidential conversations can take place.

(iv) Psychological characteristics – places which help to boost self-esteem and dignity.

(v) Holistic characteristics – where the mind, body and spirit can feel restored.

Once again, when interviewees recognise that their favoured therapeutic environments are threatened, they feel more motivated to take part in local climate activism.   Further discussion of therapeutic environments may be found in Cooper (2000).

5. Local pilgrimage destinations – FCSG is aware of the need to develop its inclusiveness agenda. This is mainly because the Felixstowe population is becoming increasingly cosmopolitan. FCSG also recognises that contributions from its inclusiveness agenda greatly enrich the research interview data. At present, FCSG focuses on reaching out to women, young people between 18 – 25, and people of faith. Within those three categories, people of colour and members of LGBTQ+ communities are also included. However, at the time of writing no people of colour or LGBTQ+ individuals have wanted to be defined primarily and exclusively in that way. Instead, they have asked to be thought of either as women, youth or people of faith. Among these people of faith, the River Deben estuary and the Landguard Nature Reserve are described through a spectrum of religio-geographical values ranging from “special”, “very special”, “extraordinary”, and “sacred”. Against that background, the river estuary and Nature Reserve have become places for reflection, meditation and prayer. Significantly, the focus of those practices is most frequently on environmental beauty (ie defined using the five physical senses), gratitude to their chosen deity, and a motivation to take part in civic activities such as climate activism. Further discussion of local pilgrimage destinations may be found in Cooper (2000).

Part 4: Examples of local climate activism

Community-based climate activism began in the Felixstowe area in September 2021 when questions were asked of Felixstowe’s Community Nature Reserve about their willingness to develop a climate justice agenda. Between that beginning and July 2022, a Climate Justice Agenda was developed using ideas suggested by local people in the Felixstowe area. This Climate Justice Agenda may be summarized as follows:

The Climate Justice Agenda was launched at a march along Felixstowe sea front on 2 July 2022 (Cupriak, 2022).

A series of additional community-based climate activism projects is described by Rackley (2025).

Within FCSG, members have developed two Climate Action Plans as follows:

These examples of climate activism have been reinforced through further collaborative map-making exercises such as the following from June, July and August 2025:

Part 5: Future questions

This research into motivations among people in the Felixstowe area to participate in community-based climate activism will continue into 2026 and beyond. The main difference between that future work and the research conducted in 2025 will be to locate the research in new locations to test whether the integrity of the five sets of motivation will remain in tact. Preliminary work at a location which is away from the River Deben estuary and the Landguard Nature Reserve took place in July 2025. It is summarised here:

A further development in the 2026 research will be more emphasis on inclusiveness, with particular reference to the contributions of local women, young people aged between 18 – 25, and people of faith. It is acknowledged here that enhanced inclusiveness in this work greatly enriches the data drawn from ethnographic and telephone interviews. When this new research is developed, it will be featured on the FCSG Facebook page. Discussions of that work will also be submitted to the NBN Trust and the European Citizen Science platform for wider debate. It is hoped that other groups will feel encouraged to adapt these ideas for their local communities.

Conclusions

1. A clear set of five motivations has been discovered by FCSG concerning local people’s motivations to support community-based climate activism.
2. Collaborative map making is an effective way to summarize experiences of the River Deben Estuary and Landguard Nature Reserve.
3. Artificial Intelligence and Geographical Information Systems have been confronted by FCSG for their limitations in the type of information provided, and their trend toward reductionism. FCSG has therefore tried to overcome that reductionism by using side panels alongside its base maps to enrich its collaborative map making.
4. The guided walks which under lay the data collection process expose participants to multi-sensual experiences (ie sights, sounds, fragrances, touch and taste).
5. The mixed methods of ethnographic interviews and telephone questionnaires is an effective contribution to understanding motivations to take part in climate activism.
6. Inclusiveness (eg among women, young people and people of faith) significantly enriches the data collection.
7. This work will continue into the foreseeable future using other local environments (eg Trimley Marshes Nature Reserve).

References

Bernhardsen, T (2002) Geographic Information Systems: An Introduction

Bolstad, P (2022) GIS Fundamentals: A First Text on Geographic Information Systems

Cooper, AR (2000) Places of Pilgrimage and Healing  (Capall Bann Publishing)

Cooper, AR (2025) Investigating Therapeutic Landscapes and Local Pilgrimage Destinations, (online) https://youtu.be/ngSSUKZ7dpg

Cupriak, A (2022) Hundreds gather to share solutions at town’s first climate march (online) https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/20699659.hundreds-gather-share-solutions-towns-first-climate-march/

Longley PA; Goodchild MF, Maguire DJ, and Rhind DW (2015) Geographic Information Systems and Science

Rackley KM (2025) Interview with Dr Adrian Cooper (podcast, on line) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1aVRwGYIUg (Accessed 4 August 2025)

Ramage M and Shipp K (2009) Systems Thinkers (Springer, London and New York)

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This discussion is presented in five parts. First, I will summarize the principal features of collaborative map making, sometimes known as re-mapping. Second, I will outline the main features of liminal and therapeutic ecosystems. Third, I will review the motivation of citizen scientists from Felixstowe, Suffolk, who have been developing a collaborative map making approach to the River Deben Estuary. Fourth, I will discuss how the ideas of those citizen scientists have evolved since their early inception during the summer of 2024. Finally, I will discuss the questions on this subject which occupy the attention of these citizen scientists at the time of writing. 

The authors of the collaborative map-making under review in this discussion are the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group (FCSG). They were established in April 2018 with the primary aim of conducting impact analyses on the work of their local wildlife conservation group called the Felixstowe Community Nature Reserve. Beyond that primary role however, FCSG members choose additional projects, one of which addresses the need to re-map local environments in order to encourage other local people to engage in new ways with those areas. Examples of other collaborative map making exercises which have been developed by FCSG include work on areas of local woodland called Newbourne Springs and Abbey Grove. The ways in which FCSG defines itself as a learning organization are discussed here.  

The River Deben Estuary at Felixstowe is a tidal estuary with wide mud flats and salt marshes. It is a Special Protection Area (SPA), and a Ramsar site featuring redshank, avocet and curlew. Flora includes sea lavender, samphire, and sea aster. 

Part 1

The principal features of collaborative map-making may be summarized as: 

(i)            It aims to create new maps by citizen scientists which include the types of data and information which are of interest to those groups and individuals. 

(ii)          Collaborative map making is therefore a form of democratic and non-elitist engagement with conservation spaces and other environments. It can be regarded as an example of social and geographical inclusiveness. 

(iii)         Collaborative map making does not seek to replace mainstream maps, such as those produced by the Ordnance Survey. Instead, it aims to produce a diversity of maps. 

(iv)         The process of collaborative map making begins where groups of map makers walk the area they wish to re-map. In doing so, they take notes on the features which they wish to include in their maps. Discussions then take place on how the diversity of data and information can be organized into a coherent map. Several drafts of maps are produced which may be shared with family, friends or on social media. Walking is therefore shown to be fundamental to the development of local knowledge and memories (Tuan 1974; Solnit 2001; Macfarlane 2012 and 2015). Data quality and other data management questions are discussed here. 

(v)          The final maps usually contain features which surprise readers who are familiar only with traditional maps. Recent examples of such surprising data from FCSG include sight data (eg bird species in specific seasons),sound data (eg the sound of waves, breeze, families, fauna etc); touch data (eg the experience which is often enjoyed by young people of running their finger tips over natural surfaces), taste data (eg recalling memorable picnics or other meals in the site to be mapped, or natural fruits having been picked) and fragrance data (eg the scent of woodland shortly after a rain shower, or the salty aroma of a river estuary). 

