Student Conference:
Biodiversity and Environmental Change
Stirling University 9th April 2010
In partnership with Scottish Natural Heritage & the Scottish Environment Protection Agency
The year 2010 marks an important milestone in efforts to reduce global biodiversity loss. The Convention on Biological Diversity committed member states “to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level”. The focus of this day was to examine biodiversity in the context of environmental change and look at where conservation efforts should be prioritised post-2010.
Over one hundred delegates attended Stirling University’s 2nd student conference on the environment on the 9th April 2010. There were student presentations on subjects as diverse as managing agricultural landscapes for biodiversity conservation, modelling tick borne diseases in Red Grouse and dealing with river acidification through effective stakeholder participation. The best student talk was won by Zara Gladman (Glasgow University) for her excellent, albeit somewhat sobering, presentation on invasion of North American signal crayfish to Scotland. Penelope Whitehorn (Stirling University) won the best student poster prize for her superb presentation on immunity and inbreeding in bumblebees.
As well as the student presentations there were informative and entertaining talks by a range of speakers including the plenary "Restoration ecology: comedy or tradegy?" by Prof James Bullock (CEH Wallingford), Prof Alison Hester (Macaulay Land Use Institute), Susan Davies (SNH) and Prof James Curran (SEPA).
Over a long lunch break students were able to chat to representatives from a wide range of organisations including Government Agencies, NGOs and professional organisations about career options and skill requirements.
Stirling University would like to thank SNH and SEPA for funding this event over the last two years – look out for information from these organisations later in the year regarding the venue and format of next year’s conference.
Further conference information
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Poster displays & stands in the atrium at the conference |
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