Vegetation plays an important role in landscapes that are shaped by wind-driven (aeolian) sand transport, such as coastal dunes and semi-arid regions. We have a good knowledge of how and why different types of desert dunes and dune fields form without the presence of vegetation, but our understanding of the effects of vegetation in the formation of coastal foredunes, parabolic dunes, blowouts, and nebkha's (shrub hummocks) is limited to descriptive observations and reasoning. This is especially true for vegetated dune fields on a landscape scale, and the effects of various plant species on the evolution and dynamics of such environments are not quantified. This research project aims to develop a computer simulation model based on moving around slabs of sand across a grid of cells that represents a landscape surface including varying amounts of vegetation in each cell. These movements are controlled by a set of simple rules that dictate interactions between the existing surface, the vegetation in each cell, and the propagation of the sand slabs. This allows simulating the evolution of aeolian landscapes through self-organisation into different types of dune fields without actually modelling the complex airflow dynamics and sand transport patterns. Simulations will be compared with our current descriptive understanding of vegetated aeolian landscape development to ensure that the model generates realistic results. The model is then used to systematically investigate exactly how and why various kinds of plant species and vegetation patterns influence the dynamics of dune development in aeolian environments.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a reemerging infection that was also common in the past in Britain. Poverty, drug resistance, the HIV, and migration are key factors in its occurrence today. The disease can be caused by any one of five related bacteria known as the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. In Britain the two most likely candidates are Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis. M. bovis can infect many different animals, including cows, and humans were often infected by drinking milk, which is why it is pasteurised in Britain. Today, most TB infections occur in the lungs, because it is transmitted via coughing, but other parts of the body can also be infected, especially if the disease is caught by eating or drinking infected foods. If left untreated the infection can cause damage to different bones in the body, most commonly the spine, ribs, hips and knees. Archaeologists have used this information to study TB in the past, but visual examination of skeletons does not reveal which bacterium has caused the infection, nor which strain of either species is present. We would like to be able identify species and strains because this would enable us to trace the origin of TB in Britain. We think TB came to Britain from the Mediterranean region but to confirm this idea we would have to compare the particular strain present in early British skeletons with that in bones from southern Europe. Similarly, we believe that there were changes in the frequencies of different strains of Mycobacterium over time, and these changes were possibly influenced by factors such as immigration, changes in population density, and changes in the environment. There are also interesting questions about the evolution of TB in the New World after contact with Europeans. All of these questions could be addressed if we could identify the particular strains of Mycobacterium in skeletons from different places and different time periods. Until recently, this was impossible, but now there are techniques for studying the small amounts of 'ancient' DNA that are preserved in some archaeological skeletons. We will therefore extract ancient DNA from a variety of skeletons that show the bone changes associated with TB, and use DNA sequencing to determine which Mycobacterium strain is present in each case. The proposed project will carry out this work with skeletons from Britain and Europe. Our Project Partners in Arizona State University are doing similar work with bones from North America, and by comparing our two sets of results we will be able to study the impact that Contact had on TB in the New World.

Images of bird colonies on Signy Island, South Orkney were collected by low-altitude aerial photography from multirotor Un-crewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Three species were included in this study; gentoo (Pygoscelis antarctica) and chinstrap (Pygoscelis papua) penguin and South Georgia shag (Leucocarbo atriceps georgianus). Data were collected in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 field seasons. Mosaic images were created for colonies surveyed with multiple frames by stitching together individual images.

Numbers of nesting birds were manually counted from images collected by low-altitude aerial photography from multirotor Un-crewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Three species were included in this study; gentoo (Pygoscelispapua) and chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarctica) penguin and South Georgia shag (Leucocarbo atriceps georgianus). Data were collected in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 field seasons.

South Georgia shag Leucocarbo [atriceps] georgianus nest counts from two breeding colonies (North Point and Shagnasty Island) at Signy Island, South Orkney Islands from 1947-2020. Chick counts are also recorded at North Point.

Whole island counts of the number of active nests of South Georgia shag Leucocarbo [atriceps] georgianus on Bird Island. Counts were first made in 1989-1990. A repeat count was made in 1994-95 and from 2012-13 onwards active nests have been counted either biennially or annually.