(vi)         Maps must evolve, otherwise they become redundant. Collaborative maps are no exception. Consequently, through discussion, reflection and feedback from other observers, collaborative maps become re-worked. Equally, it has been found that collaborative maps change with the seasons and also with political decisions (eg planning decisions to build housing on greatly appreciated natural habitats). 

(vii)        Collaborative maps are often experimental. The data and information contained in them are propositions to their readers to see what is helpful and stimulating, and what needs further development. In this way, collaborative maps are provisional: often in continual development, constantly under review and the subject of discussion (as all maps should be). 

(viii)       Given all the above points, collaborative maps may often surprise their readers. They will also disrupt readers’ expectations about what maps can be. 

(ix)         Despite their innovative nature, collaborative maps can still be located within an understanding of cartography as an Art, Science and Technology.       

Part 2

Liminal landscapes can be understood as physical spaces or environments that exist in transitional or in-between states. The term “liminal” comes from the Latin word limen, meaning “threshold.” In this context, liminal landscapes are spaces that are neither fully one thing nor another, but instead exist in a state of transition, ambiguity, or flux (Shields, 2002; and Andrews and Roberts, 2014). In the context of the River Deben Estuary at Felixstowe, it is liminal as a consequence of its tidal, seasonal and weather patterns. From their interviews with local people, FCSG has identified four principal features of liminal landscapes: 

(i)    Transitional spaces: Liminal landscapes are often places where movement occurs from one state to another. Examples include estuarine mud which becomes covered with sea water during tidal change.   

(ii)  Psychological or emotional significance: Liminal landscapes are often linked with feelings of uncertainty, unease, or introspection because they represent a departure from the familiar. People might experience a sense of dislocation or transformation when encountering these spaces. 

(iii) Ambiguous identity: Liminal landscapes might not fit neatly into any particular category or definition. For example, estuarine mud is neither completely land, nor is it fully river. That is, boundaries in physical form are blurred between natural states. 

(iv) Temporal flux: Liminal landscapes often change over time or are associated with change. A river estuary is therefore an example of a liminal environment because it is always in a state of flux: caught between its tidal ranges. 

The main features of therapeutic ecosystems have been discussed in Cooper (2000, 2019 and 2020). They may be summarized as follows: 

(i)            They can be calming and restorative. In doing so, therapeutic environments can help to lower blood pressure and encourage reflection / mindfulness. This aspect of therapeutic environments is closely aligned with the Japanese concept of shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing” where an emphasis is placed on immersion in nature and its restorative benefits. 

(ii)          Inspirational and uplifting / dynamic and energizing. This aspect of therapeutic environments is found where places inspire creativity such as writing, art, music composition or scientific investigation. 

(iii)         Redemptive / transformational. Here, environments can inspire a sense of renewed purpose. Sometimes this might be described as redemptive, or even healing eg after trauma or loss. 

(iv)         Grounding / centering. Therapeutic environments can provoke a sense of stability and connection with broader themes within the natural world, fostering resilience and balance. 

(v)          Socially inclusive and supportive. These features of therapeutic environments are experienced where locations have facilities which encourage social interaction. In doing so, those experiences can help to alleviate loneliness and improve mental well-being by fostering a sense of belonging to a location. 

(vi)         Escapism: These experiences of therapeutic environments can provide a sense of temporary relief from the challenges of daily life, allowing people to step outside their routine context and anxieties. 

(vii)        Mystical / spiritual: Here, landscapes can inspire deep reflection and even profound existential insight. The work of John Muir and Henry David Thoreau include  examples of this aspect of therapeutic environments. 

Given this context, therapeutic ecosystems can be thought of as a form of sanctuary. In recognizing this, it follows that environmental sanctuaries have two main features: (i) as a sanctuary from challenging problems such as family, work, debt, anxieties, stress; (ii) as sanctuaries within which creativity can be developed either as an artistic or scientific body of work.    

Part 3

The motivation of FCSG members to create their own maps of the River Deben Estuary at Felixstowe may be summarized as follows: 

(i)            The estuary is a completely different type of environment to the woodland areas which had been previously re-mapped by FCSG. 

(ii)          Re-mapping the Deben Estuary gave FCSG members an opportunity to engage with a liminal ecosystem, the nature of which is summarized above. 

(iii)         The re-mapping exercise also provided FCSG members with an opportunity to re-map the Deben Estuary as a therapeutic environment. This was of particular interest to those members of FCSG who identify as people of faith. In doing so, those individuals have developed the notion of the Deben Estuary at Felixstowe as a local pilgrimage destination. That is, although it is clearly not a traditional pilgrimage location, it still holds deep and sustained spiritual value for those individuals. In recognizing this democratic, non-elitist, independent-minded  definition of a contemporary pilgrimage destination, it seems appropriate that it is approached through the lenses of collaborative map-making which is equally non-elitist and independently defined. 

The first re-mapping of the Deben Estuary at Felixstowe which was completed by FCSG is included below:

This map led to further published work by FCSG on the Deben Estuary at Felixstowe as a Therapeutic Environment and is included below: 

Part 4

The evolution of this collaborative map making exercise in the River Deben Estuary at Felixstowe took place during the last six months of 2024. It began with the realization that this chosen ecosystem is liminal. That discovery began in July 2024. From reading parts of Turner (1969) members of FCSG began to understand liminal environments from a social and cultural perspective. This aspect of liminality particularly appealed to those members of FCSG who identify as LGBTQ+.      

Equally, the discovery of Relph (1976) was a second stage in the evolution of FCSG’s collective thinking about their re-mapping of the Deben Estuary at Felixstowe. Specifically, Relph focused on contemporary ways of exploring place and placelessness (as   problematic, illusive and ambiguous ways of appreciating liminal spaces). Again, ideas of ambiguous geographic identity appealed to the LGBTQ+ members of FCSG as well as other members from a Humanities background. Members of FCSG with a more mainstream scientific background began to engage with the intellectual challenges of mapping geographic features which have liminal characteristics. Those challenges of wrestling with the cartography of liminal and therapeutic environments continue at the time of writing. 

Part 5

The questions which currently occupy FCSG debate on their collaborative map making of the Deben Estuary at Felixstowe may be summarized as follows: 

(i)            Which geographic and ecological features should be included in any collaborative map making exercise of a liminal and therapeutic environment, such as the Deben Estuary at Felixstowe?   .           

(ii)          Alongside question (i), there is discussion over which attributes of those features should be included. 

(iii)         How can data quality be maintained in this type of map making? 

(iv)         What are the broader data management problems which need to be addressed? 

(v)          What are the risk management problems? 

(vi)         How will the answers to these first five questions change through the seasons, and as a consequence of tidal change? 

(vii)        Can the Deben Estuary at Felixstowe be considered as a local pilgrimage destination? 

(viii)       If so, how might that status affect the development of collaborative map making in this environment? 

(ix)         How can the FCSG collaborative maps of the Deben Estuary at Felixstowe be shared with a wider audience? 

(x)          How can feedback from that dissemination be incorporated into future iterations of FCSG’s collaborative map making? 

Conclusions

The River Deben Estuary at Felixstowe has clearly been recognized by FCSG members as a sanctuary with two important aspects. First, it is a sanctuary from routine family and work-related pressures. Second, it is a sanctuary within which an evolving range of individual and small-group projects are developing. In this way, the Deben Estuary at Felixstowe can be recognized as a multi-project environment: ie it is an area which has inspired a broad range of individual and small-group projects, ranging across the Arts and Sciences. 

