Fred Worrall

Can't do AGu, but it is Christmas so it is lager cocktails in Durham's very own champagne bar and lager cocktails

Water shortages could derail UK’s net zero plans, study finds Tensions grow after research in England finds there may not be enough water for planned carbon capture and hydrogen projects

Our study link.springer.com/article/10.1..., led by Simon Matthias (Engineering) has made it to the Guardian
www.theguardian.com/environment/... @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

I have just discovered a Jane Austen manuscript that the publishers rejected. In the novel she describes teaching time series analysis to MSc students - it is called "Variance and Variability"

How is carbon stored in salt marshes? Great fieldwork on the Solway Firth with postgrad Jinny. Always good to find a buried soil horizon. @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

Changes in chlorophyll-a in English rivers over the last 49 years Ongoing anthropogenically-driven environmental change in rivers (e.g. increasing air temperature, changing river flow extremes, increases in some key …

Most English rivers are seeing fewer eutrophication events www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... however, some are getting worse and there is no one reason for those worsening trends. @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

What will be the impact of decarbonisation and the adoption of hydrogen power on water demand? New study by us and colleagues from Durham Engineering link.springer.com/article/10.1... @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

We have grown a squash outside in the north east of England - he is called Pascal. Pascal is a magic squash plant as we have never ever planted any squash plants.

Never been in to The Royal Institution before. @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

The Impact of Sewage Treatment Plant Discharges on the Water Quality of Receiving Rivers With increasing human populations, the need for sustainable management of wastewater becomes an ever-increasing issue, yet studies that consider the impact of the final effluent on the receiving rive....

Hanna's (Zihan Yang) first paper onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
paired data on 317 sewage works and 232 control reaches for 22 years to find out what impact of sewage has. What was getting worse or what was getting better with time and why? @durhamearthsci.bsky.social @jlaknapp.bsky.social

For a peat to form you don't just need wet conditions you also need stagnant conditions
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Our new study follows the thermodynamic profiles to show how fens and bogs significantly differ in when they become closed. @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

When we say sphagnum carpet I am not sure that you are supposed to be able to pick it up and fold it. This year's Sphagnum pioneers at Hatfield form a mat that dries out and detaches in ephemeral ponds. @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

The initiation of peat formation – The relative importance of self-weight compaction and decomposition The early stages of peat formation have been assumed to be marked by: rapid loss of porosity, increasing bulk density, and decreasing permeability lea…

How do peats form? Our experiments compares how self-weight compaction compares degradation processes.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Spoiler - degradation is more important @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

The World Peatland project team at Leicester Science Park having just finished our today workshop @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

Happy birthday England, 1098 years young today.

Great to be back on nerd camp #grc #catchment GRC catchment science conference @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

Thanks to Michel Bechtold @michelbechtold.bsky.social for including our data from Hatfield Moors in this study to trial satellite methods for monitoring peat water tables @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

I have discovered that at egu #EGU20×5 you can have your evening beers out on the balcony

Proper EGU #egu2025. Vegan schnitzel, vegan beer and coding

Last min packing chaos for #EGU25 as one of the artists in residence!

It’s my first ever time at #EGU (throwing myself in at the deep end)… please come say hi and talk to me 🤗

Spring reminder, as people start to think about gardening: NEVER buy compost with peat it in (inexplicably still on sale). If it does not say "peat free" in big letters, do not buy it. Peat is incredibly valuable in peat bogs, for rare biodiversity and as a carbon store. Don't put it on your garden!

OLIGOTREND, towards a global database of multi-decadal chlorophyll-a and water quality timeseries for rivers, lakes and estuaries Abstract. Reversed eutrophication, called oligotrophication, has widely been documented globally over the last 30 years in rivers, lakes, and estuaries. However, the absence of a comprehensive and har...

Reversing eutrophication - we contributed the long UK records to the global database on chlorophyll-a for freshwaters
essd.copernicus.org/preprints/es...
Thanks to Camille Minaudo and Xavier Benito of University of Barcelona for inviting me to join in. @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

Teaching soil science I have never liked the possible acronyms for the factors controlling soil formation and so I invented my own - the claret carrot - could not find find a claret coloured carrot or a carrot toasting with claret. @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

Peatland restoration not keeping up - our new method for mapping peat health
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... British peats have seen revegetation (increased albedo), but not as fast as we should expect given controls and climate change. @durhamearthsci.bsky.social @ordnancesurvey.bsky.social

Using earth observation to develop a health index for peatlands Globally peatlands are laterally extensive and represent important stores and sinks of atmospheric carbon. The cold humid island hypothesis proposes t…

69% of British peatlands are on a downward trajectory and have been since 2001. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
We surveyed all British peatlands and applied the cold humid island hypothesis @durhamearthsci.bsky.social @ordnancesurvey.bsky.social

Climate change limits progress on cleaning up the River Thames: study | Water Institute | University of Waterloo Climate change mitigates progress on cleaning up the River Thames: study

Our new research @durhamearthsci.bsky.social @uwaterloo.ca @bristoluni.bsky.social on the World's longest water quality record shows that despite success decreasing phosphorus the potential for algal growth uwaterloo.ca/water-instit...

Doing fieldwork on bogs of the Pennines you expect to get wet and cold, but you don't expect to become a cat rescuer. Found abandoned on the Pennine Way - we named her Marsden - now with RSPCA vet. @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

Thank you to Andrea Kelly from Broads Authority for making it possible for us to go peat coring in the Broads today. @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

Flooded, frozen-over stream - let me just check the field site risk assessment - nope, no mention of flooded frozen streams on that form and so must be safe to wade in.

I had planned for snow and ice but not for the thaw. Under there is reported to be the earthly remains of a raised bog @durhamearthsci.bsky.social

📣New Competition Funded @iapetusdtp.bsky.social PhD Opportunity

Deadline: 3rd of January 2025

The project will be co-supervised by myself, @fredworrall.bsky.social and Jessica Elise (Natural England).

Project Outline: tinyurl.com/7nvsmc53

How to apply: iapetus2.ac.uk/how-to-apply/