🌱 This #WorldSeagrassDay we'll be celebrating amazing growth from this year’s seagrass pasties 🌊✨
Planted in January → thriving today.
Next stop: the Tees Estuary, where they’ll:
💧 Improve water quality
🐟 Create habitat for marine life
Seagrass = ecosystem superhero. 💚
#Seagrass #Restoration
If you ever worry about bumblebees in cold weather, just remember:
🧥They are covered in thick fur.
🌡️They can raise their body temperature by dislocating their wings and shivering their flight muscles.
❄️Their body can produce an antifreeze to stop ice crystals from forming and freezing their insides.
Screengrab from UK Water Resources Portal with lots of blue showing recent wetness in a lot of the UK
In partnership with others, UKCEH brings together soil moisture, rainfall, river flows and groundwater data to produce the monthly UK hydrological summaries.
You can view much of this data in near real-time via the UK Water Resources Portal
ukwrp.ceh.ac.uk
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Alice and Sue chat to senior hydrologist Lucy Barker about the complexities of the UK's weather and water cycle.
And micrometeorologist Jon Evans explains how cosmic rays from space are used to measure soil moisture at different sites around the UK.
Listen now: audioboom.com/posts/885879...
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From drought to downpour, 2025 brought the UK
whiplash weather 🌦️
New on our Counting the Earth podcast, we delve into the UK's weather extremes.
After a dry spring & four heatwaves we had
significant rainfall later in the year. By December, total
rainfall reached ~90% of the UK average.
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The #GreatYorkshireRivers website is now live 🫶
www.greatyorkshirerivers.org
On it you can meet Kate Colledge who's leading the prioritisation and removal/mitigation of barriers to fish passage.
💦 If you have a ford / sluice / weir or culvert on your land then Kate would love to hear from you! 🐟
Want to help our efforts to ensure the #hedgehog, the UK’s only spiny mammal, remains a familiar part of British life?
🦔
You can join the BHPS & become a supporter online, via post or over the phone!
🌐 ✉️📞
➡️ buff.ly/3LYeGNY ⬅️
Developing innovative low-emission fertilisers 🚜
We're involved in new research to convert farm waste into high-performance, low-emission fertilisers, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and farmers’ costs.
Funded from the Farming Innovation Programme.
www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med... 🧪
Orchid, Lady's Slipper with a yellow slipper-like pouch is surrounded by rich ribbons of dark maroon petals.
Pink Waxcaps with a water droplet hanging from the conical waxy cap.
Fen Orchid with pretty pale yellow flowers.
Expert Dave Lamacraft helps to translocate a small patch of Scrambled Egg Lichen by reattaching it to its new home using a combination of water and bookbinding glue.
Over the weekend it was #ReversetheRedDay, so today we’re celebrating the rare species we’ve been helping to protect and restore:
🔴Orchid, Lady’s-slipper
⚪Pink Waxcap
🟡Fen Orchid
🟢Scrambled Egg Lichen
Donate today to help endangered species survive - https://joinplantlife.org/4klFJCV
Dark blue text on a light blue background reads: "Volunteering Opportunity Tree Health Surveyor. Help us tackle woodland pests and diseases as part of the Observatree network"
Two people face an oak tree and inspect the leaves on low hanging branches.
🌳 Are you passionate about protecting our beautiful woods and trees?
💚 Become an #Observatree volunteer and be part of an exciting citizen science project led by Forest Research!
Apply today, closing date 8th March 👉 buff.ly/zo32khl 1/2
A chinese water deer looking through a fence. It's just the head visible and it is looking directly at the camera
We'd love you to caption this.
09.02.2026 09:42 — 👍 56 🔁 7 💬 13 📌 2We are looking forward to seeing leaves on the trees.... and our seagrass plants flowering....
09.02.2026 10:59 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Discover the thrilling career paths in entomology 🐝 From #Forensics and #MedicalScience to #Horticulture and ecological consulting, explore where this fascinating field can lead.
Dive into our careers pages and start your journey into #InsectScience 🔽
🌿 We’re Hiring! Help Restore the Tees Estuary 🌊
We’re looking for two passionate people to join our team and help bring back native estuarine species to the Tees Estuary.
💚 If you care about conservation and want to make a real impact, we’d love to hear from you.
👉 www.teesriverstrust.org/vacancies
A young seagrass seedling
Seagrass alert!! We have welcomed our first baby seagrass of 2026, a tiny shoot measuring about 1cm tall. This photosynthesising trooper will hopefully be the first of many grown this year at our nursery. With luck, this plant shall be deployed into our estuary as part of our restoration efforts. 🌱
05.02.2026 15:24 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
At the UK Seagrass Symposium 2025, Rebekah Bajkó presented on their research, Coastal Roots: The History of Seagrass in Northern Ireland.