Collaborative map making has undeniable political dimensions. It is defiant through its refusal to passively accept mainstream elitist maps as being the ultimate authority in the cartography of ecosystems which are of significant local importance. However, collaborative map making is also cooperative because it does not seek to replace those mainstream maps. Instead, it seeks to create new maps which will hopefully be aligned with mainstream geographic and ecological research. 

Creative tensions will almost certainly persist within FCSG’s collaborative map-making activity. These include the following: 

(i)            The Deben Estuary at Felixstowe is simultaneously a public space, but also a private space for personal reflection. 

(ii)          It is an ancient environment, having been created during the last Ice Age, but it is also a contemporary environment, bearing the imprint of contemporary weather patterns, sea level rises, pollution and other examples of human impact. 

(iii)         The estuary fascinates many of its visitors. However, it also fills some of them with fear eg there are ‘No Swimming’ signs along the shore line. 

(iv)         People of faith have been recorded as describing the Deben Estuary at Felixstowe in transcendent terms, such as “Heavenly”, “Blessed”, “Sacred” and “God-given”. However, at the same time, every aspect of this environment has thoroughly immanent characteristics. The alignment of transcendence and immanence is therefore a challenge which may never be easily recorded on a map, unless it is simply noted in a map’s margin or footnotes as being a feature which causes concern. 

(v)          Leading on from (iv) above, many of the discussions by people of faith regarding their sense of place at the Deben Estuary draws from Biblical and other ancient scriptures. However, alongside those narratives of continuity, there are also narratives of unsettling change, such as the presence of pollution, sea level rise and adverse weather conditions. 

Further discussion of these questions will be published here when they are developed.        

References 

Andrews H, and Roberts L (eds) (2014) Liminal Landscapes: Travel, Experience and Spaces in-between. 

Cooper AR (2000) Places of Pilgrimage and Healing (Capall Bann). 

Cooper AR (2019) Therapeutic Walking on the Antarctic Peninsula, published in Kindred Spirit, November / December, pages 39 – 41. 

Cooper AR (2020) Therapeutic Walking along the Yangtse River, China, in the Art of Healing, vol 2, Issue 71, pages 38 – 41. 

Macfarlane R (2012) The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot. 

Macfarlane R (2015) Landmarks. 

Relph E (1976) Place and Placelessness. 

Shields R (2002) Zones of Transition. 

Solnit R (2001) Wanderlust: A History of Walking, Penguin. 

Tuan YF (1974) Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes and Values 

Turner V (1969) The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure.

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The first time I encountered fragments of the special, threatened Atlantic rainforest that occurs in western Britain and Ireland was on the British Bryological Society’s 2018 summer field meeting on the Isle of Arran in Scotland. Although we visited a variety of habitats at the time, I had never seen anything quite like the abundance of mosses and liverworts clinging to trees and rocks in Glenashdale Wood. A series of waterfalls, including the largest, Glenashdale Falls, whips up mist that ramps up the humidity of the woodland along the river. Leafy liverworts grow in great abundance on tree limbs and boulders beside the river, including swathes of Frullania tamarisci and Lejeunea patens. The former is so rare in my home county of the Isle of Wight in south England that it is exciting to find even a tiny patch on an excursion, with plants largely restricted to ancient woodland. L. patens is completely unknown there, confined to more oceanic climates than the Isle of Wight can provide.

A relatively inexperienced bryologist, I was overwhelmed by the diversity of new species on Arran not found in south England. Even species I knew were often so luxuriant that I failed to recognise them. I tried to cling to some form of familiarity: looking for bryophilous fungi on epiphytic liverworts.

Since I started with bryophytes in 2015, the literature gave the immediate impression that bryophytes were resistant to microbial, including fungal, infection. I, like many others, was under the impression that bryophytes must have unique and interesting biochemical mechanisms to protect themselves, given the astounding diversity and abundance of fungi. This started to be dispelled when I found my first bryophilous fungus, and was completely unravelled as I started to successfully find more. On the Isle of Wight, I found that it was relatively easy to spot fungal parasites on leafy liverworts on trees, such as Frullania dilatata and Metzgeria furcata – partly because the plants are flattened and also because they can often be observed at around eye-level. An LED-illuminated 15x hand lens became my constant companion for searching for these fungi, with most almost impossible to detect without strong light. A couple of weeks before the Arran meeting, I found the first British record of Bryocentria hypothallina on Metzgeria furcata on the Isle of Wight, along with B. brongniartii, Bryonectria callicarpa, Periantria frullaniae and Pithyella chalaudii on Frullania dilatata – all new for VC10.

Stimulated by these discoveries, I investigated epiphytic bryophytes for fungi in Glenashdale Wood when I had the chance. I very quickly found a population of the bright orange fungus Filicupula suboperculata on Frullania tamarisci. At the time, there were fewer than ten records worldwide, and the collection was used to generate first ever molecular data for the species. In addition to this, I noticed bright orange spots nestled in the apices of the perianths of the leafy liverwort Lejeunea patens. After sending my small collection to world expert Dr Peter Döbbeler, it became clear that this was an undescribed species.

However, my collection was too small for a type (reference) specimen, so I needed to find the fungus again. After a covid-induced hiatus, I returned to Arran in 2022, exactly four years after originally finding the fungus. I found several populations in Glenashdale Wood, where it was not uncommon. In 2023, I found another population in the Brecon Beacons in Wales, in the spray zone of Sgwd Yr Eira Waterfall. This was enough to fully describe and sequence the fungus. In July 2024, Peter Döbbeler and I described Endoantria benetecta as new to science, not only a new species but a new genus of fungi.

However, this only scratches the surface of our understanding of the fungi that interact with bryophytes in the hyper-oceanic forest zones of Britain and Ireland. With one of the best understood bryophyte floras in the world, biological records can be used to target interesting areas for fieldwork to potentially find more records of Endoantria benetecta as well as search other rainforest specialists for other fungi. Only a handful of records of E. benetecta exist. If we consider the distribution of the host, Lejeunea patens, it is likely that the fungus is more common than it appears. The challenge is on to understand our rainforests and protect the special species they hold.

Acknowledgements

Endoantria benetecta (Hypocreales) – a new perianthicolous ascomycete on Lejeunea patens in British temperate rainforests:  https://doi.org/10.1127/nova_hedwigia/2024/0964

Rory Whytock who organised the 2018 British Bryological Society meeting on Arran

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This discussion is presented in three parts. First, I will describe the background to re-mapping the Abbey Grove area of woodland which is located in Felixstowe, Suffolk. In doing so, I will show how data management policies were implemented to ensure the best possible data quality. Second, I will explain how each of the three re-mapping exercises has also been an example of inclusiveness. Finally, I will discuss the ways in which the re-mapping of Abbey Grove is intended to contribute to the development of public policy concerning the plans to build across countryside which is immediately adjacent to Abbey Grove.

The re-mapping of Abbey Grove was conducted by Felixstowe’s Citizen Science Group (FCSG). In this context, re-mapping may be considered as an activity where members of the public create new maps containing the types of data which they consider to be important and helpful to represent their appreciation of a place or landscape. A more extensive discussion of re-mapping was published last year.

Data quality is an essential element in all citizen science projects. In this context, data quality is defined by FCSG by its accuracy, completeness, reliability, consistency, relevance, timeliness, validity and security in storage.

