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London T.O.A.D Blog Week 2

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Eleanor’s Blog – Week 2

Hello! I have had an exciting second week at London T.O.A.D! Read on to see what I’ve been up to!

As part of my university studies, I have to write a report on something I’ve been doing whilst on placement, so I have chosen to do this on my personal project, of revisiting the ponds created and restored during the London Dragon Finder.

Then on Tuesday, I read through the script for the Toad Tails school sessions preparing for next week when I will be joining Emily at the first session. This is really exciting as it’s a great way to get children involved and to help them understand what happens when habitats get destroyed.

Later on in the week, I spoke to Laurence who told me about a research project he had in mind for me. He sent me the data from Toads on Roads, which I am going to organise into easy to read tables containing the numbers of toads saved in each county which will then be shown on a map. This will be a great document to show to people, as it is a good indication of how important the project is for toad populations. This project will certainly keep me busy, as Toads on Roads has been going for over 40 years, so there’s plenty of data!

On Thursday, I finally went out sampling for my pond project. I decided to go to a borough with multiple sites present to make travelling worthwhile, so I chose Richmond upon Thames. I planned out how I would access the four sites, and which order I would visit them. That was the easy part! Upon arrival, I completely underestimated the size of some of the sites so on more than one occasion I found myself a bit lost! Luckily online maps came to my rescue and I found my way. Although I didn’t manage to find all the ponds I had set out to survey on that day, I managed to sample three ponds. The problems I faced have also helped me to plan my day surveying better for next time!

One of the ponds Froglife created at Barnes Common. The pond is set well back from the main path of the nature reserve, meaning it took a while for me to find but there is hardly any disturbance to the habitat! 

Here is a photo I took of a pond Froglife created at Barnes Common. The pond is set well back from the main path of the nature reserve, meaning it took a while for me to find but there is hardly any disturbance!

Today I have been inputting my survey data from yesterday into an Excel spreadsheet, ready for the next lot of surveys next week! I will also continue going through the Toads on Roads data. Lastly, I am going to prepare for activities next week, including further surveys and where I am going to go next, and ensure I know everything I need to know for the first T.O.A.D Tails school session on Tuesday!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my week!

London T.O.A.D Blog Week 1

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Eleanor’s Blog – Week 1

Hello all! My name is Eleanor and I am a Conservation Biology student at the University of Plymouth, currently doing a work placement year. As part of this, I will be volunteering with Froglife for a three-month period, mostly working with Emily on the London T.O.A.D project!

As part of my time at Froglife, I will be conducting a personal project, surveying the ponds created and restored as part of the London Dragon Finder project. I will also be helping at the upcoming T.O.A.D Tails workshops at local schools and at the Mapestry workshops! I look forward to getting involved in the amazing activities that Froglife have created!

Here is a quick rundown of my first week at Froglife:

On Monday I visited Emily in the office for my induction; filling out forms and covering health and safety. This also involved going through the London T.O.A.D project activity plan, ensuring that I understood all the aspects of the project and why we are doing them. It was really interesting to see how much time and effort is spent working out all of the little details when setting up a conservation project. We discussed the elements of the project that I could get involved in on my placement.

I spent Tuesday morning continuing to go through relevant documentation before creating some posters for various upcoming events, including Swimming with T.O.A.Ds and Mapestry. The posters had to follow a style guide, with relevant fonts, colours and images.

Emily contacted me on Wednesday to discuss my personal project on the ponds created and restored as part of the London Dragon Finder project. She supplied me with all the relevant documents, including the habitat and species management proposals. I read through this document and compared it with the project results, to determine the best way to tackle sampling each pond. I continued this on Thursday, preparing pond survey forms for each site, and noting the information that I have for each pond. Relevant information includes the age of the pond, whether Froglife created or restored the pond, the type of liner used, and whether it is in a protected area. I also researched the accessibility of the sites, as well as the location of the pond on the site to make it easier to find upon arrival.

That brings us to Friday where I have been writing about my project for my university, as well as doing some admin work, inputting evaluation data from previous events. I will also be researching the last couple of Dragon Finder sites, so I will be ready to get sampling next week!

Come back next week for more updates on what I’m getting up to!

Froglife’s London Tails of Amphibian Discovery (T.O.A.D) project secures National Lottery investment

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Froglife, a wildlife conservation charity has received a confirmed grant of £38,800, made possible by National Lottery players, to develop its London T.O.A.D project, it was announced today. The grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) will enable Froglife to undertake a six month development phase. During these six months Froglife will be planning an extensive range of activities to benefit the UK’s beleaguered common toads.

In 2016 Froglife worked in partnership with the University of Zurich to analyse its 30+ year Toads on Roads database. The findings from this research concluded that the UK’s common toads have declined by 68% over the 30 year period. It is known that year-on-year mortality of toads crossing roads to reach their breeding sites does eventually lead to the extinction of the population. Froglife coordinates the toads on roads patrols, these are volunteers who go out on spring evenings and help toads across busy roads. The dedication from these volunteers is of enormous help to our toad populations. However, in cities such as London, where the volume of traffic is such that it is not feasible to patrol roads, alternative systems are essential.

