Conference Programme FULL (1)

You say tomato , I say tomato ? Expert and non-expert perceptions of environmental hazards in the UK
Maria Loroño-Leturiondo
Climate change intensified hazards, which are affecting the lives of many people across the UK, require exploring renewed
ways of protecting at-risk communities (World Economic Forum 2016). Scientists and society have to explore new
pathways to work together in advancing knowledge in relation to environmental hazards, combining scientific and
experiential knowledge (Whatmore and Landström 2011, Höppner et al. 2010). Effective two-way communication of
environmental hazards is, however, a challenge. Besides considering factors such as the purpose of communication, or
the characteristics of the different formats; effective communication has to carefully acknowledge the personal
framework of the individuals involved. Existing knowledge, experiences, beliefs, and needs are critical determinants of the
way they perceive and relate to these hazards, and in turn, of the communication process in which they are involved
(Longnecker 2016 and Gibson et al. 2016). Our study builds on the need to explore environmental hazard perception. Here
we present early findings of a survey analysing how experts and non-experts in the UK perceive environmental hazards.
With this study we aim to contribute to establishing two-way forms of communication that work to change and improve
the lives of affected communities.
Development of a novel deployment strategy for in-situ elemental studies: Arsenic mobilisation as a case
study
B.M.Macaulay, B.E. van Dongen, J.R. Lloyd, D.A. Polya
Redox-driven cycling of elements (such as arsenic, selenium and uranium) at the subsurface is often linked to massive
geogenic toxicity in groundwater and soils at anoxic depths. In order to understand the biogeochemistry of these
elements, researchers have relied on lab-based microcosm experiments which potentially disregard the dynamic nature
of ecology. Therefore, there is the need to develop a deployment strategy for field-based studies. This study focuses on
developing a novel technique for in-situ arsenic mobilisation studies. The strategy involves five steps: (1) Preparing
sediment mineral proxy associated with the element (2) coating the element onto the surface of the solid mineral matrix
(3) coating an electron donor onto the matrix (4) fabricating a novel in-situ incubation vessel (5) designing the
experimental set-up. For arsenic mobilisation, iron (III) oxide mineral was coated onto the surface of pumice stones (silicabase).
The Fe-coated pumice stone was in turn coated with sodium arsenate and carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC) which
served as the electron donor. To deploy these treated samples in-situ, porous incubation vessels made from acrylic plastic
were fabricated and a conceptual experimental set-up was designed. There is however, the need to test the efficiency of
this deployment strategy in the field to complete its recommendation for in-situ elemental studies.