With regard to the re-mapping of the Abbey Grove woodland, Fowler et al (1998) was the most important source of guidance on ensuring data quality. It is a text which is discussed during training sessions for FCSG members in small groups of no more than five FCSG members. Additional support with its interpretation is also given on a one-to-one basis when it is needed. More recently, FCSG has greatly appreciated the work of European Citizen Science. In particular Soacha et al (2024) has been found to be particularly helpful. In response to that discussion, the following points may be made concerning the data life cycle of re-mapping Abbey Grove:

1. Data planning – This first stage of the re-mapping and data life cycle process began in June 2023 within the established small-group format which is familiar to FCSG members. Specifically, it was emphasized that re-mapping of any place and / or environment involves the possible inclusion of data types which are important to the map-makers. Through discussion in the FCSG small groups, it was agreed that data would be drawn from woodland sights, sounds, fragrances, tastes (eg woodland berries) and touches (eg the experience of brushing one’s hand across tree bark, or through long grass). Discussions then considered how those data types might be recorded. Suggestions included mp3 files for sound data, jpeg files for photographs, mp4 files for video, and words for other data types.
2. Data Collection – Large-group and small group walks through the Abbey Grove woodland are the basis of all data collection for the FCSG re-mapping exercises. Experiences of place are then either noted, or recorded in the case of mp3 and mp4 files. In addition, members of FCSG who wish to express their re-mapping work in sketches, drawings and paintings also develop that work from those walks. In this way, it is shown that walking is fundamental to personal geographies, the development of local knowledge, individual senses of place, and shared geographical interpretations of place.
3. Data preparation – This stage of the data management process considered how the data might be presented on the final published maps. A significant feature of this stage was that there was no deadline placed on its completion. This has been an important feature of the re-mapping process because the FCSG leaders wanted to encourage all members to feel they had enough time to experiment with different formats of presentation for their maps. Through discussion among FCSG members, it was eventually agreed that the final maps should be presented on a single side of A4 paper, and then saved as a jpg file. In that way, the final maps could be uploaded onto the FCSG Facebook page. It could also be shared easily elsewhere.
4. Data Analysis – This stage involved collating all the data items and then organizing them into a framework which satisfied the aspirations of FCSG members. Although this might have been found to be a long and controversial process, it was actually found to be completed across two one-hour meetings. That was because the Data Planning stage of re-mapping had agreed on the principal data categories of sight, sound, fragrance, touch and taste data, along with therapeutic data describing how Abbey Grove is a place which is recognized by the map-makers for its benefits to mental and physical health.
5. Data Storage – Each member of FCSG has kept their own notes which formed the basis of the re-mapping of Abbey Grove. In addition, FCSG leaders have kept minutes of all meetings devoted to re-mapping. These documents are also saved to the FCSG One Drive. They are also backed up on a USB Flash Drive.
6. Data Publication – Each example of the re-mapping exercises is initially shared on the FCSG Facebook page. They are therefore available to be shared through the Facebook network by visitors to the FCSG page. More recently, the re-mapping work has been shared with the urban planning consultant which has been chosen to work with the local authority responsible to the Felixstowe area, that is East Suffolk Council.

Each of these six stages was recognised by FCSG as an opportunity to reflect on data quality.

Together, FCSG believes its approach to data management supports the standards for open science defined by UNESCO (2023).

The maps below are the finished re-mappings of Abbey Grove by FCSG for the autumn of 2023, winter 2024 and spring 2024 respectively.

The re-mapping of Abbey Grove during the summer of 2024 is currently in development and will be shared on the FCSG Facebook page.

The second part of this discussion focuses on the inclusiveness strategy employed by FCSG within its re-mapping of Abbey Grove. The main goals of that inclusiveness strategy are to invite as many women, young people under the age of 25, and people of faith as possible. Those goals are achieved by developing informal discussions with local people, followed by invitations for groups of them to join FCSG members on walks in the Abbey Grove area. Within those walks, the women, young people under the age of 25, and people of faith are encouraged to either contribute to the FCSG map making, or to create their own maps. So far, FCSG guests have preferred to contribute to FCSG group re-mapping work.

In reflecting on the inclusiveness goals of concentrating on women, young people under the age of 25 and people of faith, it is important to explain why people of colour and people identifying as LGBTQ+ do not appear to be included. In both cases however, FCSG members have not met any local people who define themselves only by the colour of their skin, or their LGBTQ+ orientation. Instead, so far, all guests have preferred to identify as either a woman, young person, or person of faith. FCSG respect those wishes.

A further essential reflection on the FCSG inclusiveness strategy is to recognize the very significant contribution which the women, young people and people of faith have made to the FCSG re-mapping. In particular, three themes have become very clear from the inclusiveness discussions. First, the guests emphasize notions of environmental aesthetics concerning Abbey Grove. Second, they discuss ideas of gratitude either to a deity, the global biosphere, and the local people who first planted Abbey Grove. Thirdly, the inclusiveness guests discuss the implications of the re-mapping for civic participation by FCSG members as well as other local people.

The final section of this discussion considers the ways in which the FCSG re-mapping of Abbey Grove has entered into discussions over local public policy. The context for that development arose in the North Felixstowe Garden Neighbourhood project (NFGN). See references below for the online link to that project.

During the initial development of the NFGN, the urban planning consultant LDA contacted FCSG and asked them to share their work on re-mapping Abbey Grove. The role of LDA is to advise East Suffolk Council on the development of the NFGN project. A link to the LDA web pages is included in the references below. Earlier this year, FCSG published an investigation into local perceptions of the NFGN. A copy was sent to LDA.

After LDA had studied this investigation, they asked for the analysis to be repeated in July this year. That work is planned to be completed by the end of July.

These exchanges between LDA and FCSG have been validating and encouraging for FCSG members. More broadly, it shows that a citizen science group can produce work which is respected within the realms of public policy.

There are five main conclusions to draw from this discussion. First, data quality has been taken seriously by FCSG within its re-mapping of Abbey Grove. Training in data collection and data management techniques is a regular feature of FCSG’s re-mapping and other activities. As such, data management is part of FCSG’s commitment to being a learning organization (Cooper, 2019).

Second, inclusiveness has been incorporated into the project management of FCSG’s re-mapping work. Although diversity issues are intensely controversial and problematic, FCSG has shown a sustained sensitivity toward its importance. At each of FCSG’s monthly meetings, these issues are reflected upon and discussed openly.

The third conclusion shows that FCSG has built upon its re-mapping projects to share not only their re-mapping of Abbey Grove, but also the subsequent public perception analysis. It remains a source of encouragement to FCSG members that their work has been welcomed by the relevant urban planning consultant.

The fourth conclusion here locates this discussion within themes related to the Anthropocene (Lorimer 2015). That is, the re-mapping of Abbey Grove has been influenced by local concerns over biodiversity loss, land use change and climate change. Themes related to the Anthropocene continue to be of interest to FCSG and have been published on their Facebook page.

Finally, a host of further questions arise from this discussion. They include the need to confront adultism in the area of map making, and to encourage far greater production of new maps by young people. Equally, FCSG has found that people of faith have discovered an agenda for dialogue around environmental beauty, gratitude and civic participation. New maps arising from those inter-faith discussions will be encouraged by FCSG.

Ultimately, it is hoped that this discussion will inspire and encourage other groups to engage with re-mapping, and to share the results of their work.

