Southern England Research Articles

The attitudes of dental therapists, dental therapy educators and dental therapy students in the South of England towards domiciliary dentistry: a qualitative study.

Introduction Dental therapists (DTs) are members of the dental team with a wide scope of practice, who support the provision of dental care to patient groups including those with vulnerabilities. One such group are older patients who are often unable to attend general dental practices to access their dental care. A domiciliary or 'home visit' may be required to deliver this care in a non-clinical setting.Aim To identify how dental therapists and dental therapy educators working in Southern England perceive domiciliary dental services and to explore the possible role of dental therapists in providing domiciliary dentistry.Method A qualitative research design using a thematic approach.Results A total of five focus groups from the three professional groups were held representing a diverse community of therapists. A number of themes emerged including: knowledge of the domiciliary patient; barriers to the provision of domiciliary care; barriers to accessing domiciliary dentistry; overcoming barriers; and benefits of providing domiciliary care.Conclusion The concept of DTs providing domiciliary care was in general viewed positively. Several perceived barriers were reported including contractual, education and training issues. These barriers would need to be overcome to improve dental workforce skill-mix in delivery of domiciliary dental care.

“It felt a bit wartime”: Teacher perspectives of social and emotional well‐being support in primary schools during Covid‐19

AbstractAlthough primary schools in the UK were required to provide access to remote learning for pupils during Covid‐19 mandated school closures, there was less clarity for teachers and school leaders about expectations and priorities relating to the provision of social and emotional well‐being support for children at home during this period. Using an existing whole‐school approaches (WSA) framework we aimed to understand the extent to which well‐being support was a priority for primary schools during closures, what structures were in place to support well‐being, what factors facilitated or inhibited provision of remote pastoral care, and how schools supported pupil reintegration following school reopening. Twenty semi‐structured qualitative interviews were conducted with teachers and school leaders in primary schools in three counties of southern England during February and March 2020. A hybrid inductive‐deductive thematic analysis approach was used with a critical realist approach. Findings indicate that school closures were associated with radically disrupted home–school partnerships. Lack of national and local policy guidance limited the extent to which schools adapted remote well‐being provision and maintained contact with families. This disruption contributed to a decline in children's emotional well‐being, particularly for those children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Covid recovery recommendations center on a renewed emphasis on universal, ethos‐focused interventions and a strength‐based focus on curriculum change.

The co-construction and emotion management of hope within psychosis services.

There is a growing acknowledgement of the salience of hope for mental health service-users, in influencing care outcomes and recovery. Understandings of the processes through which hopes are co-constructed, alongside specific conceptualisations of experiences of hoping, remain limited however. This qualitative study explored how a range of stakeholders experienced and dealt with uncertainty within three purposively selected psychosis services in southern England. In this article we focus particularly on the co-construction of hope within participants' narratives and how this emotion work shaped experiences of hoping. In-depth interviews (n = 23) with service-users, professionals, managers and other stakeholders were analysed following a phenomenological approach. Hope was spontaneously identified by participants as a fundamental mechanism through which service-users and professionals managed uncertainty when vulnerable. Professionals were influential in shaping users' hopes, both intentionally and unwittingly, while some professionals also referred to managing their own hopes and those of colleagues. Such management of expectations and emotions enabled motivation and coping amidst uncertainty, for users and professionals, but also entailed difficulties where hope was undermined, exaggerated, or involved tensions between desires and expectations. Whereas, hope is usually reflected in the caring studies literature as distinctly positive, our findings point to a more ambivalent understanding of hope, as reflected in the accounts of both service-users and professionals where elevated hopes were described as unrealistic and harmful, to the well-being of professionals as well as of service-users. It is concluded that a greater awareness within care contexts of how hopes are co-constructed by professionals and service-users, explicitly and implicitly, can assist in improving health care and healthcare outcomes.