Being a very pro-active organisation Froglife immediately put in place an action plan to help secure the future of our common toads. This London project forms part of the action plan. The project will be working on six large wildlife sites in London creating networks of habitats suitable for toads. It will also be visiting toad patrol sites to select sites to benefit from infrastructure such as wildlife tunnels. Froglife is currently monitoring numerous wildlife tunnels of different designs using 24 hour cameras, the early results are showing that wildlife tunnels are well-used and not only by the wildlife that they are designed for.

Froglife wants as many people as possible to get involved in its work and in order to encourage wide engagement in toad conservation Froglife will be delivering activities such as the creation of a Mapestry (tapestry reflecting the heritage items of London), T.O.A.D wildlife gardening workshops, T.O.A.D. Tails – an activity delivered in schools, Swimming with T.O.A.Ds – converting swimming pools into toad ponds and T.O.A.D. Shows, where a Froglife Pond Doctor will provide households with wildlife gardening tips.

Kathy Wormald, Froglife CEO, said: “We are very grateful to Heritage Lottery Fund for this grant. It will provide Froglife with an excellent opportunity to inspire local communities in London about their common toad populations and their intriguing lives, whilst also introducing people to the many local green spaces on our doorsteps that can be enjoyed by all. We’ll be hosting some exceptionally creative activities alongside much needed habitat creation and restoration work.”

Stuart Hobley, Head of HLF London, said: “Whilst the age-old question might concern chickens, we are delighted that National Lottery players are able to support Froglife in helping London’s toads cross the road. This project has the potential to celebrate the humble toad, their habitats, and the important role they play in our environment. The project will also allow volunteers a toad-ally exciting opportunity to learn and develop new skills. We look forward to seeing the final proposals in due course”.

A new wetland for Mr Toad

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The conservation charity Froglife are pleased to announce that they have secured a grant of £8,600 from The Veolia Environmental Trust, through the Landfill Communities Fund, to create a wildlife pond at Ham Common Woods in Richmond. Froglife will work in partnership with the London borough of Richmond upon Thames to create a wetland oasis.

Pond creation Day 3 Ham Common Woods

This habitat work will be delivered as part of Froglife’s HLF funded flagship project, London Dragon Finder, which is encouraging Londoners to help protect amphibians and reptiles across the city.  Through surveying, mapping and creating new habitats, the project helps to conserve species like toads, frogs and newts – all of which are found in the bustling capital.

The project will improve and enhance the biodiversity value of an area of woodland at Ham Common Woods by creating a new large pond which will part of a network of new ponds in the woods. It is a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation, next to Richmond Park and a Local Nature Reserve. Currently there are only wet hollows within the woodland which support breeding frogs during wet springs where there is sufficient standing water. There is also a common toad population on site which has been divided by roads. A mosaic of diverse marginal vegetation & open water will greatly improve the pond for these species.

This work is essential a recent study by Froglife and partners from The University of Zurich in Switzerland has shown that on average common toads have declined by 68% over the last 30 years in the UK. In some areas, such as London and the south east of England, declines have been even more pronounced.

Since October 2013 the London Dragon Finder project has improved habitats at over forty sites across the capital. “As our towns and cities have expanded the habitat available for wildlife has shrunk.” says Alan Shearman (London Dragon Finder Project Manager), “But, with some careful planning, and help from willing volunteers, we can still create the right conditions for wildlife to thrive in urban areas”.

Richmond Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Cllr Pamela Fleming, said: “This is fantastic news for our beautiful borough and we’re delighted that our partnership work with Froglife has resulted in what will be a gorgeous wetland oasis courtesy of the funding provided by The Veolia Environmental Trust. The environment is a cornerstone of our work here at the Council and we know how much our natural habitats, parks and open green spaces mean to our residents.”

The Executive Director of The Veolia Environmental Trust, Paul Taylor, adds, “We are really pleased to be able to support this exciting project and we look forward to seeing the finished pond and the frog and toad life it will support.’  

Work is expected to be completed before the end of February in time for the breeding season.

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Croaking Science: The ecological value of urban ponds

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A recent review by Dr. Chris Hassall from Leeds University marks an important step in a more strategic understanding of the importance of pond environments in an urban setting.

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Cristian Bortes, CC Flickr

The phenomenal pace of urbanisation including the large scale movement of people from rural areas towards towns and cities and the consequent expansion of such areas is one of the defining traits of recent decades and this is set to continue sharply in the near future. However, urbanisation also marks a progressive loss of biodiversity in those areas, with particular focus on freshwater habitats such as ponds, due to causes including invasive species, habitat degradation and water pollution. This 2014 paper presents a simple categorisation of urban pond types as well as an interesting review of studies that have investigated the biodiversity value of such habitats from across the world. Amphibians are one of the better studied groups in this category compared to other taxa and there are several listed studies that show the importance of urban ponds as habitat for amphibians, with the distance towards the centre of the urban area, lack of habitat connectivity and presence of fish all contributing to a decrease in amphibian species richness.