References

Cooper AR (2019) Felixstowe Citizen Science Group becomes a learning organization, published in the newsletter of the National Biodiversity Network, December 2019, https://nbn.org.uk/blogs/nbn-blog/felixstowes-citizen-science-group-becomes-a-learning-organisation/ (online, accessed 22 June 2024)

Fowler J, Cohen L, and Jarvis P (1998) Practical Statistics for Field Biology (Wiley & Sons, Chichester)

LDA Design https://www.lda-design.co.uk/ (online, accessed 22 June 2024)

Lorimer J (2015) Wildlife in the Anthropocene, University of Minnesota Press

NFGN https://northfelixstowe.co.uk/index.php?contentid=30 (online, accessed 22 June 2024

Soacha K, Cardenas A, Alvarez A, Fabo C, Barba J, Haklay M, and Hernandez M (2024) Best Practices For Collaborative Development of Citizen Science Data Infrastructures pdf (online) https://zenodo.org/records/10635857 (Accessed 1 May 2024)

UNESCO (2023) Recommendation on Open Science (online) https://www.unesco.org/en/open-science/about (Accessed: 1 May 2024)

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This article is presented in three parts. First, I will briefly remind readers about the citizen science group which organized the Elfchen map under review here. Second, I will explain the meaning of Elfchen and how it was brought to the attention of UK citizen science. Finally, I will explain the process through which the first Elfchen map was developed. In doing so, I will also summarise the benefits of completing an Elfchen map.

This discussion focuses on the work of Felixstowe’s Citizen Science Group (FCSG). They were founded in April 2018 with the principal aim of conducting impact analyses on the work of Felixstowe’s Community Nature Reserve. However, alongside those impact analytics, FCSG finds time to conduct additional citizen science projects. Recent examples have included various climate change data gathering activities and the re-mapping of local woodland and shore-line habitats.

FCSG learned about elfchen poems from Andrea Troncoso at an online meeting of the European Citizen Science Association. Andrea explained to the group that elfchen poems only have eleven words.

The first line of an elfchen poem is composed only of one word – an adjective.

The second line of an elfchen poem has two words – a noun with an article. Examples might include “A land”, “Our world”, “The youth” etc.

The third line of an elfchen poem has three words, being an action of the noun. Examples might include “Decline in numbers”, “Needs new stories”, “Pays its dividend” etc.

The fourth line of an elfchen poem has four words which complement the action. Examples might include “Learning from each other”, “Finding a new home”, “Collecting data with scientists” etc.

The last line of an elfchen poem has only a single word – another noun which concludes the poem. Examples might include “Innovation”, “Infinity”, “Water” etc.

Other slight variations on elfchen creations are available, but this is the one which fascinated the members of FCSG.

Re-mapping, collaboratively

Alongside Troncoso’s explanations of elfchen, FCSG has been working on re-mapping local woodland, shore-line habitats, and storm forecast maps since June 2023. In this context, re-mapping is the practice of creating new maps which contain data and information which are of interest to the citizen scientists. Re-mapping might therefore be thought of as collaborative map-making, or participatory map-making. The principal benefit of re-mapping is to encourage citizen scientists to reflect more deeply on the kinds of map they need to create to express their interests in a specific landscape and / or place. Re-mapping is also a helpful strategy for encouraging people who have never previously created maps to get involved in the process. As a consequence, new conversations about an area of woodland or sea shore become developed.

Mapping a local woodland through Elfchen

With that background in re-mapping, FCSG wanted to create a map of a local area of woodland called Abbey Grove using elfchen poems as the data which captures local people’s sense of connection with that area. That map-making process began on the evening of 21 December 2023. The finished Elfchen map of Abbey Grove began to develop around a central panel of core data about Abbey Grove. That core data drew from the Woodland Trust’s web page about Abbey Grove. The centre of the Abbey Grove Elfchen map therefore shows Abbey Grove’s location coordinates and area covered by Abbey Grove: 3.91 ha (9.66 acres). There is also a note about the early development of Abbey Grove and the main types of vegetation to be found in Abbey Grove. In the remaining five panels of the Abbey Grove Elfchen Map, there are five elfchen poems created by readers of the FCSG Facebook page. On that Facebook page, the key sentence stated that FCSG “… want to discuss the idea of an elfchen map. That is, a collection of elfchen poems which describe a group of people’s responses to a specific place or landscape.” Clear and concise explanation about the structure of an elfchen poem was also provided.

Within one hour of that first Facebook post, an FCSG member contributed the following elfchen. He had never written a poem since his schools days.

Irresistible

Towering branches

Embrace my imagination

Loving this green sanctuary

Joy!

Less than an hour after that first poem was received, four more elfchen poems were submitted by readers of the FCSG Facebook page. So there was enough elfchen poetry to surround the core data of the habitat on the finished map.

The completed Elfchen map of Abbey Grove is shown here:

The main surprise with this process of map-making was the speed at which it took place – just under two hours after the original FCSG statement of intent to create an Elfchen Map of Abbey Grove. The second surprise arose from the emotional honesty, and variety of content in the submitted poems. Three of the poems came from people who described themselves as either from an Arts background, or from no defined academic background. The other two elfchens came from people who have studied Science to at least undergraduate standard.

This first Elfchen map of Abbey Grove therefore introduces new, locally relevant, qualitative data about the habitat. At the time of writing, 22 December 2023, the Elfchen map of Abbey Grove has inspired the Felixstowe Community Nature Reserve Artist in Residence, Charmaine McKissock, to begin sketches which will illustrate the elfchen map. In doing so, Charmaine’s creativity will introduce the Abbey Grove Elfchen map to a wider audience of local artists and others.

The main consequence of this first Elfchen map of Abbey Grove, is to realise that additional maps of this kind should be developed by FCSG, possibly at other times of the year – eg in spring, summer and autumn of 2024.

At present, it is anticipated that the FCSG Elfchen maps should be kept as separate exercises in map-making from other examples of re-mapping which FCSG plans to complete in 2024. Whether that segregation will remain as a long-term practice, is uncertain. Undeniably, it is hoped that other groups who read this feature may choose to integrate elfchen poems as data-types alongside other data, such as frequency of visits by the poets etc.

It is now hoped that other community-based conservation groups, citizen scientists and others will create new maps of favoured habitats which include elfchen poetry. In doing so, it is hoped that people who have never previously taken part in map-making will be inspired to do so. Young people in particular should be encouraged to create elfchen maps of specific areas of interest in order to stimulate fresh ways of thinking about Geography, Ecology, Literature, Science and the Arts – and the ways in which they all support each other in a comprehensive appreciation of a place or landscape.

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As part of the Better Biodiversity Data (BBD) project’s engagement with the biodiversity data community in Scotland, the BBD project team has been visiting project partners around the country. In this blog Christine Tansey tells us more about what the team has learnt on their travels.

It was early May when the BBD project team started our odyssey around Scotland to gain a greater understanding of the current biological recording infrastructure, and how records are managed and accessed in different places.
We started by travelling to the West, and finding out how the volunteer-led Argyll Biological Records Centre (ABReC) co-ordinates recording trips and collates records. In Glasgow, we saw behind the scenes at the museum, touring the zoological store. We heard about the historical records that can be extracted from museum collections, as well as those managed by the Glasgow Museums Biological Records Centre (GMBRC).

Our next stop took us to the South West Scotland Environmental Information Centre (SWSEIC), who host an annual wildlife recorders gathering and work closely with recording schemes to collate records in the region.

Venturing further afield, we travelled to South Uist to meet Outer Hebrides Biological Recording (OHBR). This small, dedicated group of volunteers produce an in-depth report about the Outer Hebrides each year, where local recording is often added to by visiting natural historians. Our meeting was soundtracked by calling corncrakes, and we managed to squeeze in a walk on West Beach on Berneray, where we saw washed up seagrasses and did a short impromptu beach clean.

