Case Studies

A PhD student at the School of Biosciences in the University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus is currently using the temperature loggers to monitor the nest temperatures of captive dormice at Paignton Zoo to infer hibernation behaviour patterns. This will increase our knowledge of this threatened species.

Dr Jon Bennie, Postdoctoral Research at the School of Biological Sciences in the University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, is currently using Tinytag data loggers to study how changes in the future climate might allow species, like the Silver Spotted Skipper butterfly, to spread across the landscape. The temperature loggers play an important role in the research because butterfly oviposition (egg-laying) rates are closely related to temperature. The temperature close to the ground and on the leaves of grasses can vary from the temperature recorded at weather stations by several degrees. Silver Spotted Skipper butterfly is at the northernmost edge of its range in Britain, and seeks out the warmest microclimates (usually south-facing slopes with lots of bare ground) to lay its eggs. In hot, dry summers, it may be able to lay more eggs on cooler north-facing slopes with less bare ground, and the population might be expected to increase and spread.

Tinytag data loggers are located 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle as part of a research project to study river basin water temperature dynamics, within the wider context of understanding the impacts of climate change on Arctic river basin hydrology and ecology.Dr David M. Hannah at the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham (UK), is one the leading authorities on hydroclimatology; a scientific discipline which seeks to understand the relationship between climate and surface waters (including rivers, and water stored as snow and ice).This ongoing research in Swedish Lapland is in collaboration with Dr Alexander Milner and Mr Chris Mellor (also at University of Birmingham, UK). The submersible Tinytag data loggers are positioned just above the river bed and their role is to monitor the water column temperature and its dynamics over the summer melt season and also over winter.

Restoration of species-rich grasslands, that are of high value because of the diverse flora and fauna that they support, is part of the UK’s strategy to preserve its native biodiversity. The NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) is testing new methods to restore such types of grassland at sites where they have disappeared due to agricultural intensification. Understanding what goes on at grass roots level with regard to temperature and humidity conditions is an important part of the process. 192 Tinytag data loggers have been used for this purpose at the Pegsdon Hills Nature Reserve in the Chilterns, UK, from the summer of 2008. The data loggers have been deployed 3 times a year, in spring, summer and autumn, for 1 week at a time. The loggers have monitored factors that are known to affect plant establishment. Temperature and humidity data has been recorded at surface level, and also temperature in the top 10cm of the soil profile. Dr Markus Wagner is a Grassland Ecologist and team co-ordinator of the project. He comments:“Tinytag data loggers have proved reliable, sturdy and easy to use. They have provided us with patterns of temperature and humidity data that we can relate to what we already know about seed germination in these conditions and that help us with the interpretation of the results of our study.”