It is taking a bit longer than I thought to source material for my next post, so, here is a documentary I have been watching these past few days. It goes some way to explain the reasons why I do the subject I do (Environmental Biology). For me, it is all about finding the connections between organisms in an ecosystem, and the presenter of this documentary shares my enthusiasm for these links between animals and plants.
The documentary is Secrets of our living planet, from the BBC, presented by Chris Packham, and I have chosen Episode 3, on the seasonal northern forests. This is the climate zone I am most familiar with, although this documentary focuses on North American forests, the forests are not so different from the ones in the region I live in (Northern Europe), although North America has far cooler wildlife, and WAY bigger forests!
If you have an hour to spare, grab a cup of tea/coffee, and sit down and watch this, if you like David Attenborough documentaries, you will like this, it is a bit more in depth than Attenborough, and is really fascinating, especially if you have never looked at these connections before.
I have also put a short second video up because, well, it is awesome, and even though it looks really insane, I would love to be able to do this! Having said that, I would need some serious breathing exercises before attempting it I think, even if I knew what I was doing! It is Jeb Corliss base-jumping/gliding, and I want one of those squirrel suits!
Normal posting will resume on Monday!
Skeptical Squirrel 
This does look interesting! I love the British uplands too and I’ve spent some of my happiest times here. Even have a sessile oak leaf tattoo 🙂
Btw thanks for ‘liking’ a couple of my recent posts. I’m wary of clicking ‘like’ i case it’s used to target advertising. That’s how the Facebook ‘like’ function is allegedly used. Do you think it’s so on WP too?
Wow, that is a very cool tattoo to have! I am currently involved in a little summer spare-time project to look through my local forest and categorise the plants in there, also hoping to do a similar thing for my bachelor project, with a wetland near my uni, assessing the state of the area based on the flora.
With the “like” function, I am not sure, I am still figuring out the etiquette regarding likes, but I do find your posts very interesting, they remind me of how much I like the UK, and give me some inspiration for going back there one day! (there are a couple of “ancient wetland” restoration projects I would love to be involved in eventually).
Me again! I’ve recorded this programme but not yet watched it. Something that strikes me is that you mention ‘animals and plants’. Does your studying include the modern Tree of Life? The Kingdoms aren’t so much Animals and Plants these days. Also, ecosystems include abiotic components.
I’m sorry if I sound a bit teacherish now. This comment isn’t meant to be rude at all – I’m v glad to have e-met you through your interesting blog.
Yes, ecosystems include abiotic components, and that is one of the areas which interest me for my bachelor project, using the flora of a wetland to assess the pH, nutrient content and SOM of the wetland. As I am studying Environmental Biology (ecology), functional biology and evolution was one of the basic modules I took covering evolution and modern taxonomy etc, and I find it really fascinating, in fact, that semester was what made me begin writing this blog. I mention animals and plants as the documentary series mostly focuses on those (although one episode, the Savannah one I think, focuses on nitrogen, and how availability of nitrogen underpins the behaviour of animals right up the food chain to the top predator), and animals and plants are what most people are aware of, or at least most familiar with, and the aim of the blog is to try to present things in a way that someone completely unfamiliar with science can relate to. Also, it was the links between plants, and the animals which first drew me into environmental biology.
You did not sound teacherish at all, your comments were valid, I hope I explained my reasoning for using the terminology. It can be difficult sometimes, knowing how much detail to go into, without putting off either people with no science background (as I worried I did with my post about coral spawning), or using not enough terminology for those with some knowledge of the subject.
Yes it’s true. I’m finding that an awkward balance for my blog too. I want to attract readers who understand the more technical and industrial aspect of what I write about. Readers who might eventually offer me money. But it’s important to keep appealing to a wider readership, isn’t it? eg I like the cute squirrel photo you’ve set as background.
PS How did you get the tags at the top of your title, saying ‘Home’ and ‘About’? I do have an ‘About’ paragraph but searching through the Dashboard hasn’t yet led me to knowing how to make it accessible from the front of my blog.
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