Projects
I have always enjoyed supervising undergraduate and postgraduate projects. I have been involved in a considerable range of projects including field surveys, laboratory-based experimental investigations, and more literature-based dissertations. Some of the work has been so good that we published it!
Kim Hammond worked with David Evans and myself on aluminium/silicon interactions in barley. David was successful in getting her a Royal Society summer studentship, during which she completed her work, and you can see it in:
HAMMOND, K.E., EVANS, D.E. & HODSON, M.J. (1995) Aluminium/silicon interactions in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) seedlings. Plant and Soil 173, 89-95.
This paper proved an important one in this field, and has been cited over 20 times in international journals.
Nick Collinson worked with Pond Action and myself on the macro-invertebrates of temporary ponds. We concluded that there was a lot more in these ponds than had been previously thought. We merged Nick's data with some of Pond Action's own, and produced the following paper:
COLLINSON, N.H., BIGGS, J., CORFIELD, A., HODSON, M.J., WALKER, D., WHITFIELD, M. & WILLIAMS, P.J. (1995) Temporary and permanent ponds: an assessment of the effects of drying out on the conservation value of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities. Biological Conservation 74, 125-133.
Nick's work has led to the re-evaluation of temporary ponds around the world. This work is being continued, and more details can be found at the Temporary Ponds page.
Sarah Williams was given the task of surveying the phytoliths to be found in the gymnosperms. She did a great job, and we were able to incorporate her data into two papers at the Madrid phytolith conference:
HODSON, M.J., WILLIAMS, S.E. & SANGSTER, A.G. (1997) Silica deposition in the needles of the gymnosperms. I. Chemical analysis and light microscopy. In The State-of-the-art of Phytoliths in Soils and Plants. eds A. Pinilla, J. Juan-Tresserras & M.J. Machado. Monografia 4 del Centro de Ciencias Medioambientales, CISC. Madrid. 123-133.
SANGSTER, A.G., WILLIAMS, S.E. & HODSON, M.J. (1997) Silica deposition in the needles of the gymnosperms. II. Scanning electron microscopy and x-ray microanalysis. In The State-of-the-art of Phytoliths in Soils and Plants. eds A. Pinilla, J. Juan-Tresserras & M.J. Machado. Monografia 4 del Centro de Ciencias Medioambientales, CISC. Madrid. 135-146.
These papers have already made an impact, particularly as they provide a useful database for scientists interested in using phytoliths to investigate past climates. The University of Missouri Phytolith Database site has used the data to help construct a database of what is known about gymnosperm phytoliths.
More recently Seb Mankelow visited the remote Zanskar Valley in Northern India for his project. Details of his work can be found at Zanskar.
We published this:
ISHIDA, S., PARKER, A.G., KENNET, D. & HODSON, M.J. (2003) Phytolith analysis from the Archaeological Site of Kush, Ras al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. Quaternary Research 59, 310-321. Abstract
