BBC Wildlife - UK (2021-12)

(Maropa) #1
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 19

You might not expect a scientific career
to be pursued by someone who has dyslexia
and dyscalculia, but it hasn’t stopped
Lydia Burgess-Gamble leading research
into natural flood management at the
Environment Agency.

“I only got diagnosed during the
pandemic,” she says. “I’ve had an inkling
my whole life that I was dyslexic, but I
was at school in the 80s and early 90s and
I don’t think it was what teachers looked
out for.” It was the lockdown conditions of
being confined to the desk and not getting
out into the field that brought things to the
fore – the fatigue brought on by constantly
staring at numbers and writing reports. Since
her assessment, simple changes such as the
colour of her computer screen have made life
easier. “I should have done it years
ago,” she says.

Despite not doing particularly
well at school (due to those
undiagnosed learning
difficulties), a degree in
geography led to a PhD in river
restoration and then a career
with the Environment Agency.

For the last 10 years, she
has been working in a small

MEET THE SCIENTIST


Lyd ia Bu rge s s- G a mble


A late diagnosis of learning difficulties didn’t prevent a


successful career in natural flood management


Right: Lydia works for the
Environment Agency

research team where she has developed an
evidence base to demonstrate that restoring
nature using natural flood management
approaches can help reduce the risk of
flooding and improve the environment for
people and wildlife. This strand of Lydia’s
career has culminated in a recently published
global guide to natural flood management,
compiled alongside colleagues in the USA
and Netherlands.

“The Dutch couldn’t believe we are all about
trying to hold water in catchments and slow
the flow of water, whereas they want to get it
out to sea as fast as possible in some cases,”
says Lydia.

She is currently looking at the carbon
sequestration potential of saltmarshes.
They were thought to sequester between
2-8 tonnes of carbon per hectare, but
research by Manchester Metropolitan
University at Steart Marshes in
Somerset found that the saltmarshes
there were absorbing up to 30 tonnes.
If this figure proves to be a truer
reflection, then it could have important
implications for these habitats.

“There will be more impetus as a country
to protect and preserve the saltmarshes
that we’ve got, and for the Environment
Agency to potentially build bigger
saltmarsh restoration sites.”
Andrew Griffiths

1 Starfish
2 Christmas Island red crab
3 Holly blue butterfly
4 Turkey vulture
5 Tinselfish
6 Star-of-Bethlehem plant
7 Angelfish
8 Snow goose
9 Jesus Christ lizard
10 Bell heather

10 Christmas


species


Star-of-Bethlehem flowers in early summer

Drug lord’s hippos
Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar,
who died in 1993, illegally imported
exotic animals, including African hippos.
There were originally four in his private
zoo but now a growing feral population
of more than 80 ‘cocaine hippos’ have
been taking over the countryside
near his former home and, according
to environmentalists, pose a threat
to biodiversity. So far, the Colombian
government has sterilised 24 of the
animals using an immunocontraceptive
vaccine called Gonacon.

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The invasive hippos have been thriving

Steart Marshes on
the Somerset Levels
prevents flooding and
absorbs carbon
Free download pdf