BCRA NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2024
Our Social media news outlets...
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/groups/britishcaver
• BCRA News forum: http://bcra.org.uk/forum
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/bcra_speleology
• UK Caving http://ukcaving.com/board/?board=86.0
In this newsletter
• Hidden Earth Update
• Hidden Earth Photo Salon
• The 2024 BCRA Cave & Karst Science Symposium
• Interactive Cave Monitoring Workshop
• Caves and Karst 51(2)
• CREG Journal
• BCRA AGM
• BCRA Annual Review
• CSTRF grants
• Next Council Meeting
• Supporting BCRA
Tickets are now available for the Hidden Earth Annual Conference(Update) 20th-23rd September at Pafiliwn Llangollen Pavilion, Abbey Rd, Llangollen LL20 8SW, UK HIDDEN EARTH: the National Caving Conference. For further information please see the Hidden Earth website where you will find an extensive list of lectures and activities already advertised.
Hidden Earth Photo Salon
We have made some changes to the photo salon at Hidden Earth, this year,
to try to encourage young photographers. hidden.earth/salons/photo
Update on the 2024 BCRA Cave & Karst Science Symposium and AGM will take place on Sat 12 Oct, 09:30 to 17:00 at Northumbria University
The symposium will be hosted by Chloe Snowling and Prof. Mike Rogerson at the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. This year we are excited to announce our keynote speaker, BCRA alumna and British cave explorer Prof. Gina Moseley.
Further details, including registration and abstract submission, are available in the 1st circular, on the BCRA forum: viewtopic.php?t=1696 Further information, including a timetable, abstracts, and directions to the venue will be available later in the year on the BCRA News forum. Last-minute info will be posted to our Facebook page.
Interactive monitoring workshop on Sunday 13th October instead of a field trip
Environmental monitoring is crucial for determining how the natural environment works, and how it responds to outside forces like climate. Cave and karst environments need monitoring like everywhere else but pose both specific challenges and specific opportunities. For instance, the lack of surface runoff makes monitoring biogeochemical processes on the landscape a headache, but the abundance of human-accessible underground space provides unique opportunities to observe groundwater infiltrating the vadose zone in a way that can only be inferred elsewhere.
Cave and karst monitoring is continuously developing technologically and methodologically, but a standard "play book" is beginning to emerge. This standard set of approaches is built on monitoring the ventilation of cave chambers / passages using temperature probes, sometimes combined with CO2 and / or radon monitors and the movement of water via drip counters and water level monitoring. Air flow speed / direction, humidity, water conductivity and pH and a range of additional specialist monitors exist for specialist deployments. For other needs, autosamplers are available which can take and store physical samples for analysis following a pre-set time step.
This workshop will introduce the most common monitoring approaches of the standard playbook, including monitoring strategy and design, logger placement and initialisation, data recovery and initial analysis.
Delegates should register their intention to attend to Mike Rogerson (Michael.rogerson@northumbria.ac.uk). Please bring a laptop and a survey of the cave or karst area you are interested in monitoring. If you are unable to bring a laptop, let Mike know.
Caves and Karst51(2)
C&KS 51(2) is in press and will be shipped to members by the middle of
September. The online version will be available hopefully by 1 Sept.
CREG Journal
CREG journal 127 has also gone to press and should be with subscribers
by the first week in September. The online version will be available
hopefully by 1 Sept.
The 2024 Annual General Meeting of the BCRA will take place at the end of the morning session on the 12th of October. Motions to be proposed at the AGM and Nominations for Officers and Members of Council should be submitted prior to the meeting (by the end of September ), with the full agenda published three weeks prior to the meeting. For further details on deadlines and the agenda please visit bcra.org.uk/agm.
The BCRA Review for 2023 should be available sometime in October.
We ship a free copy of this to member clubs that take C&KS on paper. If you
would like your own individual copy, please order this at bcra.org.uk/bookshop/order.html
Cave Science and Technology Research Fund Grants
Further information and how to apply is available at the following link on the BCRA website https://bcra.org.uk/researchfund/
The next council meeting will be held on Wednesday 11th September via zoom 20.00 to 21.30
Further information is available on the BCRA website
Supporting BCRA.
Members will note that there has been a lack of field meetings since the end of Covid restrictions and we encourage anyone willing to organise a meeting to contact the secretary. Further information regarding supporting BCRA is available at the following link https://bcra.org.uk/volunteer/index.html
IT Support
We would also welcome support from members who have experience with IT / web services. The IT team have also identified tasks that could be undertaken by anyone with basic skills, and which would ease the load. If you feel that you can assist, please contact the secretary: bcra-secretary@bcra.org.uk
The next newsletter will be at the end of September 2024
BCRA NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2024
Moderators: David Gibson, Gina