The environment is changing as increasing carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. The atmosphere is warming and the oceans are absorbing more carbon dioxide and becoming more acidic. This reduction in ocean pH is known as ocean acidification. Calcium carbonate is abundant in the oceans as organisms such as shellfish produce protective shell structures. The amount of carbonate available in the oceans under ocean acidification will be reduced, limiting the ability of organisms to produce protective shells. This project will investigate the influence of ocean acidification and warming on the ability of three shellfish species to produce protective shells. Commercially available shellfish will be cultured under future ocean acidification and warming conditions in a laboratory. Shells will be tested for physical and material properties to understand the vulnerability of shells to fracture under changing environments and predation. This project will determine how molluscs produce their calcium carbonate shells, identifying the carbon source and route for shell production under changing climates. This knowledge will enable accurate predictions of the vulnerability of aquaculture to ocean acidification and warming. Feeding experiments and harvesting protocols will be developed to alleviate potential damage to shells during aquaculture for a more resilient, sustainable and more economical shellfish culture.

The UK environmental regulators are legally obligated (Section 8 Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003), EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), EU Water Framework Directive (WFD)) to monitor the status of the water environment in river basin districts and territorial areas defined across the UK. They do this by assessing water quality and quantity. This is performed typically through ground based observations with site visits to hundreds of water bodies organised every year. This traditional method of monitoring is labour and cost intensive and although accurate, results are often unrepresentative (spatially and temporally) of the complete water environment. Furthermore, as the need for additional spatial coverage is increasing, the actual frequency of site sampling is decreasing. Satellite remote sensing could play an essential role in bridging the data gap by providing a complementary source of data for water quality monitoring (IOCCG, Societal Benefits). This fellowship aims to promote and aid the use of satellite remote sensing for improved regulatory monitoring of inland and nearshore coastal water quality. The applicant will work directly with environment agencies to develop satellite remote sensing as a viable and sustainable data resource. The fellowship will initially engage closely with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency but will extend the knowledge exchange activities to other UK environment agencies once established. Until recently, various practical limitations restricted the use of satellite remote sensing as a tool for regulatory monitoring and reporting. The coarse spatial resolution of previous generation sensors meant they were incapable of capturing even the largest lakes in the UK. This has been overcome by the new generation of Sentinel sensors launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) which produce free and readily available images of the Earth at 0.01-0.3 km spatial resolution with a temporal sampling frequency between 3 and 5 days over the UK. As a consequence, satellite remote sensing is now a viable source of information for monitoring and reporting purposes. This technological advancement occurred in parallel with significant progress in water quality research in coastal and inland waters. Thanks to projects such as NERC GloboLakes, and the subsequent EC FP7 INFORM, H2020 DANUBIUS-RI and EOMORES, we now have improved solutions for retrieving water quality components remotely over regions influenced by land. Most notably, the NERC funded GloboLakes research programme produced a satellite-based observatory for more than 1000 lakes globally, including several of the larger Scottish lakes. This fellowship will further capitalise on the knowledge generated by the GloboLakes project to transform the output of world-leading science to maximise local benefit in the UK. A large proportion of this KE fellowship will focus on advocating and integrating the use of satellite remote sensing as a data resource at SEPA and will involve regular consultation to highlight tangible benefits across a range of scientific disciplines. Having previously worked at SEPA in the Environmental and Spatial Informatics Unit, the applicant is in an advantageous position of understanding the structure of the Science and Strategy Directorate and having in place a solid network of collaborators. Here, satellite remote sensing could be exploited for several purposes; direct input into the WFD classification tool; identification of potential risk to water quality status; sampling management tool to optimise the representativeness of ground based measurements; harmful algal bloom detection for bathing water assessment; change detection for protected areas. The scope is significant and the technology currently exists, the key objective is helping the end user to realise the full potential of satellite remote sensing and providing an effective means for accessing data.

