How I decided not for profit was right for me: Geography careers

In a new blog, Cambridge Geography graduate Jen Durrant talks about her career journey in the third sector.

Children who walk to school less likely to be overweight or obese, study suggests

New work by Cambridge Geography PhD student Lander Bosch suggests that Children who regularly walk or cycle to school are less likely to be overweight or obese than those who travel by car or public transport.

Based on results from more than 2000 primary-age schoolchildren from across London, the researchers found that walking or cycling to school is a strong predictor of obesity levels, a result which was consistent across neighbourhoods, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds. The results are reported in the journal BMC Public Health.

Amount of carbon stored in forests reduced as climate warms

Accelerated tree growth caused by a warming climate does not necessarily translate into enhanced carbon storage, an international study suggests.

The team, led by Professor Ulf Buentgen, found that as temperatures increase, trees grow faster, but they also tend to die younger. When these fast-growing trees die, the carbon they store is returned to the carbon cycle.

The results, reported in the journal Nature Communications, have implications for global carbon cycle dynamics. As the Earth's climate continues to warm, tree growth will continue to accelerate, but the length of time that trees store carbon, the so-called carbon residence time, will diminish.

Weak and wobbly or strong and stable?: Salt marshes as buffers against coastal erosion

As the UK prepares for climate change impacts at the coastal zone, research from Cambridge Coastal Research Unit (CCRU) determines the resistance of coastal salt marshes to extreme storms.

Salt marshes fringe much of the world's low-lying coasts. They act as a first line of defence against storm surge waves, reducing storm water levels and the run up of waves on landward sea defences. As a result, vulnerable shorelines and engineered coastal defences are at lower risk of suffering under the impact of climate change, for example through sea level rise and intense storms. Little is known, however, of the resistance of these natural buffers to the continued battering by waves and tides and even less is known about what kind of storm it takes to erode these protective fringes, and thus leaving the coast and the populations living alongside it considerably more vulnerable.

This short film explains how a team of Geographers and Geologists is planning to shed light on what makes salt marshes resistant to storm waves, using the latest remote sensing and soil scanning technologies alongside one of the world's largest indoor wave flumes.

Cambridge alumna wins RGS Royal Medal

Dame Fiona Reynolds, alumna of the Department of Geography and Master of Emmanuel College, has been awarded the 2019 RGS Royal Patron's Medal for "shift[ing] the debate on conservation and the environment into new territory for many people in the UK". Fiona, who previously served as Director General of the National Trust, as well Director of the Women's Unit in the Cabinet Office, Director of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (now Campaign to Protect Rural England) and Secretary to the Council for National Parks, spoke recently at our RGS public panel event on 'The Spirit and Purpose of Geography'.