Agency as Interspecies, Collective and Embedded Endeavour: Ponies and People in Northern England 1916–1950

Animals are increasingly acknowledged as historical agents. There are calls for more critical approaches that explore how this agency—often shared with humans—is embedded within wider relations of power. This paper responds by employing Critical Theory, particularly the ideas of Jurgen Habermas, to explore how interspecies agency is shaped and constrained by its broader socioeconomic context. Empirical illustrations are drawn from the experiences of Dales ponies and people in the early twentieth century, who found themselves navigating the growing commodification of their shared lifeworld. The findings suggest the outcome of this process of “colonisation” was not inevitable. Rather, just as the demise of the ponies seemed unstoppable, their shared communicative relations re-emerged powerfully during the harsh winter of 1947. The paper asks what this means for our understanding of the apparently irrevocable decline of horsepower and how we might better understand horses’ own experiences of such events and processes

Spring Thaw Ionic Pulses Boost Nutrient Availability and Microbial Growth in Entombed Antarctic Dry Valley Cryoconite Holes

The seasonal melting of ice entombed cryoconite holes on McMurdo Dry Valley glaciers provides oases for life in the harsh environmental conditions of the polar desert where surface air temperatures only occasionally exceed 0°C during the Austral summer. Here we follow temporal changes in cryoconite hole biogeochemistry on Canada Glacier from fully frozen conditions through the initial stages of spring thaw toward fully melted holes. The cryoconite holes had a mean isolation age from the glacial drainage system of 3.4 years, with an increasing mass of aqueous nutrients (dissolved organic carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorus) with longer isolation age. During the initial melt there was a mean nine times enrichment in dissolved chloride relative to mean concentrations of the initial frozen holes indicative of an ionic pulse, with similar mean nine times enrichments in nitrite, ammonium, and dissolved organic matter. Nitrate was enriched twelve times and dissolved organic nitrogen six times, suggesting net nitrification, while lower enrichments for dissolved organic phosphorus and phosphate were consistent with net microbial phosphorus uptake. Rates of bacterial production were significantly elevated during the ionic pulse, likely due to the increased nutrient availability. There was no concomitant increase in photosynthesis rates, with a net depletion of dissolved inorganic carbon suggesting inorganic carbon limitation. Potential nitrogen fixation was detected in fully melted holes where it could be an important source of nitrogen to support microbial growth, but not during the ionic pulse where nitrogen availability was higher. This study demonstrates that ionic pulses significantly alter the timing and magnitude of microbial activity within entombed cryoconite holes, and adds credence to hypotheses that ionic enrichments during freeze-thaw can elevate rates of microbial growth and activity in other icy habitats, such as ice veins and subglacial regelation zones

Physical weathering by glaciers enhances silicon mobilisation and isotopic fractionation

Glacial meltwaters export substantial quantities of dissolved and dissolvable amorphous silicon (DSi and ASi), providing an essential nutrient for downstream diatoms. Evidence suggests that glacially exported DSi is isotopically light compared to DSi in non-glaciated rivers. However, the isotopic fractionation mechanisms are not well constrained, indicating an important gap in our understanding of processes in the global Si cycle. We use rock crushing experiments to mimic subglacial physical erosion, to provide insight into subglacial isotope fractionation. Isotopically light DSi (δ30SiDSi) released following initial dissolution of freshly ground mineral surfaces (down to −2.12 ± 0.02 ‰) suggests mechanochemical reactions induce isotopic fractionation, explaining the low δ30SiDSi composition of subglacial runoff. ASi with a consistent isotopic composition is present in all mechanically weathered samples, but concentrations are elevated in samples that have undergone more intense physical grinding. These experiments illustrate the critical role of physical processes in driving isotopic fractionation and biogeochemical weathering in subglacial environments. Understanding perturbations in high latitude Si cycling under climatic change will likely depend on the response of mechanochemical weathering to increased glacial melt

Rapid development and persistence of efficient subglacial drainage under 900 m-thick ice in Greenland

Intensive study of the Greenland Ice Sheet's (GrIS) subglacial drainage has been motivated by its importance for ice dynamics and for nutrient/sediment export to coastal ecosystems. This has revealed consistent seasonal development of efficient subglacial drainage in the lower ablation area. While some hydrological models show qualitative agreement with field data, conflicting evidence (both field- and model-based) maintains uncertainty in the extent and rate of efficient drainage development under thick (∼1 km) ice. Here, we present the first simultaneous time series of directly-observed subglacial drainage evolution, supraglacial hydrology and ice dynamics over 11 weeks in a large GrIS catchment. We demonstrate development of a fast/efficient subglacial drainage system extending from the margin to beneath ice >900 m thick, which then persisted with little response to highly variable moulin inputs including extreme melt events and extended periods (2 weeks) of low melt input. This efficient system evolved within ∼3 weeks at a moulin initiated when a fracture intersected a supraglacial river (rather than hydrofracture and lake drainage). Ice flow response to surface melt inputs at this site follows a pattern commonly observed in the lower GrIS ablation area, and by assuming a strong relationship between ice dynamics and subglacial hydrology, we infer that efficient subglacial drainage evolution is widespread under 900 m-thick ice in west Greenland. This time series of tracer transit characteristics through a developing and then persistent efficient drainage system provides a unique data set with which to validate and constrain existing numerical drainage system models, extending their capability for simulating drainage system evolution under current and future conditionspublishedVersio

