Using an ethnological approach, this research explores the cultural significance of drystone construction in Shetland and Orkney. Framing traditional crafts as Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), it explores how skills training can be provided to promote sustainable development in rural contexts. The research examines how UNESCO's 2018 inscription of drystone walling as ICH impacts on its international perception. The PhD assesses how islanders can be better supported to create opportunities in drystone walling for creativity, training, and tourism.

The Orkney and Shetland dialect corpus scoping study will prepare for a research study on Orkney and Shetland dialect grammar. The research project would shed light on the grammar of two dialects which are the products of a language contact situation. For four hundred years or more, a dialect of Old Norse was in contact with dialects of Scots in the Northern Isles. During this period (15th - 19th century) Scots gained currency as the language of Orkney and Shetland, while the local dialect of Old Norse gradually went out of use. Sometime during this period, local dialects of Scots formed in Orkney and Shetland, incorporating words and structures from the Old Norse dialect. The research project which the scoping study is preparing for, aims to develop a database (corpus) of naturally occurring dialect texts from Orkney and Shetland, which would be digitally searchable. This corpus would then be available for researchers to use as data material for investigating the linguistic structures of the Orkney and Shetland dialects. Grammatical investigation of the Orkney and Shetland dialects would then hopefully enable us, in the next instance, to shed light on the language contact and shift and answer such questions as: When did the Scots dialects of Orkney and Shetland consolidate - based on the presence of relict forms from older stages of Scots? Can we trace any Old Norse or Middle Norwegian influence on the grammar of the Orkney and Shetland Scots dialects? Can we find grammatical structures in the Orkney and Shetland dialects which have developed independently of Scots and the local Old Norse dialect?

The Arctic is changing rapidly in response to a warming global climate, with a reduction in sea-ice coverage providing the most obvious indicator. However, the impact of this reduction in sea- ice on water column and seafloor ecology is much less certain. Changing physical conditions potentially impacts on the timing, magnitude and distribution of both ice algae and pelagic primary production(1,2) with as yet unresolved effects on trophic pathways which support both pelagic and benthic consumers(3). The recently funded NERC Arctic PRIZE project (Arctic PRoductivity in the seasonal Ice ZonE) aims to determine how these sea ice changes will affect biological and biogeochemical systems in this climatically-sensitive region.

Wild boars became extinct in Scotland many centuries ago, but escapees and deliberate releases from farms have led to their return3. Three breeding populations have been identified in Scotland but whether these represent the return of a native species, or a new invasive threat remains contentious. Categorised as non-native species feral pigs by legislation, they can be shot without license4. However, certain land managers welcome their return. Such diverse attitudes towards feral pigs and potential new escapes hinder control efforts. Presently, no genetic evidence is available to discern whether these animals are of wild or domestic ancestry and to inform stakeholder's positions. This project will contribute to the understanding of benefit-impact trade-offs of feral pigs in Scotland. Specifically, the project will address: What is the level of hybridisation between wild and domestic stock in known Scottish populations? At which densities have feral pigs become established in Scotland? What is their reproductive output? And what are the potential drivers of both? How are densities linked to vegetation impact? How are public and stakeholder perceptions of the landscape shape by the presence of feral pigs?

By 2050 it's estimated >400 GW of energy will be gathered by offshore wind in the North Sea alone. For scale, Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor is projected to produce 3.2 GW. How will this increased anthropogenic use of our coastal seas impact already stressed marine ecosystems? And how will that same production of renewable energy offset risks of extreme climate change that, left unchecked, will increase the risk of biodiversity declines. There are many complex changes to ecosystems linked to Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) that we need to understand now, so that the extent of increasing wind energy extraction further offshore is managed in the most sustainable way. An important effect of large wind energy extraction will be to reduce the amount of energy that would normally go into local ocean currents via surface stress, altering sea state and mixing. Conversely, there will be local increases in turbulence around turbine structures and seabed scouring near fixed foundations. Any change in ocean mixing may change the timing, distribution and diversity of phytoplankton primary production, the base of the food chain for marine ecosystems, to some degree. This has knock-on-effects on the diversity, health and locations of pelagic fish that are critical prey species of commercial fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Observed changes caused by operational OWFs in the southern North Sea include local surface temperature rise and the displacement of seabirds and fishing fleets from the OWF footprint, whereas seals often appear to be feeding near turbines. All of these changes have a linked component - important prey fish species - which are likely to aggregate near structures (as seen at other offshore platforms). Seabirds and fishing fleets subsequently have less space to hunt, with potentially increased competition for fish. However, if OWFs are also de facto marine protected areas and so positively affect local primary production, they may provide good habitat for fish population growth. So, what are the cumulative effects of current OWF developments and the thousands of additional planned structures? Do the physical, biogeochemical and ecosystem changes exacerbate or mitigate those resulting from climate change? As OWFs migrate further offshore as floating structures, how can current knowledge based on shallow, coastal fixed turbines be suitably extrapolated to understand the impacts on ecosystems dependent on seasonal cycles that are typical of deeper waters? PELAgIO will address all of these questions through an inter-disciplinary, multi-scale observation and modelling framework that spans physical mixing through to plankton production, on to the response of fish and whole ecosystems. We will collect fine-scale data using the latest multi-instrumented acoustic platforms set beside and away from OWFs, complemented by autonomous surface and submarine robots to capture continuous and coincident data from physics to fish, over multiple scales and seasons to fully understand what is 'different' inside an OWF and how big its footprint is. These new data will test the effects on seabirds and marine mammals to build an OWF ecosystem parameterization that accounts for changes to mixing and wind deficit impacts, and is scalable to next-generation OWFs. This bottom-up, comprehensive approach will enable true calibration and validation of 3D ocean-biogeochemical-sediment modelling systems, from the scale of turbine foundations up to the regional and even cross-shelf scales. Identified changes will be integrated into Bayesian ecosystem models that enable the cumulative effects of ecological, social and economic trade-offs of different policy approaches for OWFs to be quantifiably assessed for present day conditions, during extreme events and under climate change.