FREE - NERC funded places for Freshwater Advanced Training Short Course

Course title: Freshwater Taxonomy and Field Identification Skills
Dates: 24 - 28 September 2018 (5 days)
Location: Freshwater Biological Association, River Laboratory, East Stoke, Dorset. BH20 6BB
Tutors for this course are; Professor Richard Chadd, John Davy-Bowker, Professor Genoveva Esteban, Dr Melanie Fletcher

Included for free:
• Course fees
• Five days accommodation, breakfast and evening meals
• Lunch and refreshments on the days of the course
• A contribution towards travel costs is also available

Application procedure: Download the application form here, and return completed forms to info@fba.org.uk Deadline for applications is Tuesday 31 July 2018

Eligibility: NERC-funded PhD students will be given priority, followed by postdoctoral researchers, and BES students in the Aquatic Ecology Special Interest Group. Additional places will be offered to other PhD students and any early-career researcher who can identify a context in which they need to apply these skills. There are a maximum of 20 funded places available.

Course outline: With a strong emphasis on training excellence and practical hands-on experience this short course will provide expert tuition in freshwater fieldwork, taxonomy, and freshwater science. The course will be structured along a logical pathway by providing an initial historical and theoretical background to the development of freshwater bio-assessment approaches, followed by practical field survey methods and protocols, through to substantial in-depth expert-led laboratory training sessions in freshwater invertebrate identification using the FBA’s and BU’s extensive teaching collections. The course will progress through to investigate the use of biotic indices to summarise complex taxonomic data and the use of predictive models to set appropriate targets and interpret environmental degradation. The course will expand upon the well-established use of macroinvertebrates as the core component of freshwater bio-assessment to also include specific training in field and laboratory methods for diatoms, meiofauna and protists.

Course outcomes: At the end of this course, participants will have the skills and confidence:
• to sample freshwater habitats;
• to sample and identify freshwater macroinvertebrates, meiofauna, micro-algae and other protists;
• to process samples under field and laboratory conditions;
• to understand the functional role of the smaller freshwater organisms in natural environments, including diatoms;
• in field and laboratory survey design and identification of a wide range of freshwater groups and to understand their role as aquatic indicator species;
• in health and safety and biosecurity issues related to freshwater sampling.