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Ecology
Lockdown Walks - Spring Plants
"Spring has sprung, the flowers are here, but how do they know it's the right time of year?"
If you've been out on a lockdown walk lately, you'll no doubt have noticed that the first flowers of spring have pushed their way through the soil into the sunlight. But how do they know when the time is right? Find out in this episode of '...
Tin Hang (Henry) Hung
I am a Radcliffe Scholar in Plant Sciences reading for a doctorate at the University of Oxford. Restoring our forests is crucial for both mitigating climate change and conserving the biodiversity. However, many trees can hardly track suitable climates and may go extinct or extirpated. My current research incorporates genomic models and climatic...
Do all lions sound the same?
If you've ever been lucky enough to hear a lion roar (whether that's at the zoo or in the wild - hopefully at a safe distance!), you'll know that it's a truly bone-shaking experience. But do lions have a unique roar, or do they all sound the same? How could knowing this help with conservation efforts? Join us for this episode of the Big...
The Laboratory With Leaves: Researching the birds at Wytham Woods
Over 60 years of tagging, observing and scrutinising the thousands of blue and great tits in Wytham Woods has resulted in a colossal body of research that makes Wytham's birds the best understood in...
Qihua Ling
I have been interested in plants since I was little. And later I heard that there is a place called Kew Gardens in England, where a huge collection of plants from all over the world can be found. Since then, I had always dreamed of visiting Kew Gardens, and enjoying her beauty for all four seasons. And that dream finally came true luckily...
What's an arboretum anyway?
An arboretum could be described as a "living library". A beautifully curated collection of woody plants (trees and shrubs) from across the globe, each one carefully labelled and managed. In this episode of the Big Questions Podcast we chat to Ben Jones, Arboretum Curator at the...
Tom Hart
My research centres around how to monitor penguins and other marine predators in difficult environments such as Antarctica. Many of the most important environments on the planet are too data deficient to understand the changes occurring there, and the implications for global change, which in turn stalls effective management. I spend a lot of...
Can celebrities save the pangolin?
'Influencers' are here like never before...log on to social media, and there will be someone there to tell you what to cook or what to wear...But what about when it comes to wildlife conservation? For instance, how much impact can a celebrity have when it comes to saving an endangered species? In this episode of the Oxford Sparks Big Questions...
Lockdown Walks - Meet Your Bird Neighbours
How well do you know your bird neighbours? Become better acquainted in this episode of 'Lockdown Walks', with Oxford biologist Joe Woodman!
Which bird is known for its distinctive 'teacher teacher' call? Which bird stays in the UK all year round, bringing us beautiful birdsong even in the depths of winter? Watch and find out!
Where are all the Mangarahara cichlid hiding?
In the early 2000s, Brian Zimmerman and his team at London Zoo received a donation from a private fish-breeder of some Mangarahara cichlids. At the time, scientists hadn’t yet officially described the species. Not much was known about it, other than its provenance, the Mangarahara river in Madagascar. Little did the team know that within a...