©Thomas Brown, Flickr
Thomas Brown, CC Flickr

The numerous and diverse roles of urban ponds include their ecological function, with good quality ponds acting as stepping-stones and refuges for wildlife species within a matrix of inhospitable built-up habitat, for water management and treatment, including SUD systems (sustainable urban drainage) and potential for bioremediation of pollutants using designed wetland systems for chemical filtering and equally, their social function as areas of traditional community interest, health and well-being and where conservation activities can become an integral part of the management (Hassall, 2014).

Meanwhile, the challenges for biodiversity in urban ponds remain both obvious and very significant, with salt and heavy metal pollution, in particular related to water run-off from road surfaces, as an important factor influencing the quality of the habitat for amphibian species. Invasive species are an ever increasing negative factor, with urban ponds often acting as gateways due to the proximity of humans including centres for plant and animal importation and garden centres which results in both deliberate and accidental introductions of exotic and sometimes invasive species of a very wide range, from bacteria and fungi to species of plants and vertebrates such as terrapins. The establishment of such species in favoured in urban freshwater systems by the high diversity of microhabitats as well as the artificial and often highly modified and simplified aspect of such area. Finally, pond loss at a regional and landscape scale, although it has slowed down and even has been reversed in parts of Europe including the UK compared to the 19th and early 20th century, continues to dramatically influence the value of such habitats in many parts of the world.

William Warby, CC Flickr
William Warby, CC Flickr

This review highlights the complex and diverse opportunities presented by urban ponds as areas of biodiversity importance, of numerous societal benefits, including water management, community health and appreciation as well as amazing educational facilities but also as the fact that overall they remain poorly studied and quantified. However, the proximity and accessibility of urban ponds to large numbers of people, as well as their replicated aspect across sometimes very large spatial scales, offers huge potential for citizen science projects where valuable datasets could be collected by members of the public in association with environmental NGOs and universities.

References:

Hassall, C. (2014) The ecology and biodiversity of urban ponds, WIREs Water, 1: 187–206. You can find a full version of the paper here: http://figshare.com/articles/The_ecology_and_biodiversity_of_urban_ponds/971394

Get Creative For Frogs’ Sake!

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FrogletIn a change to our normal timetable this weeks Croaking Science has been replaced by this croak about Save the Frogs Day.  Croaking Science will be back on 14th May.

We are joining an international community coming together on Saturday 26th April to celebrate Save the Frogs Day!  A day dedicated to raising awareness about the plight of the world’s amphibian species: frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, and caecilians. You can become part of worldwide efforts to help save our incredible amphibian friends by joining us at the WWT London Wetland Centre, London and Kelvingrove Park & Museum, Glasgow for interactive demonstrations, crafts and pond dipping.  These events form part of Froglife’s Dragon Finder Projects in London and Scotland which are funded by Heritage Lottery Fund grants, of £472,500  and £422,400 respectively.

Data compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) revealed that of the approximately 7000 amphibian species found around the world nearly a third were threatened with extinction, and more recent evidence suggests that this may have increased to 41%. More shockingly still, since 1980 nearly 200 species of amphibian have already become extinct! Save the Frogs Day aims to improve the prospects of our froggy friends by raising awareness of this dramatic decline and to inspire people into action to help conserve this amazingly diverse group of animals.

STFD logoSave the Frogs Day was founded in 2008 by American ecologist Dr Kerry Kriger who was alarmed by the lack of public awareness in regards to amphibian decline. The Save the Frogs website quotes Kriger saying “Our vision is a world in which not a single amphibian species is threatened with extinction” he adds, “When we save the frogs, we’re protecting all our wildlife, all our ecosystems and all humans” a sentiment that we at Froglife agree with.

Amphibians have permeable skin which makes them highly susceptible to changes in their environment. Their absence from a habitat can be an indicator of an unhealthy ecosystem, and can highlight the impact of pollution, habitat degradation, and climate change. The disappearance of amphibians affects the entire food web. It can cause a decline in the abundance of amphibian predators, and an explosion in prey species usually eaten by amphibians – including pest insects that feed on crops, and spread harmful diseases such as malaria. Humans also have a personal stake in amphibian survival. Incredibly, 10% of all Nobel Prizes in Physiology and Medicine have been awarded to research which involved amphibians, research which has led to a cure for peptic ulcers and many other medical advancements.

Model FrogsWhat you can do

So hop to it, and help Froglife spread the conservation message by joining us at one of two events running on Saturday the 26th of April. In London, we are hosting a range of activities including ‘decorate a frog’ at the WWT London Wetland Centre from 10am. Paint a frog to look like your favourite UK or tropical species, or let your imagination run wild and conjure up a whole new species altogether! Alternatively, join us at the Kelvingrove Park and Museum in Glasgow where you can get up close and personal with amphibians and their friends by attending one of our pond dipping sessions and other froggy activities from 2pm. At both events Froglife staff will be on hand to answer any questions you may have, demonstrate the Dragon Finder App to help you record your sightings and tell you more about the work of Froglife and how you can get involved. To find out more visit our website

 

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