SERTs are open to Bournemouth University BSc and MSc students in the Department of Life & Environmental Sciences. The SERTs advertised here can count towards a short placement for BSc and MSc degree courses within our department. To find out more and apply to join please view the project description and follow the contact link provided for each SERT. They are also advertised on myCareerHub.
Using the dropdown menus available below, you can sort through the available projects that have been uploaded. You can mix different search terms in order to narrow your criteria.
This project will investigate forests in northern Croatia. Its main aim is to understand forest resilience under different socio-environmental pressures, such as climate change, livelihood strategies and land abandonment. Within Eastern Europe, almost half of Croatian territory is covered by forests and the country underwent post-socialist transition but also joined the EU in 2013, making it an excellent study area to measure resilience during and after political and economic changes. The expedition will work in collaboration with the University of Zagreb to investigate the following questions: (i) What are the main social and environmental pressures affecting forests in Croatia? (ii) What data need to be collected to examine whether forests are resilient to these pressures? (iii) Investigate which forest management practices would make forests
Biological Sciences, Ecology & Wildlife Conservation, Environmental Science, Geography
2019
marin cvitanovic, elena cantarello
Mouse over images to see student bio
This project sets out to test the best timings and methods for optimising drone photography for mapping woodland terrain. In order to do so the terrain within woodland must also be mapped by independent means, in this case field surveying. It will use three test sites in the New Forest (deciduous, coniferous and mixed woodland). Prior to fieldwork all students will spend a day on campus be tutored on the use of advanced survey techniques, commonly used in both science and industry, including the use of differential Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS, popularly known as GPS) and Total Station Theodolites (TST).
Environmental Science, Geography
2019
andrew ford,
Mouse over images to see student bio
White Sand National Monument (WHSA) in New Mexico is an amazing place. Not only is it the largest gypsum dune field in the World with a unique locally adapted fauna/flora but it also has the highest concentration of ice age vertebrate tracks (footprints) in the Americas. We use high-resolution geophysics, photogrammetry and drones to prospect, map and preserve the tracks in 3D while using augmented reality to tell these stories to visitors to the monument. This is an ideal project for those interested in Quaternary Geology, palaeo-environmental reconstruction, archaeology and behavioural ecology.
Biological Sciences, Ecology & Wildlife Conservation, Environmental Science, Geography, Other
2019
matthew bennett
Mouse over images to see student bio
Idiocera sexguttata is listed under Section 41 (S41) and Section 42 (S42) of the 2006 Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act as of global concern. In 2017 and 2018 we resurveyed a site with one record of ‘several individuals’ at Stony Moors in the New Forest. In 2017, when we surveyed in July, we didn’t find the species, but in 2018 when the surveys took place in June we were able to confirm the species is still there, and in fact saw it at three more places nearby. This led to the questions we will investigate here; 1) Are there further nearby sites with this species? 2) What is the phenology of this species in the New Forest?
Biological Sciences, Ecology & Wildlife Conservation, Environmental Science, Geography
2019
pippa gillingham
Mouse over images to see student bio
The Dorset Heaths are internationally special and this SERT works with the National Trust “Wild Purbeck” vison to re-connect heaths by the exciting creation of the UK’s first landscape –scale National Nature Reserve, the new Purbeck Heaths NNR. The aim of this SERT is to measure monitor changes in wildlife living in the heaths in response to changing environments and conservation management.
Biological Sciences, Ecology & Wildlife Conservation, Environmental Science, Geography, Sustainability & Green Economy
2018
anita diaz, kathy hodder, iain green, marin cvitanovic
Anita Diaz
adiaz@bournemouth.ac.ukanita diaz, kathy hodder, iain green, marin cvitanovic
Mouse over images to see student bio