Back on the mainland, we spent some time in Edinburgh, talking with the National Museum of Scotland (NMS), the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh (RBGE) and the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) about the wider biological recording community. As custodians of historic biodiversity data in their collections and herbaria, NMS and RBGE are well placed to improve our knowledge of changes in Scottish biodiversity. SWT provided our team with some valuable advice on how to engage with policymakers to ensure biodiversity data management is built into future policy and legislative changes.

Returning to the road, we travelled to Orkney, to share information and discuss the direction the Orkney Wildlife Recording Group (OWRG) is taking to re-establish a local recording structure after the closure of their Records Centre 3 years ago. While there, we were able to chat with local representatives of Seasearch, the Orkney Native Wildlife Project and the Species on the Edge Orkney team among others. We came away with a real sense of the extensive activities of the local recording community, as well as enjoying the Ragged Robin and Yellow Rattle around the Standing Stones of Stenness.

Mike Tetley, the BBD programme manager has a background in marine mammal research and our journeys to the islands afforded the opportunity for a crash course on ferry-based survey. We were able to see Harbour porpoises, common and Risso’s dolphins and Minke whales on several legs of the BBD tour.

Mid-June saw us return to the central belt to visit The Wildlife Information Centre (TWIC), one of Scotland’s most well-established records centres. We gained an insight into the strong relationships TWIC has built with local authorities in their region, as well as the training and events they deliver. Attending TWIC conferences were a highlight during my own time doing PhD research at the University of Edinburgh.

In late June I joined Silurian, the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust’s (HWDT) research vessel for their trip from Ullapool to her home anchorage in Tobermory. As my background means I am more familiar with terrestrial recording, joining Silurian provided an insight into how HWDT collect cetacean sightings and acoustic data. HWDT have trained over 1000 citizen scientists in recording marine mammals over the last 20- years, and these surveys provide invaluable data to both NatureScot and scientific researchers, contributing to our understanding of the status of cetaceans in Scotland’s seas.

July brought with it a visit to the East, where we met with Fife Nature to find out how they work as a records centre sitting within Fife Council. Glenrothes provided one of our more unusual sightings, with a hippopotamus now a permanent resident among its roundabouts!

Travelling onward to Dundee, BBD met with representatives of the Tayside Biodiversity Partnership, three local authorities and Dundee Botanic Garden. As a region without a formal records centre, Tayside has the opportunity to review its local recording infrastructure as we develop national level support through the BBD project.

As August arrived, we reached the North East and travelled to Inverness to meet with Highland Biological Recording Group (HBRG), another volunteer-led group that covers a vast swathe of Scotland’s land area. They produce reports and atlases for different taxa in the region. A short hop to Aberdeenshire enabled us to give a short seminar on the BBD project for the James Hutton Institute and catch up with North East Scotland Biological Records Centre (NESBReC). NESBReC sit within the local authority and have established strong links with other council departments. Later in September, our final major stop on the tour will be to Shetland, to visit Shetland Biological Records Centre (SBRC).

Throughout our time meeting with those managing our biological records in Scotland, it has become increasingly clear how vastly different each region’s infrastructure is. With the BBD project, we hope to ensure a core level of support across all regions, and enable each to continue to develop their own services.

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This discussion is presented in three parts. First, I will summarise the background and motivation behind this re-mapping project. Second, the discussion will examine the processes involved in creating the re-mapping outcomes shown here. Finally, I will consider the benefits and other consequences of re-mapping Storm Ciaran.

Background and Motivation

This re-mapping of Storm Ciaran was conducted by Felixstowe’s Citizen Science Group. To read an earlier article about their re-mapping work, please click here.

Storm Ciaran (also known as Storm Emir in Germany) was a wind and rain storm which affected parts of Europe between late October and early November 2023. Winds were recorded of up to 160 miles per hour or 260 km/h. Significant damage to property, and loss of life, was experienced (PA Reporters, 2023).

From the basis of their local knowledge, our members wanted to create new maps which include data and information which is of greater relevance to them compared to official maps, such as those produced by Ordnance Survey. The practicalities of creating those new maps began to occupy our members’ attention during the summer of 2023 through formal and informal meetings.

Re-Mapping Storm Ciaran

All the previous re-mapping work conducted by Felixstowe’s Citizen Science Group responded directly to specific environments eg woodland. With the re-mapping of Storm Ciaran, we extended that agenda to include the re-mapping of the storm’s forecast map for 31 October 2023, produced by the Met Office. We did so in response to ideas and discussions generated among our members about the alignment of that forecast map and the broader questions of climate change within the Anthropocene (Edwards, 2015; and Waters et al, 2016).

On 1 November 2023, Felixstowe’s Citizen Science Group shared that forecast map for Storm Ciaran on its Facebook page, along with some questions about climate change which arose from the initial discussions among our members. Those questions were:

1: Why is the term ‘net zero’ interpreted in so many ways by governments and corporations?

2: Why has there been so little practical progress in reducing carbon emissions since the Paris Agreement (2015)?

3: Why are governments allowing the Ukraine and Middle Eastern Wars to distract from climate change strategy? Can they not multi-task?

Those questions were fact-checked for validity prior to publication.

Here is a copy of that initial response to the Storm Ciaran forecast map:

In that first publication of the Storm Ciaran forecast map, the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group also shared a ‘cross word’ style assembly of key words in order to provoke further debate among a wider readership. Within only five days, we received 117 private messages to the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group Facebook page – their highest number of messages for any single subject. That level of public response suggested that local people wanted to voice their emotions and insights about Storm Ciaran in a clear new way.

To develop our re-mapping of Storm Ciaran, we took the seven most frequently used themes from the Facebook feedback and arranged them into interview questions. Those questions were then discussed and refined among Felixstowe Citizen Science Group members.

Interview questions were directed at 100 randomly chosen members of Felixstowe’s Community Nature Reserve. To organise that sample, Felixstowe’s Citizen Science Group appointed three Data Collection Team Leaders. Each Team Leader was allocated 6 – 8 Citizen Science Group members. That meant that 25 members of Felixstowe’s Citizen Science Group were involved in the research interviews. The list of 100 randomly chosen people was then divided among that data collection group with about 4 phone calls per group member.

The process for conducting those interviews began when we sent out the Storm Ciaran forecast map to 120 members of Felixstowe’s Community Nature Reserve. The first 100 to reply and acknowledge their willingness to participate in the re-mapping project received their research phone call the following day. In each case, those interviewees were asked the following questions:

1. Does this map show an example of human influenced climate change?
2. Does this map show evidence of excessive Carbon Dioxide emissions?
3. Is the UK prepared for storms like Ciaran?
4. Do you associate Storm Ciaran with biodiversity loss?
5. Do you associate Storm Ciaran with habitat loss?
6. Does Storm Ciaran make you think about its consequences for future generations?
7. Do you anticipate more storms this autumn like Ciaran?

Interviewees were asked to indicate the degree to which they agreed / disagreed with each question on a scale from 0 – 10.. That is, a response of zero would indicate no agreement with the premise of the question. An answer of ‘10’ would indicate complete agreement with the question.

When all the scores were received, we took an average for each question and rounded them up to the nearest whole number. The benefit of this exercise is to introduce seven new sets of quantitative data to the forecast map which are of direct relevance to the interpretations of local people in Felixstowe. It would be interesting to see the results from other citizen science groups on other storms.

Clearly, further work can be done on ‘unpacking’ the answers identified in this re-mapping exercise. That work could begin in 2024.