Migration patterns and breeding areas of Green Sandpipers Tringa ochropus wintering in southern Britain

ABSTRACT Capsule: Green Sandpipers Tringa ochropus wintering in southern Britain breed in western Scandinavia, from southern Norway to Finland. They leave Britain in late April and return by the end of June/early July. Aims: To determine the breeding areas of Green Sandpipers that spend their winter in southern Britain and to investigate their migration ecology. Methods: Green Sandpipers were fitted with archival tags (light level and GPS) whilst in their wintering area. Location data were collected during their northward migration to the breeding area, the breeding period and their return to southern England. Results: Birds departed from the wintering area in late April (median April 20) and moved rapidly to the breeding areas (median duration two days), a mean distance of 1463 km. Females stayed in the breeding areas for only 42 days and males 60 days. The return migration back to the wintering area took a median of 11.5 days with the first birds back by June 19 and the last by July 6. Conclusions: By spending the winter so far north and close to the breeding areas the birds are balancing the risks of poor survival in extreme cold winters with the benefits of rapid and relatively easy movement to and from their breeding areas.

Poverty, old age and outdoor relief in late-Victorian England

ABSTRACT While studies dedicated to the extent of poverty in old age under the New Poor Law in nineteenth-century England have grown, gaps still exist in terms of a detailed examination of outdoor relief compared with workhouse populations. Using rarely consulted outdoor relief application and report books for three Poor Law Unions in the early 1880s (Alton Union, Hampshire; Hertford Union, Hertfordshire; and Ripon Union, Yorkshire West Riding), this article provides estimated proportions of older people on outdoor relief by linking the report books with census materials. It also examines variations in allowances prescribed to single and married individuals. Firstly, older people in southern England were more likely to receive outdoor relief compared with their northern counterparts, consistent with the extant literature outlining a ‘north–south’ divide of welfare provision. Secondly, allowances were surprisingly generous in Ripon Union. For married couples, allowances were double the average documented elsewhere and reflect those granted under the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908. In conclusion, continuity in the treatment of older-age applicants between the later years of the New Poor Law and the start of the Old Age Pensions Act is emphasised, especially in the context of northern Poor Law Unions such as Ripon.

Revised calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy and chemostratigraphy for the late Turonian–early Campanian at Seaford Head (southern England).

Revised calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy and chemostratigraphy for the late Turonian–early Campanian at Seaford Head (southern England).

Management of advanced epithelial ovarian cancer in the older patient: an age stratified cohort study of a gynaecological cancer centre in Southern England

Management of advanced epithelial ovarian cancer in the older patient: an age stratified cohort study of a gynaecological cancer centre in Southern England

Healthcare professional and commissioners' perspectives on the factors facilitating and hindering the implementation of digital tools for self-management of long-term conditions within UK healthcare pathways.

Physical activity is important in the self-management of long-term conditions (LTCs). However, implementing physical activity into clinical practice is challenging, due to complex barriers including access to programmes, time pressures, and transport costs, for people with comorbidities, managing multiple responsibilities. Various digital tools exist to overcome these barriers and support wide-scale implementation to help people stay physically active. We explored the experiences, needs and preferences of healthcare professionals and commissioners, regarding the use of digital tools to support people with LTCs to self-manage using physical activity. This included barriers and facilitators to implementing digital tools to support people with LTCs in NHS settings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted (April 2021 to January 2022) in Wessex, southern England, UK. Purposive sampling was used to recruit general practitioners and healthcare professionals, and convenience sampling to recruit commissioners (n = 15). Transcripts were coded to develop conceptual themes allowing comparisons between and among perspectives, with the Normalisation Process Theory (NPT)'s four constructs used to aid interpretation. Results showed that most digital tools supporting physical activity for LTCs, are not well implemented clinically. Current digital tools were seen to lack condition-specificity, usability/acceptability evidence-base, and voluntary sector involvement (i.e., NPT: coherence or 'making sense'). Healthcare professionals and commissioners were unlikely to engage with use of digital tools unless they were integrated into health service IT systems and professional networks (i.e., NPT: cognitive participation), or adaptable to the digital literacy levels of service users and staff (i.e., NPT: collective action-needs for implementation). In practice, this meant being technically, easy to use and culturally accessible (i.e., NPT: collective action-promoting healthcare work). COVID-19 changed professional attitudes towards digital tools, in that they saw them being viable, feasible and critical options in a way they had not done before the pandemic. Implementation was also influenced by endorsement and trustworthiness enhancing the perception of them as secure and evidence-based (i.e., NPT: reflective monitoring). Our findings highlight that consideration must be given to ensuring that digital tools are accessible to both healthcare professionals and patients, have usability/acceptability, and are adaptable to specific LTCs. To promote clinical engagement, digital tools must be evidence-based, endorsed by professional networks, and integrated into existing health systems. Digital literacy of patients and professionals is also crucial for cross-service implementation.

