The burgeoning energy demand worldwide has led to a proliferation of hydroelectric dams, firstly in the northern hemisphere and subsequently across tropical developing countries, which have become the new hydropower frontiers. Currently, hydropower development is already one of the primary means of habitat loss and fragmentation in tropical forests, hence a key threat to biodiversity and the ecosystem services provided to the entire humanity. After damming, all low elevation areas are inundated, while previous ridgetops in undulating terrain often become islands. The objective of this Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Action is to dissect the ecological impacts of habitat insularization induced by hydroelectric dams on ecosystem functioning, by comprehensively assessing species interactions across 35 forest islands and three mainland continuous forest sites across one of the largest hydroelectric reservoirs in South America. Firstly, specific prey-predator interactions – herbivory, insectivory and seed predation – will be quantified in situ and related to patch, landscape and habitat-quality metrics. Then, species interactions across terrestrial food webs will be evaluated using theoretical approaches based on species co-occurrence and codispersion analysis. To do so, the Experienced Researcher will use data previously collected by the host research group on vertebrate, invertebrate and plant species, and apply novel framework approaches based on mutualistic and antagonistic networks, some of them developed by the collaborator group. The innovative knowledge to be produced is expected to considerably improve strategic environmental impact assessments of planned hydroelectric dams and manage existing and future hydropower development. Moreover, while collaborating with very-high profile researchers, this Action will allow the Experienced Researcher to acquire new sophisticated analytical skills on species interactions and foodweb-related processes.

We are born completely sterile, but soon become colonised by complex microbial communities that shapes our immune defense for life. Disturbances in early colonisation events, such as antibiotic exposure, can lead to increased susceptibility to enteric pathogens in later life. Knowledge on the composition and diversity of a healthy gastrointestinal tract microbiota, and on how changes in the microbiota increase susceptibility to enteric infection, is incomplete. These gaps in our knowledge are du e, in large part, to a lack of mechanistic data on initial development of the microbiota during the critical early life window. Hypothesis: Early life exposure to intestinal Bifidobacteria species protects from enteric infections later in life. This timely New Investigator proposal seeks to uncover how the dominant early life microbiota genus, Bifidobacterium, colonise the host gastrointestinal tract and subsequently modulate critical resistance to enteric infection, through microbial colo nisation (termed colonisation resistance). I aim to understand how antibiotic-induced early life perturbations may alter this microbial community, ultimately leading to a breakdown in pathogen protection. Finally, I will seek to identify bifidobacterial strains and communities that can restore an early life microbiota ecosystem able to control enteric pathogen infection. We will exploit state-of-the-art genomic and culturing technologies, in combination with unique in vitro and in vivo murine mo dels, to study these early life microbiota-host interactions. Gaining further knowledge about the colonisation of pioneer bacteria, and their associated products, may provide a powerful opportunity for manipulating community restructuring after perturbations in the microbiota, which is crucial in infectious disease settings.

The development of a 'Fisheries Bill' was announced as part of the Queen's speech in June 2017. A new Fisheries Bill provides a key, 'once in a lifetime' opportunity for the United Kingdom and its devolved administrations to assume greater responsibility for fisheries in their territorial waters and to redesign the policies that underpin this. There are hopes within the industry and in many political circles, that these changes could lead to fisheries being managed more sustainably and equitably in the future, and that it might also lead to the regeneration of local economies in some coastal communities. In particular, the industry hopes that regaining sovereignty over UK waters will mean higher quotas being allocated to them. The total UK quota of each commercial species such as North Sea cod is currently decided each year in Brussels, based on 'relative stability' arrangements. However, these are based on historic fishing patterns that pre-date the Common Fisheries Policy (the late 1970s), and therefore do not match current fish distributions and catch compositions of UK vessels. A further source of perceived injustice for many in the UK fishing industry is how the UK itself allocates components of the overall quota to different fleets around the country. Over 95% of the quota is currently allocated to larger offshore boats because this sector was able to prove 'track record' through logbooks etc. when the Common Fisheries Policy was established in 1983. The inshore, smaller boats, which makes up over 80% of the UK's fishing boats had no legal obligation to report landings or to keep logbooks - and lost out as a result. The many discrepancies in quota allocation have caused tensions between larger and smaller boats. Clearly a dialogue is needed, regarding equitability of quota allocation in the UK. Whatever circumstances arise as a result of Brexit (whether the UK 'wins' high quotas or not), some system will be needed to divide up the total UK share. Changes to the current management system associated with Brexit and the new 'fisheries bill' mean that it is now time for renewed discussion about what the UK wants it's fishing fleet to look like in the future, setting out new criteria for quota allocation based on objective social, economic and environmental criteria. This placement will allow a collaboration between UEA and CEFAS focused on understanding fishermen's views regarding the apportionment of national quota shares, This work will focus on three regions: Norfolk, Suffolk and Devon. This placement's goal is to explore these complex issues through research and engagement with various sub-sectors of the fishing industry. This will help generate insights that will feed into future policy development, a topic that will become ever-more important once the overall geopolitical negotiations have concluded.

Chaucer's well-worn reputation as the Father of English Poetry has eclipsed his revolutionary effect upon English historiography. My doctoral thesis explores the stylistic influence of Italian humanism on Chaucer's historical writing, and bridges the striking gap between two topical scholarly fields; Chaucer and Italy, and Chaucer's sense of history. Style and decorum were the predicates of Renaissance humanism, the eloquent application of the appropriate rhetorical register in accordance with a given mode or genre, which revealed individual talent. Chaucer's acute understanding of these predicates created a new landscape of historical writing in England, which my thesis examines for the first time. I explore the first forays into this new landscape by tracing the influence Chaucer's distinctive historical style had on poet-historians such as John Lydgate and Osbern Bokenham, whose imitation of Chaucer in the fifteenth century established him as England's great historical poet.