Devising MSCI projects with collaborators

When I was talking to Natural Resources Wales about the project my current MSc student is doing, we also ended up talking about possible future projects. They have a list of priorities on their website, and that is largely focused on things like sedimentary processes and the ecosystem; in other words, modern processes. There is not much in there that goes back in time! And I like to go back in time in my research. But it was one thing I thought we could both be interested in. I like salt marshes as a sedimentary archive, and they like salt marshes as an interesting ecosystem, coastal protection, and carbon storage. And carbon storage is a long-term thing. That can go back in time! Would there be a potential for collaboration there?

Some video calls later there was a preliminary plan. Maybe one day we could have a student do a bit of a study on how much carbon is stored, both in the top layer and any potential fossil layers with high organic content, in three particular salt marshes in North Wales. And no time later I got an email: the deadline for suggesting projects was nigh. I quickly wrote up our idea! And sent it over to NRW for approval.

Arbitrary picture of eroding saltmarsh

One project is not much. We won't get many students, so we don't need to suggest that many projects per member of staff, but I figured two would be in order. And I thought of a project where we trace the relationship between mine pollution and the microfossil assemblages through time. Foraminifera are increasingly used as biomonitoring tools; it is very useful if you can check whether you can indeed spot a relationship between their assemblages and the amount of mine pollution you can detect. But I am not good with the chemistry of such a project. So I had a quick meeting with our local specialist. He was up for it!

I now have two projects ready that I am actually quite enthusiastic about. If and when I get permission from NRW I will send them both in. And then I'll have to wait and see if any student is interested! But if not, that's okay; I will just submit them again next year! Even though by then our chemical colleague will have retired. I might have to check if someone in the School of Natural Sciences could step in then…