In reflecting on this project, it is worth identifying some of the major risks and problems of this re-mapping:

1. Data quality is always a matter of concern in any branch of citizen science. With any activity undertaken by Felixstowe’s Citizen Science Group, their Data Management Plan is a guide to rigorous standards in data collection, analysis and visualization.
2. With any form of collaboration, such as promoting inclusiveness alongside re-mapping, there is always a risk of projects lacking coherence from the diversity of participants. Part of the answer to that challenge, which was employed by Felixstowe’s Citizen Science Group, was to allow time for extended debate among members. That is, we had no formal deadlines for the completion of our re-mapping. Instead, patience, empathy, good humour and clear leadership were allowed to prevail.
3. If this re-mapping had failed to develop in the way it was first imagined, there might have been a risk of reputational damage to Felixstowe’s Citizen Science Group. However, if the project had not completed in the way it did, we would like to think that stakeholders would have interpreted that difficulty in a positive light – ie one that saw apparent failure as a learning opportunity from which further iterations of the project might be developed.   

The benefits of this re-mapping  

1. This re-mapping exercise has given local people in Felixstowe a way of expressing their responses to Storm Ciaran in both quantitative and qualitative data.
2. Seven sets of quantitative data have been identified. Subsequent research may ‘unpack’ those data into further interview questions with members of Felixstowe’s Community Nature Reserve, and possibly others.
3. This exercise shows that an inclusive approach to map making, and to re-mapping, can produce finished work which is rich in an abundance of ideas and further questions.
4. Particularly among people who had never made maps before, it is clear that their enthusiasm to do more map making has increased as a consequence of participating in this work on Storm Ciaran.
5. It is hoped that other citizen science groups, including school science groups,  will find value in this work, and will subsequently complete similar projects of their own.

Conclusions

This re-mapping exercise has shown that Storm Ciaran had both physical and cultural dimensions. For example, the floods and wind damage from Storm Ciaran impacted significantly on the experiences and memories of local people in the Felixstowe area.

Re-mapping has been shown to have clear political dimensions too. Re-mapping allows its authors to include data and information which is of importance to them, instead of those people feeling they have to passively accept maps created by elite groups such as Ordnance Survey or the Met Office.

Re-Mapping also shows how its authors identify with an environment through their most significant questions, passions, disillusionment, fears and hopes. As such, this discussion may be aligned with the work of the Cultural Geographer, Denis Cosgrove and his ‘Mappings’ book from 1999.

References 

Cosgrove D (1999) Mappings (Reaktion Books)

Edwards, Lucy E. (30 November 2015). “What is the Anthropocene?”. Eos. Vol. 96. doi:10.1029/2015EO040297

PA Reporters (2023) South of England and channel Islands bear the brunt of Storm Ciaran.

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Based on the Isle of Mull, in the heart of the Hebrides, the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT) has been leading the way for the conservation of whales, dolphins and porpoises in the waters of western Scotland for over two decades.

We believe evidence is the foundation of effective conservation. Our research has critically advanced the understanding of species that visit seasonally or are resident in the Hebrides. Data are provided to the Scottish Government to inform protection measures for minke whales, Risso’s dolphins, harbour porpoises, and basking sharks across Hebridean seas.

Our flagship research vessel, Silurian, is an icon of long-term monitoring in the field of marine mammal conservation. A recognisable and familiar presence in the Hebrides – she has worked hard – monitoring and protecting areas of critical habitat for whales and dolphins for 20 years.

Each year Silurian and our volunteers travel thousands of nautical miles to monitor whales, dolphins, porpoises and basking sharks off the west coast of Scotland. This pioneering research programme has generated one of the largest coherent databases of its kind for UK waters.

The same rigorous survey methodology has been used for over 20 years, ensuring that the data collected are consistent and comparable between years, providing a wide scale assessment of cetacean distribution and animal behaviour.

Silurian surveys the whole west coast of Scotland, aiming not to repeat the same route twice. By surveying across a wide variety of fine scale environmental variables, (i.e., sea temperature, depth, tidal flow, salinity, etc.) both visually and acoustically, HWDT can answer questions of habitat preference, site usage, and through our photo identification work, animal behaviour.

Human influences and activities, such as underwater noise, fishing, and marine litter, are also monitored to identify emerging threats and understand the conservation implications and risks.

All of these data combined provide a unique and powerful body of knowledge, which is making a real impact for the protection of cetaceans in western Scotland, contributing to the designation of Marine Protected Areas for harbour porpoise, minke whales, basking sharks and Risso’s dolphins, and detecting trends and changes in the marine environment linked to the climate crisis.

Christine Tansey, the Better Biodiversity Data (BBD) project Partnership Officer from the National Biodiversity Network Trust recently joined Silurian on a trip from Ullapool back home to Tobermory. Alongside the HWDT crew and others from NatureScot’s marine survey team, the Marine Mammals Stranding Scheme, photographers and media content creators she got an insight into what sailing with HWDT involves.

Christine explains:

“As someone more used to working with (very stationary!) trees in my previous roles, joining Silurian was an eye-opening experience about the challenges, and solutions, to monitoring mobile species in Scotland’s seas. HWDT is a key organisation supporting marine mammal data collection in Scotland, and demonstrate a model of structured surveys requiring specific training and specialist equipment.

“My weekend on Silurian very clearly highlighted the difficulty of making visual observations of species found beneath the waves, as the sea state can often be too rough to see much from the surface. However, we were able to see how Jenny Hampson, HWDT’s Fieldwork and Research Manager, deployed the towed hydrophone to capture acoustic records of dolphins and porpoises while those of us on deck concentrated on the waves splashing aboard and holding on! We also saw the research station or ‘science nook’ below deck, where the survey teams record visual observations and help process acoustic data, identifying porpoise clicks and other potential species from the recordings.”

HWDT’s Silurian, celebrated a milestone in 2022 – marking 20 years of monitoring Hebridean seas. Over the decades, more than 1,000 people – or citizen scientists – have joined expeditions on board, making Silurian their home for the duration. Trained by our passionate crew and deployed as field biologists, their hard work gathering data underpins this vital long-term monitoring programme. The data gathered by these citizen scientists has generated one of the largest databases of it’s kind in Europe – with acoustic recordings totalling more than a year’s worth of continuous listening, and visual survey effort equating to sailing the world 3 times over. This colossal database has helped better understand the species found in our waters and is used as evidence to demonstrate how important the west coast of Scotland is for whales, dolphins, porpoises and basking sharks.

Anyone can join us on board and we rely on passionate and generous volunteers to continue to this important monitoring work.

Find out more about how you can sail with us, and book a trip in 2024 here: https://hwdt.org/silurian

HWDT will be joining delegates at the NBN Conference in Edinburgh on 23 November, please come and chat to us at our information stand to find out more about our work.

The post Volunteering with the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust – twenty years of sailing on Silurian! appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

Identifying British earthworms currently requires collecting and killing specimens, to then use microscopic morphological features for identification. This is the biggest barrier to earthworm recording and limits the number of people who are willing and able to contribute earthworm species occurrence data to the National Earthworm Recording Scheme.

So, what if there was a way to identify earthworms live? So far, no live earthworm ID guide has proven accurate enough to meet the high standards of the National Earthworm Recording Scheme. This isn’t necessarily because some earthworm species couldn’t be identified live, but more likely because we simply don’t have enough data on the natural variation in live ID characters within and between species to produce a reliable guide.

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Biological Recording Company and Earthworm Society of Britain have teamed up on the Earthworm Image Recognition Project to see if image recognition technology can be used to identify earthworms from live photos. The project is funded by Defra and aims to produce a beta version of an app for farmers that will enable auto-identification of earthworms from photos.