In a new blog article Grace Cutler, one of our 2025-26 Project Seagrass interns, reflects on Rebekah’s research: ow.ly/cMGi50XZAGq
In a new blog article Ewan Garvey, one of Project Seagrass’ Interns for the 2025-26 academic year, explores the role that seagrass plays in providing protection for our coastlines.
Read here: ow.ly/K0su50XKbO1
📸 Seagrass under Sorrento Pier, Australia. Credit: Sam Glenn / Ocean Image Bank
Let the dandelions grow! They support over 50 insect species, and are a great early season food source for pollinators like bees, butterflies, hoverflies. No need to mow and please don't use weedkiller!
31.01.2026 14:08 — 👍 72 🔁 27 💬 1 📌 4
Training: @batconservation.bsky.social: Bats and roost risk management in construction, British bats, their ecology and conservation, Bats for roofers and Bats for heritage professionals
c-js.info/TDSmammal
A vibrant poster with a green background showing a red squirrel, Scottish wildcat, and puffin wearing party hats. They are surrounded by green and pink confetti, streamers, and balloons holding up a banner that reads: “MSPs voted to pass the Natural Environment Bill! Scotland WILL have legally binding nature recovery targets.
Big win for Scotland’s nature! The Natural Environment Bill passed by MSPs will bring in legally binding targets to restore wildlife and habitats. Huge thanks to LINK’s members and supporters who helped make this happen! Let’s keep pushing for strong action and funding to restore Scotland’s nature.
30.01.2026 09:38 — 👍 99 🔁 36 💬 2 📌 3
Side view of a weasel's head and neck. Pic by Rosanna Forbes
The face of a weasel emerging from a crevice between two rocks. Pic by Rosanna Forbes.
What they lack in size, weasels make up for in appetite, eating a third of their own body weight daily. From birds to bank voles, the small creatures of the forest floor must be ever wary of this energetic hunter. It in turn has to be wary of foxes and birds of prey. 2/2
30.01.2026 16:03 — 👍 22 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 2
Full length portrait of a weasel.
The weasel is the smallest member of the order Carnivora, which also includes cats, dogs and bears. The largest member, the polar bear, can weigh more than 5,000 weasels combined!
(No wild polar bears in Scotland but plenty of weasels!)
📸 Amazing shots as always by Rosanna Forbes👏
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Winter is a great time to spot ladybirds🐞
Next time you're near a graveyard, look closer on the headstones and you may be surprised!
Why not sumbit your records onto NHSN's North East Ladybird Spot?⬇️
www.nhsn.org.uk/the-north-ea...
📷7-spot, 2-spot, Orange and Harlequin © Chris Wren See less
Freshwater habitats are crucial - and aquatic insects are key indicators of ecosystem health. 🐛💧
At the #AquaticInsects SIG, we’ll explore conservation, adaptive management and how data shapes freshwater biodiversity science.
🔗 buff.ly/uLDNn9A
@entsocamerica.bsky.social
The science behind a sudden octopus surge.
Watch Bryce Stewart as he explains why octopus numbers exploded off the #UK #SouthWest coast in 2025 on BBC Spotlight last night.
Watch the full interview here 👉 youtube.com/watch?v=BtlsHszyex8
We work on multiple research projects to build the evidence base needed for future reporting on saltmarsh.
These efforts are summarised on the UKCEH Saltmarsh GHG Inventory project area: www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/...
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Screengrab from UK Saltmarsh Carbon Database web tool
We’ve launched the UK Saltmarsh Carbon Database webtool, to explore carbon accumulation and GHG flux data, and support future climate reporting.
🔗 connect-apps.ceh.ac.uk/saltmarsh/
#BlueCarbon #SaltmarshScience #UKCEH
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Saltmarsh on Wallasea Island at high tide
New UKCEH research shows UK saltmarshes are significant carbon sinks, storing ~6.5 t CO₂e ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, comparable to mangroves and seagrasses.
Saltmarshes aren't yet included in the UK GHG Inventory, but the evidence base is strengthening.
Read more:
www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med...
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The power of volunteers!🪡
Last week we had a lovely volunteer session with Elm Tree & Fairfield WI making hessian pillows for our estuary restoration project. These pillows will be filled with seagrass and eventually put into the estuary to reintroduce seagrass habitats. Thanks to the WI!🌱🌊🐚
🦪 We’re working on installing a nursery in the Tees to learn how they thrive & inform future restoration in the estuary. Each oyster filters 200L/day, builds reefs for marine life & boosts biodiversity. Nature is making a comeback! 🌊 #TeesRestoration
13.01.2026 10:51 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
