Birds, Bees and Digital Conservation: Can digital technologies bring people closer to their local natural world?

Do you find it hard to believe that digital innovation can inspire, or even re-connect, people to our natural environment?

Dr René van der Wal will talk about opportunities for Nature Conservation provided by state-of-the-art computing science, in a free talk that is taking place in St Magnus Cathedral, at 7pm, Sunday 3 July 2011.

The talk is part of Aberdeen University's Cafe Connect - a pilot initiative delivering free public science talks in remote or rural communities across Scotland.

Come along and be surprised how birds and bees may come to life, how citizens may conduct science on their own terms, and how nature conservation may go in directions you have never imaged.

Dr van der Wal is a Reader at the University of Aberdeen and the Natural Resource Conservation theme Lead at the dot.rural Digital Economy Research Centre. He studies how plant and animal species interact, and are dependent on healthy soils, clean air and respond to changes in land management as well as climate.

His research takes place in far flung places such as Svalbard’s high arctic tundra, as well as local environments such as the glowing Grampian Mountains and fascinating seabird islands of the Firth of Forth.