In order to train the AI within the app, the Biological Recording Company will be gathering live photos of earthworms and then identifying each specimen using the established morphological features using a microscope and the Key to the Earthworms of the UK & Ireland (2nd edition) by Emma Sherlock. The ability of the AI to reliably identify all species of British earthworm is currently unknown, but by the end of the project, we will have an idea regarding which species can and can’t be identified by image recognition technology. All of the photos will be taken using smartphones so that the AI is trained using the same quality of images that users of the app would be able to submit. With over 100 photos needed per species to train the AI, the Biological Recording Company has a number of earthworm recording activities coming up.

Earthworm Sampling Days

A programme of Earthworm Sampling Days will be hosted at a number of wildlife sites across England and Wales. During these events, participants will sample for earthworms and use their personal smartphone devices to take photos of the specimens using a specific protocol. Following photography of the earthworms, the specimens will be collected, killed and preserved so that they can be accurately identified by the National Recorder for Earthworms. All photos will be submitted following the event using an online submission form.

No experience is necessary as all participants will be trained on both earthworm sampling and the smartphone photography protocol. Furthermore, no photography skills are required – it’s important that the images used to train the AI come from a range of devices and are taken by individuals ranging in smartphone photography skill level so that the training data represents the actual data that farmers would be submitting when the app is tested.

All of these events are free to attend, but booking is required.

• 10 Oct 23 Earthworm Sampling Day at Nant Hill (Wrexham County Borough)
• 16 Oct 23 Earthworm Sampling Day at Woodhouse Farm (Marrick, N. Yorkshire)
• 21 Oct 23 Earthworm Sampling Day at Rothwell Country Park (W. Yorkshire)
• 23 Oct 23 Earthworm Sampling Day at Erewash Meadows Nature Reserve (Derbyshire)
• 24 Oct 23 Earthworm Sampling Day at Holme Pierrepoint Country Park (Nottinghamshire)
• 25 Oct 23 Earthworm Sampling Day at Woodside Nature Reserve (Derbyshire)
• 30 Oct 23 Earthworm Sampling Day at Pevensey Road Nature Reserve (Hounslow, London)

You can book Earthworm Sampling Days via the Biological Recording Company Eventbrite page.

The project partners would like to say a huge thank you to all the organisations that are helping us to deliver this programme of events, including Citizen Zoo, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, London Natural History Society, the Tees-Swale Naturally Connected Project and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Citizen Science Projects

Over the next few months, the Biological Recording Company will be launching a citizen science project that will ask the general public to send off live specimens from their gardens. This will help ensure the project can incorporate data from a wide range of species and geographic regions into the image recognition training library. For example, composting species (such as Dendrobaena venetea, Eisenia andrei and Eisenia fetida) are less likely to be found on Earthworm Sampling Days so asking the public to send specimens off from their compost bins can help to fill this gap in data.

More information about these citizen science projects will be released over the next few months.

Existing Image Data

Finally, earthworm researchers will be contacted to enquire if they have existing live images of specimens that were later identified accurately to species. For example, the Darwin Tree of Life project has been photographing specimens before preserving them and may have some images that can be used for the image recognition training library.

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As part of the Better Biodiversity Data (BBD) project’s engagement with the biodiversity data community in Scotland, the BBD project team has been visiting project partners around the country. In this blog Christine Tansey tells us more about what the team has learnt on their travels.

It was early May when the BBD project team started our odyssey around Scotland to gain a greater understanding of the current biological recording infrastructure, and how records are managed and accessed in different places.
We started by travelling to the West, and finding out how the volunteer-led Argyll Biological Records Centre (ABReC) co-ordinates recording trips and collates records. In Glasgow, we saw behind the scenes at the museum, touring the zoological store. We heard about the historical records that can be extracted from museum collections, as well as those managed by the Glasgow Museums Biological Records Centre (GMBRC).

Our next stop took us to the South West Scotland Environmental Information Centre (SWSEIC), who host an annual wildlife recorders gathering and work closely with recording schemes to collate records in the region.

Venturing further afield, we travelled to South Uist to meet Outer Hebrides Biological Recording (OHBR). This small, dedicated group of volunteers produce an in-depth report about the Outer Hebrides each year, where local recording is often added to by visiting natural historians. Our meeting was soundtracked by calling corncrakes, and we managed to squeeze in a walk on West Beach on Berneray, where we saw washed up seagrasses and did a short impromptu beach clean.

Back on the mainland, we spent some time in Edinburgh, talking with the National Museum of Scotland (NMS), the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh (RBGE) and the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) about the wider biological recording community. As custodians of historic biodiversity data in their collections and herbaria, NMS and RBGE are well placed to improve our knowledge of changes in Scottish biodiversity. SWT provided our team with some valuable advice on how to engage with policymakers to ensure biodiversity data management is built into future policy and legislative changes.

Returning to the road, we travelled to Orkney, to share information and discuss the direction the Orkney Wildlife Recording Group (OWRG) is taking to re-establish a local recording structure after the closure of their Records Centre 3 years ago. While there, we were able to chat with local representatives of Seasearch, the Orkney Native Wildlife Project and the Species on the Edge Orkney team among others. We came away with a real sense of the extensive activities of the local recording community, as well as enjoying the Ragged Robin and Yellow Rattle around the Standing Stones of Stenness.

Mike Tetley, the BBD programme manager has a background in marine mammal research and our journeys to the islands afforded the opportunity for a crash course on ferry-based survey. We were able to see Harbour porpoises, common and Risso’s dolphins and Minke whales on several legs of the BBD tour.

Mid-June saw us return to the central belt to visit The Wildlife Information Centre (TWIC), one of Scotland’s most well-established records centres. We gained an insight into the strong relationships TWIC has built with local authorities in their region, as well as the training and events they deliver. Attending TWIC conferences were a highlight during my own time doing PhD research at the University of Edinburgh.

In late June I joined Silurian, the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust’s (HWDT) research vessel for their trip from Ullapool to her home anchorage in Tobermory. As my background means I am more familiar with terrestrial recording, joining Silurian provided an insight into how HWDT collect cetacean sightings and acoustic data. HWDT have trained over 1000 citizen scientists in recording marine mammals over the last 20- years, and these surveys provide invaluable data to both NatureScot and scientific researchers, contributing to our understanding of the status of cetaceans in Scotland’s seas.

July brought with it a visit to the East, where we met with Fife Nature to find out how they work as a records centre sitting within Fife Council. Glenrothes provided one of our more unusual sightings, with a hippopotamus now a permanent resident among its roundabouts!

Travelling onward to Dundee, BBD met with representatives of the Tayside Biodiversity Partnership, three local authorities and Dundee Botanic Garden. As a region without a formal records centre, Tayside has the opportunity to review its local recording infrastructure as we develop national level support through the BBD project.

As August arrived, we reached the North East and travelled to Inverness to meet with Highland Biological Recording Group (HBRG), another volunteer-led group that covers a vast swathe of Scotland’s land area. They produce reports and atlases for different taxa in the region. A short hop to Aberdeenshire enabled us to give a short seminar on the BBD project for the James Hutton Institute and catch up with North East Scotland Biological Records Centre (NESBReC). NESBReC sit within the local authority and have established strong links with other council departments. Later in September, our final major stop on the tour will be to Shetland, to visit Shetland Biological Records Centre (SBRC).

Throughout our time meeting with those managing our biological records in Scotland, it has become increasingly clear how vastly different each region’s infrastructure is. With the BBD project, we hope to ensure a core level of support across all regions, and enable each to continue to develop their own services.

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