Moving beyond 'common sense' understandings of nature and society in the Scottish Highlands: A study of socio-natural relations and heritage in Wester Ross Influenced by scholars who have demonstrated the mystifications and discursive strategies used to hide many of the realities of socio-natural relations under capitalism, I will investigate the social construction of heritage and nature-society relationships in Wester Ross in the Scottish Highlands. The research will analyse dominant discourses and practices surrounding nature and landscapes and the role of place as a source of culture and identity (Escobar, 2008). Wester Ross provides the focus for a situated-historical study of heritage, culture, nature and conservation as the region is currently understudied, despite fruitful opportunities for research. Wester Ross was awarded UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status in 2016, a conservation accolade promoting sustainable human-environment relationships. Furthermore, the region has been consistently identified by national actors since post-war years for statutory conservation designations, deemed the last great wilderness of Scotland. This project analyses socio-natural relations within this context and in relation to land reform policy and the cultural politics of Gaelic language revival. The research questions are: - How do dominant discourses constitute 'common-sense' understandings of Highland landscapes as 'natural' and 'wild'? - In what ways do these discourses inform associated policies and practices surrounding land use, resources and socio-natural relationships? --How are these negotiated and contested? --What are the implications for policy and practice in natural heritage conservation and socio-natural processes in this context and beyond? --Can alternative understandings, sensitive to socio-natures, resource-based rights and justice issues on a global scale inform future approaches? Methodology The research methodology is informed by epistemologies which transcend reproduced dichotomies of being-thinking, social-natural and subject-object. Hence considering knowledge as emergent from intellect, emotion and engagement, feeling and experience and subjective and multiple rather than objective and singular (Jubas, 2010). Most importantly, this means recognising that "separated from praxis, theory vainly comes to grips with falsely formulated...problems" (Lefebvre, 1982: 34). Drawing together critical epistemologies from across sociology, anthropology and history, I will develop a pluralistic both/and qualitative methodology which acknowledges there is no singular or superior theory (Stuart, 2016). I will create an interdisciplinary methodological framework informed by scholars who have created productive tension between the hegemonic and non-hegemonic politics of Gramsci and Deleuze and Guattari respectively (Purcell, 2012) and between Gramsci, Bourdieu and Polanyi (Burawoy, 2003; 2012). Integrating theory and practice, I will combine discourse-based methods with ethnography. Discourses produce meaning and perform a naturalizing function, defining the parameters of acceptable practices (Woodward, 2001) and practice-focused methods give due attention to material conditions of existence (Krzyzanowski, 2011). I will analyse key documentary materials including texts and visual materials, predominantly historical resources relating to local cultures and landscapes, identified through archives (Am Baile) and fieldwork. Ethnographic research will be carried out in Gairloch; a coastal village where the heritage museum project 'Our Land, Our People, Our Story' is unfolding. Whilst using participant observations (attending councils, community and organisations' meetings) and individual interviews, I will also access surrounding ethnographic contexts, including nearby crofting communities, Letterewe Estate, Applecross Heritage Centre and Ullapool Museum.

Consuming alcohol ('drinking') causes cancers and other NCDs globally and more than 3 million people died due to harmful use of alcohol in 2016 (1 in 20 deaths). It has impacts on economic productivity and can lead to addiction, violent behaviours, injuries, and road-traffic collisions. It also impacts on health systems, particularly in low and middle income countries (LMIC) where those system already face significant challenges. Drinkers in Africa consume 21% more alcohol per day than the global average. Small disposable plastic sachets which contain alcohol or spirits have led to significant alcohol abuse amongst the most vulnerable and poorest communities in Malawi and Uganda, particularly the young. As a result Malawi and Uganda placed national bans on sachets of alcohol in Malawi (2016) and Uganda (2019), but those may not have had the impact anticipated. In March 2019, we organised a workshop with researchers from 6 LMICs including Malawi and Uganda to discuss issues around alcohol consumption and what research could be done to supports effective policies to control the supply of alcohol. The issue of the alcohol sachets and the policies to ban them was raised by Malawi and Uganda colleagues, who felt it was needed to study the implementation of the bans, to compare both countries and to see what lessons could be learnt. Our aims with this study are to understand why the bans were adopted and how they were presented, what mechanisms for implementation were proposed and put in place, how the bans were enforced in practice, and what unintended consequences may have occurred. We will do this through interviews with policy makers and major stakeholders, and also, through interviews with district and local stakeholders in enforcement and trade. We will also conduct focus group discussions with men and women, health staff from local health centres and with traditional/ church leaders and school headteachers, to explore the perceived impact of the ban on harmful forms of alcohol consumption and any unintended consequences of the bans (e.g. increased consumption of home brews). We will also examine perceptions of changes in harmful drinking within the community and amongst young people; and whether local health facility staff have seen changes in terms of addiction and harm at facility level because of the bans. We will share our results with stakeholders at special events in Malawi and Uganda. To achieve our aims we have assembled a team of seven highly experienced researchers from different disciplines (social science, epidemiology, psychology, population, and public health). Four of them are based in Uganda and Malawi where they will lead the research and two in South Africa. We will recruit full-time researchers in Uganda and Malawi to carry out the work and will train them to have the confidence to carry out alcohol research which can influence policy and help reduce alcohol-related harms. We have also assembled an international advisory group with 2 experts from high income countries and 7 from African low and middle income countries networks on alcohol We will work closely with stakeholders in each country and other African and global networks from start to finish, to give them an opportunity to understand our findings in their context, so they can use those findings in policy development, for advocacy, and to support further research.

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