Volume 24, 2024
The influence of grazing on comparisons between
pre-existing and restored saltmarshes
Jonathan Dale, Laura Conway, Michael P Kennedy, Tom Sizmur
Abstract
Comparisons between saltmarshes restored through managed realignment (MR) and pre-existing reference sites might be influenced by livestock grazing. This study assessed the vegetation and sediment properties at four sites: two MR sites, a grazed reference site and an un-grazed reference site. Results indicate the grazed reference site had the lowest canopy height and biomass, whereas the MR sites had differences in sediment properties in comparison to the pre-existing sites. The role of grazing in MR is discussed, identifying that further research is required to evaluate the temporal influence to inform assessments and the post-breach management of MR sites.
Spatial and Temporal Variability of Road-Deposited Sediment (RDS) Within the Greater Manchester Urban Conurbation, UK
Rebecca Holland and Patrick Byrne
Abstract
Road-deposited sediment (RDS) has become an increasingly important medium for analysing anthropogenic urban metal accumulation. This study aims to understand the environmental risk of RDS, through its spatial and temporal variability, across the Manchester urban conurbation. Using an acid digest and spectrometry, the concentrations of iron (Fe), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn) and lead (Pb) in the RDS were determined. The geochemical maps presented show a high degree of spatial variability; however, all five metals display high concentrations within Manchester City centre and low concentrations in Salford Quays. A comparison with historical data finds that potentially toxic element (PTE) concentrations have predominantly increased over time. Pb was the only PTE with a lower average concentration since a 2006 study, albeit still high due to its persistent nature.
Geography H2O: Compounding Water Studies
Kimberley Peters
Abstract
This paper sets fire to watery debates, using fire to rethink studies of water. Water, as applied to fire, requires understanding the substance in its molecular form – as a compound. Thinking of water beyond a binary as H2O (rather than as salt or fresh)
enables a further reframing of what water is, and hence what water can do, and its capacities for society and space. Focusing on the perhaps unusual example of fire extinguishment and the development and operation of automatic sprinkler systems, drawing from the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry archives and from developments of the Manchester-based firm Mather and Platt, this paper asks what water’s formulation of two-parts hydrogen and one-part oxygen does or can do through its material compounded, tri-part form. In doing so the paper makes 3 core contributions: (1) to geographies of elements, urging for a focus on the capabilities of compounds as well as singular classical and periodic matter; (2) to geographies of fire, pitching for studies that move beyond environmental scholarship of fire’s links to the climate crisis towards fire in other socio-cultural, economic and political contexts; and (3), to the development of water studies, arguing for a shift beyond the binarised thinking that often splits geography between bodies of water, creating separate bodies of scholarship on the topic. To do so, the paper demonstrates how H2O has been harnessed and applied – not as an either/or, but as a compound, where its elemental combination is crucial to its work. In sum, the paper works with fire to work with water, presenting further ontological inroads for thinking with/through/about water worlds.