Active management is required to regenerate the Caledonian forest: Alladale as a case study

Abstract Passive approaches to nature recovery have been hailed as a low‐cost approach to boosting biodiversity in ecologically degraded sites. But there remains little evidence of whether this generalises to all climatic and ecological contexts. To address this knowledge gap, we used satellite remote sensing to examine vegetation change in Alladale Wilderness Reserve, a remote rewilding site in Scotland where active and passive approaches have simultaneously taken place for the past decades. In contrast to enclosures and tree planting, more passive approaches did not help regenerate the native Caledonian forest, failing to lead to structural or functional change within Alladale, relative to the wider landscape. Observed changes under both approaches were moreover much less dramatic than those reported for the Knepp Estate, another established rewilding site in Southern England. Our results suggest that passive rewilding is unlikely to promote significant biodiversity change in areas where recent human forcing of ecological processes has been limited, even if past human pressures have intensively reshaped the ecosystem—as seen in Alladale. In such situations, active interventions are likely to be required to shift the system onto a new ecological trajectory. Altogether, our study illustrates how freely available satellite data can (1) help contrast the impacts of environmental management approaches on ecosystem structure and functioning, in ways that complement existing ground‐based studies; and (2) help distinguish areas likely to benefit from passive nature recovery approaches from those where specific active interventions are needed.

U–Pb zircon–rutile dating of the Llangynog Inlier, Wales: constraints on an Ediacaran shallow-marine fossil assemblage from East Avalonia

The Llangynog Inlier of south Wales contains an assemblage of Ediacaran macrofossils from a shallow-marine environment, including discoidal morphs of Aspidella and rare examples of Hiemalora , Palaeopascichnus and Yelovichnus . These are taxa found at other sites in the Avalonian microcontinent (e.g. Charnwood Forest and eastern Newfoundland) and in the younger White Sea Ediacaran assemblages. As the Charnwood fossils reflect a deep-water environment, and no macrofossils have been found in the Ediacaran rocks of the Long Mynd, the fossils of the Llangynog Inlier represent a unique glimpse of shallow-marine life in southern Britain (East Avalonia). However, the lack of absolute age constraints has hampered direct comparison with other assemblages. Here, we report in situ zircon and rutile U–Pb dates from a rhyolitic ash-flow layer of the Coed Cochion Volcaniclastic Member, Llangynog Inlier, which constrains the age of the fossiliferous strata. A weighted mean single grain zircon isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry U–Pb age of 564.09 ± 0.70 Ma is interpreted as the rhyolite's crystallization age. This age is consistent with in situ laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry zircon and rutile U–Pb dating. The Llangynog age temporally correlates these fossils to dated horizons within East Avalonia at the Beacon Hill Formation, Charnwood (565.22 ± 0.89 Ma) and the Stretton Shale Formation, Long Mynd (566.6 ± 2.9 Ma). Correlations to West Avalonia include the time-equivalent Fermeuse Formation, St John's Group, eastern Newfoundland (564.13 ± 0.65 Ma). The data presented here establish the biota of the Llangynog Inlier as a lateral equivalent to the similarly shallow-marine, tidally influenced ecosystem of the upper Fermeuse Formation. Intra-terrane depositional environmental variability also affects what is preserved in Avalonian fossil sites. Further, time-constrained geochemical data reinforce the Llangynog Inlier's classification within the Wrekin Terrane. Supplementary material : U–Pb data, reference material and figures showing sedimentary structures are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6965642

Gram negative bacteria related urinary tract infections: spectrum of antimicrobial resistance over 9 years in a University tertiary referral Hospital.

