Big thank you to the team who came out with me and made my first bit of fieldwork a breeze!

@kanebrides.bsky.social
Sarah Davies
Sian Taylor

Finally got out to do some #PhD fieldwork last week! Spent Good Friday on the River Tamar taking #eDNA samples to identify fish species using the tidal freshwater zone between Calstock and Gunnislake.

All packed for some exciting #eDNA fieldwork this week!

I really enjoy it! It's something I've been involved with on and off for the last 5 years so it's nice doing something that I'm very comfortable and doesn't take much thinking😂

One thing I enjoy about working as a researcher while studying is occasionally I get to drop everything PhD related and do something completely different. Recently, I helped test the water quality of @WWTs wetland treatment systems.#PhDSky #eDNA #PhDlife #Lablife #wetlands #waterquality #AcademicSky

Got a spare minute during a centrifuge spin or short incubation? Why not try some glove doodling? Here are a few of my own (artistic talent not guaranteed). #PhDSky #eDNA #PhDlife #Lablife #AcademicSky

Commercial fishing boats in a harbor

🐠 75% of commercial fish species depend on estuaries at some point in their lives! These "nurseries of the sea" provide safe havens for young fish, crabs, and shellfish to grow before heading to the open ocean. No estuaries = no seafood! 🦐 #EstuariesWeek #WadeIn #EstuarineNursery #Seafood

Had an awesome time at the @NEOF eDNA metabarcoding course at the University of Sheffield a couple of weeks ago. Pretty sure I finally understand how it works now—big win! 🧬🔍
#eDNA #PhDlife #NEOFtraining #EcologicalMonitoring #ConservationScience

I've detected eels in very silty ponds with up to 8um filters. So I think it depends on what you want to detect and where you are sampling. I would imagine the silt trapped alot of the DNA in my samples, so 8 um might not have worked so well in clearer water.

Great to hear about all the cool research going on at NTU School of Animal, Rural, and Environmental Sciences Research Conference last week.

A map showing South West England and Wales, labelled "Graph of British Rivers". Two river courses are shown, labelled 'Wye axis' and 'Exe axis'. Does anyone read these descriptions, or am I wasting my time?

Graph of British Rivers

Had a great time at the #ECSA meeting in Antwerp a couple of weeks ago. Talked about the potential for using #eDNA to monitor tidal habitats. Conference 2 of PhD done✅️

Image of chapter with wetland painting

Excited to see our two chapters out in the Routledge Handbook on Cultural Ecosystem Services! Open access too 👇

dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781...

🌍✨ What is success in academia?

Join Dr. Lucy Clarke as she shares how we define success—especially for ECRs navigating job insecurity, life choices, and the climate crisis.

🔗 Register here: gfz-de.zoom-x.de/meeting/regi...

#ECRchat #WorkLifeBalance #AcademicSuccess #ClimateAcademia

Me stood next to my conference poster titled "Restoring tidal freshwater zones: Exploring the use of environmental DNA to monitor fish communities" with a portrait of guy looming behind the poster board.

First conference and first poster of my PhD done!✅️✅️
Had a great time @royalsociety.org for #UKDNAWG25
Can't wait for next year!