Hannah McGovern 🐟

jogging round uni of reading campus this morning, had to stop to check out the wildlife -so many butterflies in a patch of long grass left unmown over the summer! just goes to show how something as easy as not cutting the grass can help nature 🌾🦋🌻

Flying over Caroni Swamp on the first leg of our 18hr journey home. After a month of floods, sweat and (occasional) tears this years field season is at an end 😢 But the experiences we've had, wildlife we've seen and people we've met have made this trip truly unforgettable 💙🏝️🐟 Thank you Trinidad!!!

halfway through fieldwork already! time flies when you're catching smallfry🐟🐟🐟 guppy gang in the pitch lake + surrounding waterways catching fish and exploring the gooeylogical features of the largest asphalt lake in the world

I'm pretty sure I picked up that poncho in 2015 at an open day... never envisioned it's first use would be in a mangrove swamp 10 years later 😂

repping RHUL at caroni swamp 🇹🇹🦩🐊 spectacled caiman, flamingos, scarlet ibis and silky anteaters ... it's not only guppies on this field trip!

first day of fieldwork complete! got a little too up close and personal with the pitch lake water (you can really feel the upwelling) but overall success ✨🐟🌎

@evolecollab.bsky.social lab cleaned up at the RHUL biology PGR symposium 🐟💪 best MSc talk (Ella) + runner up (Rebecca) and best PhD poster (yours truly)😎

A meme of the Simpsons featuring Lionel Hutz imagining world peace with a worried expression. The people dancing together in the imagination bubble are represented by various species of British animals; a beaver, a lynx, a crested newt, a red squirrel, a wild boar, a capercaillie, an otter, a slow worm, a dormouse & a pine martnen. An eagle & a crane fly overhead. The caption reads 'Can you imagine the British countrysie without grouse moors?'

I put way too much effort into this, but I think it scans

sending this to my old landlord who threatened the deposit if we didnt mow the lawn before moving out 💪👊

considering the state of our rivers this is not at all surprising, though still incredibly depressing 😟 the decline of freshwater habitats may not be as visually dramatic as something like coral bleaching or deforestation but it is still just as significant for global biodiversity 🐟

a graphic that says Scientists we need you, then an old school rotary phone that has a speech bubble saying "talk with classrooms across the globe" and a bulleted list Volunteer for 1-5 Q&As per semester Get matched with the right teacher for you via email 35+ categories of scientist, from squid to space It’s free for teachers" and then "sign up at skypeascientist.com"

Scientists!

We are trying to get 1000 of us into the volunteer database by Jan 1.

You'll be volunteering to speak with classrooms over video chat about your work, and answer their questions! You can volunteer for up to 5 sessions per semester.

Sign up here! www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

interesting case study where an offshore wind farm appears to have actually protected marine mammals by setting back vessel traffic and creating a de facto no-fishing zone:
🦑 🌍

Slender billed curlew standing in shallow water above his reflection, The reflection is made up of maps of the areas and countries that have caused the birds almost certain demise.

X is for... eXtinct

The Slender billed Curlew was declared globally extinct this year. 1st mainland European #bird to go extinct in half a millennium

'The last New Moon' Slender billed curlew is by textile artist, Angela Knapp.

Inspired by Horatio Clare's 'Orison for a Curlew'

#alphabetbirds 🪶

it's such a unique ecosystem I could yap about it for days 😂 bc of the hydrocarbons it sometimes spontaneously combusts in the dry season it's amazing how much life can thrive there despite the conditions

not that this means don't hold the ultra-wealthy to task (private jets should be illegal yesterday) but we can't let them twist the narrative that "nothing I do matters bc Jeff bezos is 10000x worse so I might as well buy that new iphone"

food for thought👀and also by global standards even those of us on relatively low UK wages are still within the top % of consumers. fruit and veg in all seasons, new outfits, brand new tech etc are all luxury items that we can now access whenever we want and this does come at a cost 😔

succession is so fantastic and also jaw-dropping. every time theyd take seperate private jets across the Atlantic for a meeting that could be on zoom my blood pressure raised another few percent points 😂

I knew walking around with nice looking leaves in my pocket would eventually come in handy

Very excited to be @britishecolsoc.bsky.social #BES2024! Like behaviour, frogs, captive management for conservation? Come and see my poster at A2.1 at 18:00 TODAY! Also seeking machine learning expertise - come and chat if that’s your thing! 🐸

Hey there! I’m Grace, a PhD student at @qmul.ac.uk, studying the impacts of large herbivores in rewilded areas🍃🐂 I’m looking at #geomorphology, #ecology and even some #remotesensing 🏞️

why do guppies keep colonising oil polluted habitats and how is this affecting their ecology? is oil pollution all bad*? come find out at the #bes2024 poster session this evening!

(*it is yeah)

Pitch Lake in Trinidad, the worlds biggest asphalt lake. the water on the surface is full of toxic sulphur + hydrocarbons, but still supports a diverse wetland ecosystem 🐟🪿we've been looking at community composition to see whats going on under the surface 🌊

I see #Crustmas seems to be a thing, and people are sharing Ostracod photos!? I don't need an excuse to share photos of my Favourite crustacean!
Or better yet, here's a video!
#BugSky #invert #PondLife

Hi there! I'm Hannah, a PhD student at @royalholloway.bsky.social studying the #ecology and #evolution of guppies in oil-polluted waters in Trinidad 🐠🇹🇹 I look at freshwater ecology, rapid adaptation, and have even begun dipping my toe into genomics (scary stuff!🫣)