Overuse of antibiotics has led to an increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) worldwide, with a negative impact on the healthcare system and the patients. In this context, our study aims to assess the current AMR patterns of urinary tract infections (UTIs) associated to Gram-negative bacteria. Thus, we provide useful information for doctors dealing with prophylactic and therapeutic empiric therapies. We retrospectively analysed more than 650,000 urine cultures collected in the Microbiology Department of a referral University Hospital of Southern England from January 2014 to December 2022. AMR spectra for 164,059 Gram-negative associated (UTIs) were analysed. The lowest percentage of resistance was found for Amikacin (2.30%), Gentamicin (5.89%) and Co-Amoxiclav (10.49%). Over a 9-year time, there was no significant change in resistance to Amikacin (2.04% in 2014 compared to 2.18% in 2022; p = 0.602) and to Fosfomycin (11.50% in 2014 versus 16.65% in 2022; p = 0.577). Overall, the trend of AMR significantly rose for Cefalexin (17.96-18.42%; p < 0.0001), Co-amoxiclav (9.46-12.69%; p < 0.0001), Nitrofurantoin (10.20-14.18%; p < 0.0001) and Piperacillin/Tazobactam (14.52-18.96%; p < 0.0001). Gram-negative resistance spectrum towards Ciprofloxacin (11.83-9.01%; p < 0.0001), Gentamicin (6.29-5.26%; p < 0.0001), Pivmecillinam (26.88-11.02%; p < 0.0001), Trimethoprim (36.72-29.23%; p < 0.0001) and Ampicillin/Amoxicillin (65.20-57.99%; p < 0.0001) significantly decreased. Despite the application of national and international guidelines for prophylaxis and treatment of UTIs, the spectrum of resistance for the most common antibiotics is still changing. Clinicians in primary and secondary care must keep that in mind when prescribing antibiotics for suspected UTI and sepsis associated with Gram-negative infections Up-to-date therapeutic strategies can help implement treatment of UTI, reducing selection of multi-resistant pathogens and providing more accurate care for patients. Future studies will be required to help clinicians and keep the guidelines updated.

Movement ecology and minimum density estimates of red foxes in wet grassland habitats used by breeding wading birds

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a widely distributed generalist meso-predator implicated in declines of wading bird populations. In the wet grassland habitats where waders breed, wildlife managers work to mitigate fox predation risk to waders during the nesting period through lethal and non-lethal control methods. However, limited knowledge on fox movement ecology in these habitats makes it difficult to design effective management strategies. We used GPS telemetry to understand fox home range size, daily activity and movement patterns, and how these metrics may vary among wet grassland sites with different management. We caught and GPS-tagged 35 foxes in the March–June wader nesting period on two wet grassland sites in central southern England; Britford during 2016/17 and Somerley during 2018/19. We estimated home range areas from location data using local convex hulls, and from these estimates we derived the minimum fox density at each site and year. Daily activity patterns and movement behaviour of each fox were obtained using both telemetry and trail camera data. Mean fox home range area at Britford (0.21 km2, SE = 0.025) was significantly smaller than at Somerley (0.68 km2, SE = 0.067), and estimated minimum densities were around four times higher (Britford = 10.6 foxes/km2, Somerley = 2.4 foxes/km2). Foxes were more active and moved faster during twilight and night hours, but both telemetry and camera data indicate they were also active for one-third of daylight hours. Distances moved per day were variable between foxes but generally smaller at Britford. We also found evidence for dispersal during spring, with movements of up to 19 km per day. Home ranges at both wet grassland sites were smaller than comparable sites elsewhere. These indicated foxes were living at exceptionally high densities at Britford, where there is no fox control, increased food availability and where waders no longer breed. Spatio-temporal movement patterns were closely related to home range metrics, with higher levels of fox activity at Somerley, where home ranges were larger. The movements of itinerant and dispersing foxes during the nesting period suggests that lethal control would need to be very intensive to be effective. The likely anthropogenic food subsidy of fox density at Britford suggests that controlling access to similar food resources would help reduce predation pressure on breeding waders.

Improving the Format, Content, and Writing Process of Outpatient Clinic Letters Within a Musculoskeletal Therapy Department.