Sustainability Education Beyond the Classroom: How the “Exploding University” Nurtures Collective Intelligence Across Local and Global Communities

This chapter explores how the authors expanded their teaching and learning beyond the classroom at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK. It puts forward the theoretical concept of the “exploding university” as a way to help develop a critical yet hopeful understanding of collective problems at local and global scales. This helps them explore three interrelated initiatives that brought teachers, students, and communities together, namely a sustainability festival, research project on animal rehoming, and community tree-planting drive. The chapter illuminates how exploding the work beyond the classroom enabled everyone involved to take action on the challenges that matter to them, while also developing a “collective intelligence” about their underlying causes. The exploding university thus emerges as a theoretical and practical model, which we can use to inspire students to actively critique, reimagine, and reconstruct the world around them. The authors conclude by encouraging and supporting others who might wish to embark on similar journeys themselves

Leveraging hope & experience: Towards an integrated model of transformative learning, community and leadership for sustainability action and change

How can we engage in futures-oriented ‘hope work’ in the face of extraordinary global challenges, and from within the confines of a commodified higher education system? This chapter traces the experience of a group of staff and students at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, who came together to explore this question through an experimental, emergent, and creative process of co-operative inquiry. This shared safe space enabled relations of trust, openness and enjoyment to emerge, which were conducive to learning, community-building, and shared leadership. Thus our shared experience enabled us to shed new and critical light on transformative learning, transformative community and transformative leadership. However, in place of three separate concepts, our findings lead us to a composite, integrated and mutually reinforcing model centred on a set of connecting 2 principles. These in turn are rooted in our subjective experiences of our practical cares and concerns, both individual and shared. Emerging from within an experiential ontology, then, this integrated model offers a reflexive alternative to the top-down approach to sustainability teaching and strategy that currently prevails in many higher education institutions. We share here our experience and the theoretical model it catalysed – along with suggestions for practical actions. In so doing, we hope that we might inspire others to experiment (in their own way) with more organic, less hierarchical, and potentially more enduring approaches to the pedagogy and practice of sustainability

Prototype wireless sensors for monitoring subsurface processes in snow and firn

The detection and monitoring of meltwater within firn presents a significant monitoring challenge. We explore the potential of small wireless sensors (ETracer+, ET+) to measure temperature, pressure, electrical conductivity and thus the presence or absence of meltwater within firn, through tests in the dry snow zone at the East Greenland Ice Core Project site. The tested sensor platforms are small, robust and low cost, and communicate data via a VHF radio link to surface receivers. The sensors were deployed in low-temperature firn at the centre and shear margins of an ice stream for 4 weeks, and a bucket experiment’ was used to test the detection of water within otherwise dry firn. The tests showed the ET+ could log subsurface temperatures and transmit the recorded data through up to 150 m dry firn. Two VHF receivers were tested: an autonomous phase-sensitive radio-echo sounder (ApRES) and a WinRadio. The ApRES can combine high-resolution imaging of the firn layers (by radio-echo sounding) with in situ measurements from the sensors, to build up a high spatial and temporal resolution picture of the subsurface. These results indicate that wireless sensors have great potential for long-term monitoring of firn processes

Telling organizational tales: the extended case method in practice

The extended case method brings existing theory to bear on a particular ethnographic case, enabling complex macro-level questions to be examined through their everyday manifestations in micro-level social settings. Yet it remains comparatively underutilized among organizational researchers, many of whom may be deterred by an apparent lack of practical guidance. The article addresses this by outlining three main steps, illustrated by the authors' own experience of implementing the extended case method in a recently published organizational study. In so doing, the article makes clear the distinctiveness of the method, particularly compared to the better-known grounded theory approach to ethnography. It concludes that by offering a bridge between interpretive and critical approaches, the extended case method represents a valuable addition to the toolkit of organizational researchers. © The Author(s) 2013

Using wireless sensors to measure sub-surface processes in firn

Subsurface processes exert controls on meltwater storage and densification within firn, which are, by their nature, challenging to measure. We present the results of proof-of-concept tests of wireless ETracer sensors with the East Greenland Ice Core Project (EGRIP) at the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream. ETracers equipped with temperature, pressure and electrical conductivity sensors were deployed in firn boreholes at the centre and the shear margins of the ice stream. Data were returned from a 60m deep test borehole, and continuously for 4 weeks from two 14m deep boreholes, to autonomous receivers at the surface. Two receivers were tested: a station using software radio and PC, and the BAS/UCL ApRES radar system. The sensors were used to track high resolution changes in temperature with depth, changes in densification rates in response to accumulation events and snow redistribution, and the presence of liquid water within the firn