On the final day of the Lancaster Environment Centre’s annual trip to Doñana National Park in southern Spain, Professor Nigel Paul reflects on how field work has changed in the past 60 years, and on the future challenges facing a new generation of ecologists and biologists
An early start for the journey back home, and plenty of time on the coach and plane to reflect on another Doñana field course. My own reflections were brought in to focus because my colleague Dr Rosa Menendez was reading “Portrait of a Wilderness”, the book that describes the pioneering scientific expeditions to Doňana in the 1950s.
Back then, field work in Doñana required an almost military-style campaign. Days of travel with bulky equipment just to get to the area, which is described as a remote wilderness full of barely studied animals and plants. The fact that the last of those three expeditions was the year that I was born brought home to me the enormous changes that have taken place in my lifetime.
That’s a good context for a final reflection on this year’s field course, which was bracketed by the publication of two major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This isn’t the place to go in to the detail of those reports, but they leave no doubt that the students who were with us this year are part of the generation who will feel the full consequences of climate change.
Generation Δ
Apparently social commentators describe this age-group as the “Millennial Generation” or Generation Y”, but that seems to miss the profound global changes that are likely to dominate their lives. I know that this risks falling in to science-speak, but I have started to think of them as Generation Δ, following the convention of using Δ (delta) for change. No-one in Generation Δ will be able to avoid living with change, and that includes everyone who came with us on the field course.
As ecologists and biologists and environmental scientists, those who came this week will understand the scale of the changes and their impacts far better than the vast majority of their peers. Some may take a lead in actually minimising changes and its effects. That makes teaching these subjects to this generation a great responsibility, and a great privilege.
That’s probably something that academics trying to juggle teaching with administration and research don’t say often enough. Teaching Generation Δ can’t always be a pleasure, and it shouldn’t be easy, but it is a privilege.
So, for those who have been with Rosa, Stuart and me for the last week (and those who have been in previous years for that matter), thank you. I hope that you have taken away some new skills and knowledge that will be useful in future, but also some memories of a good time in a stunning part of Europe.
As for me, I am already looking forward to next year’s field course, and renewing my acquaintance with those bee-eaters.
Read Nigel’s blogs about the rest of the trip. Learn more about studying Ecology and Conservation, or other biology and environmental degrees at the Lancaster Environment Centre, and about the fieldwork on offer to students.
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