Outpatient clinic letters are recognized as an important component of patient care. This project aimed to coproduce clinic letters that have meaning and relevance for key stakeholders. This health care improvement project was conducted in one musculoskeletal therapy (physiotherapy and osteopathy) department in southern England using a Lean Six Sigma Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control-inspired framework. The views and experiences of key stakeholders, including therapists, general practitioners, and patients, were explored using surveys and group meeting methods. New letter designs were coproduced with stakeholders, including patient partners and personalized care lead staff, and were refined through a pilot phase. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically, and quantitative data were analyzed descriptively. Overall, patients and therapists found the clinic letters an important and meaningful part of care. However, therapists reported that they often did not write the letters, and time was identified as the main barrier. The main theme identified from patient feedback was that patients wanted to write the letters in collaboration with the clinician. The pilot phase demonstrated that, on average, the new letters took less time to write. This project has coproduced new clinic letters and operational processes centered on the needs of key stakeholders. This article will help other outpatient departments reflect on their own clinic letters and consider their meaning and relevance for their stakeholders.

A narrative analysis of patients’ experiences of taking medication for secondary prevention of acute myocardial infarction

Abstract Introduction Following an acute myocardial infarction, patients are given a daily regime of five medications to prevent secondary cardiovascular events. However, adherence to these medications has been measured to be 66%1. Sub-optimal adherence leads to increased mortality, morbidity and associated healthcare system costs. There is a lack of qualitative research of this experience for these patients, and current interventions, such as Dossett trays and New Medicines Service interviews are based upon presumed difficulties, such as memory and physical medication issues. Aim The aim of this study was to better understand patient’s experience of taking medication to prevent a further AMI, using a narrative analysis framework to describe their relationship with their medication and healthcare professionals. Methods Following ethical approval (UREC 18/36), participants were recruited with inclusion criteria of adults taking medication following at least one previous episode of AMI. Following signed informed consent, semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifteen people from central and southern England. Interviews were conducted in person, online, or on the telephone and audio recorded. The recordings were transcribed verbatim and organised using NVivo software. A narrative analysis framework was used to organise themes within the whole of each participant’s story and then separated into narrative arcs and organised by theme2. Results The whole story analysis showed the differences between each participant’s story, and that each participant’s story contained varying complicating factors that were personal and specifically important to their lives. The presence of side effects was a complicating factor for most participants. The narrative arc analysis showed that initially, participants felt they began taking medication with little control, feeling compelled to follow their prescriber’s directions and ‘do what they were told’. They understood the benefit to their health, and quickly built routine into their lives. At the next stage, participants worked in collaboration with their prescriber. They had acquired knowledge and social support of non-prescribing professionals, which enabled them to recognise side effects, which they tolerated. Missed doses were viewed as insignificant, happening infrequently and balanced by a history of medication continuity. A crisis point was reached when side effects became unmanageable, where they sought help from their prescriber to change their medication. The desired stage to reach was stability, where participants continued to take medication, and found it simple, unnoticed, fitted into their life and monitored using biometric results. Discussion/Conclusion These participants were non-intentional non-adherers, and described how they successfully added a medication regime into their lives, the details of which could assist patients who find this process more difficult. They described personal and detailed stories, indicating that interventions to assist medication-taking are suited to individual patient work. Themes across all their narratives included the presence of side effects, for which they deferred to their prescriber as decision-maker for their treatment. Non-prescribing healthcare professionals were described as providing social support at later stages, but there is a potential for pharmacists to offer more support at the initial stage where participants felt they lacked control, using services such as the New Medicines Service.

Using citizen science data to assess the vulnerability of bottlenose dolphins to human impacts along England's South Coast

AbstractCoastal bottlenose dolphin populations are highly vulnerable due to their small population sizes and proximity to human activities. Long‐term studies in the UK have monitored populations protected within Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) since the 1990s, but a small community of bottlenose dolphins inhabiting the coastal waters of southern England has received much less attention. The English Channel is one of the most heavily impacted marine ecosystems worldwide and increasing anthropogenic pressures pose a severe threat to the long‐term viability of this population. Conservation measures to protect these animals have been hindered by a lack of knowledge of population size, distribution and ranging behaviour. This study aimed to fill these knowledge gaps. A citizen science sighting network yielded 7458 sighting reports of bottlenose dolphins between 2000 and 2020. Resightings of identified individuals were used to estimate abundance, distribution, and ranging behaviour. Social structure analysis revealed a discrete interconnected group of animals in shallow coastal waters, which did not appear to mix with conspecifics identified further offshore. A Bayesian multi‐site mark–recapture analysis estimated that this population comprises around 48 animals (CV = 0.18, 95% HPDI = 38–66). These dolphins ranged between North Cornwall and Sussex, with an average individual range of 530 km (68–760 km). Areas of high‐modelled habitat suitability were found to overlap with high levels of anthropogenic pressure, with pollution and boat traffic identified as the most pervasive threats. Although adult survival rates indicated that the population was relatively stable from 2008 to 2019 (0.945 (0.017 ± SE)), the small population size implies a significant risk to their long‐term viability and resilience to environmental change. By highlighting the most deleterious anthropogenic activities and regions of conservation significance, our results will be useful for developing management policies for threat mitigation and population conservation, to protect this vulnerable group of dolphins.

A programme evaluation of ‘First Steps’: A peer-conceived, developed and led self-management intervention for people after a Parkinson's diagnosis

Objective A diagnosis of Parkinson's often leads to uncertainty about the future and loss of perceived control. Peer support may offer a means to address these concerns and promote self-management. Design A programme evaluation of the feasibility and potential effects of ‘First Steps’, utilising a pragmatic step wedge approach. Comparing First Steps (intervention) to (control) conditions. Setting: In the community at four sites in southern England. Participants: Newly diagnosed (≤ 12months) people with Parkinson's. Intervention: First Steps was a 2-day peer-conceived, developed and led intervention to support self-management. Main measures: At 0, 12 and 24 weeks anxiety and depression (Hospital, Anxiety and Depression Scale, HADS), daily functioning (World Health Organisation Disability Assessment Schedule, WHODAS), physical activity, quality of life (EQ5D), carer strain and service utilisation were assessed. Results Between February 2018 and July 2019, 36 participants were enrolled into intervention and 21 to control conditions, all were included in statistical analysis. Lost to follow up was n = 1 (intervention) and n = 1 adverse event was reported (control, unrelated). Of the 36 allocated to the intervention n = 22 participants completed both days of First Steps during the study period. Completion of outcome measures was >95% at 24 weeks. Small effects favouring the intervention were found for HADS (odds ratio (OR) = 2.06, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.24:17.84), Carer Strain Index (OR = 2.22, 95% CI 0.5:9.76) and vigorous (d = 0.42, 95% CI −0.12:0.97) and total physical activity (d = 0.41, 95% CI −0.13:0.95). EQ5D, WHOSDAS and service utilisation, was similar between groups. Conclusions First Steps was feasible and safe and we found potential to benefit physical activity, mental health and carer strain. Further research with longer-term follow up is warranted.

The Charnwood Terrane revisited: an integrated petrogenetic and petrophysical model for crustal structure in southern Britain

We based an integrated petrological and petrophysical model for the Ediacaran crust of southern Britain on a review of the c. 570–550 Ma Charnian volcano-sedimentary complex. The latter was emplaced in a magmatic rift wedge within the juvenile continental crust of the c. 720–600 Ma Marches Terrane, a subduction magmatic domain formed at the margin of the Gondwana palaeocontinent. The Charnian magmatic arc is characterized by primitive island arc tholeiite to more evolved calc-alkaline compositions. The inversion of aeromagnetic potential field data and petrophysical modelling reveals details of the internal structure of the Charnian Domain, including a median rift, superimposed annular structures and partitioning lineaments. The modelling suggests that the arc foundation could incorporate magnetite-rich cumulates, which may explain the anomalous geophysical properties, including crustal thickness, rigidity and buoyancy. There is no evidence for significant tectonic displacement between the Charnian Domain and its Marches Terrane host. Instead, the domain likely occupies a wedge-shaped arc/marginal rift basin complex, propagated from a neighbouring ocean into the Gondwana margin. Contemporaneous volcanic rift successions in the Welsh Borderland and Wales of the 570–550 Ma Charnian magmatic phase developed in coeval ensialic rifts within less strongly extended Marches Terrane lithosphere. A comparable diversity of subduction-related magmatism is found in the Neogene–recent Hikurangi destructive margin of New Zealand, providing a plausible analogue for Charnian magmatism. Supplementary material: Supplementary Publication 1 (borehole geophysical log correlation; petrophysical data table; unannotated geophysical maps and sections) and Supplementary Publication 2 (geochemistry analytical conditions and data table) are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6805248

Trophic relationships of translocated and indigenous chub Squalius cephalus populations with trophically analogous fishes

The translocation of non-indigenous fishes into lowland rives can result in invasive populations establishing and dispersing. Because non-indigenous fishes can cause ecological harm, it is important to understand their trophic relationships and the effects they may have on native fishes. We assessed the trophic ecology of a translocated chub Squalius cephalus population in the River Frome, a lowland chalk stream in Southern England, using bulk stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N) metrics, and compared the results with those derived from indigenous chub populations. The isotopic niche sizes of all fishes in the River Frome were substantially larger in the tidal versus non-tidal site, with the δ13C values suggesting some fish were foraging further downstream of their sampling point in areas that had greater tidal and salinity influences. Inter-specific comparisons of isotopic niches revealed a consistent pattern of similar niche size and overlap between chub and the trophically analogous dace Leuciscus leuciscus. These isotopic relationships between chub and dace were then also apparent in the indigenous populations of these fishes. These results suggest that the colonisation of this lowland river by translocated chub is being facilitated by their isotopic relationships with other fishes that are similar to those observed in their native range.

The introduction of Cochlicella acuta and Cochlicella barbara into Britain and the extinction of Xerocrassa geyeri in Cornwall

The introduction into Britain of two helicid species, Cochlicella acuta and C. barbara, is discussed in the knowledge that old carbon may have influenced the chronology; modern specimens of C. acuta from Cornish sand dunes gave radiocarbon dates which are 600−800 years old. The introduction of C. acuta is confirmed to the early Bronze Age and it may have been present in the late Neolithic. C. barbara arrived in Cornwall prior to its first observation in the 1960s but, in view of the old carbon problem, a precise date cannot be determined. Xerocrassa geyeri became extinct in most of southern Britain in the early Holocene, but survived at Gwithian in Cornwall for several more millennia, with radiocarbon dating suggesting that it could have been present there until the later part of the early Bronze Age.

Grim up North? Exploring the diet of urban populations in post-medieval Greater Manchester, England, using stable isotope analysis

Historical evidence suggests that social status played a major role in all aspects of society in eighteenth–nineteenth century England. We present an insight into how socioeconomic status affected the dietary habits of two post-medieval urban populations from Greater Manchester, northwest England. Stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratios were measured in humans from Cross Street Unitarian Chapel (middle class: n = 90) in Manchester city centre and Chapel Street, Hazel Grove (lower status with few middle-class individuals: n = 34). A large sample of 111 faunal remains from Cross Street (n = 37) and Norton Priory, Cheshire (n = 74), provide an animal baseline, dramatically expanding the post-medieval animal isotopic dataset for England. Sheep from Norton Priory show high δ15N isotope values indicative of saltmarsh grazing. Results for human populations revealed a mixed diet of plant and animal protein from C3 terrestrial environments with some potential contribution of aquatic protein. Significant differences revealed between the two populations indicate unequal access to food by status. Intra-population variation at Hazel Grove suggests dietary distinctions by age and sex. Non-adults consumed diets poor in high trophic level protein, whereas adult males consumed greater amounts of animal products. Conversely, the data suggests that at the wealthier Cross Street, there was greater access to high trophic level protein by all. Comparisons between the Manchester populations and those from similar socioeconomic classes from the Midlands and southern England, including London, reveal a bioarchaeological picture of dietary diversity and differential access to resources which impact significantly on well-being during this tumultuous period of industrial England.