Lithium is a key component in the batteries that power electric vehicles and renewable energy storage systems, making it essential for the global energy transition. The ‘Lithium Triangle’ region, covering parts of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, hosts about 50 per cent of known global lithium resources in salty brines found in salt flats, or salars. Optimising this potential is crucial for meeting the growing demand for lithium.

However, issues exist around the potential effects of brine mining on sensitive habitats, groundwater and local and indigenous communities. Sustainable and responsible extraction is a key objective of the region: balancing environmental and social considerations against the urgent need for lithium is a complex challenge that requires collaborative approaches.

To help address this challenge, a BGS-led project is investigating the gaps in knowledge, data and capacity that may prevent the responsible production of lithium from the Lithium Triangle. Through collaboration, it will propose a prioritised research roadmap to help address gaps.  

Workshops in South America

In March 2024, in partnership with local institutions, BGS organised and attended workshops across the Lithium Triangle. The team started in Buenos Aires, Argentina, meeting with representatives from the national government, the geological survey and researchers from Argentina (CONICET). They then travelled to Salta in the north for workshops with operators and the provincial governments of Salta, Jujuy and Catarmarca.

The team then moved on to Chile, starting in Santiago for workshops with researchers, the geological survey, policymakers and operators. The next workshop was held in Copiapo, in the north of Chile, hosted by the University of Atacama with researchers, local government and indigenous community representatives attending.

The workshops provided participatory space for an open dialogue between different stakeholders. The exchange of views and participants’ experience and insights will aid the development of the research roadmap.

Further work

The team is now working on the outcomes and findings from the workshops. A draft of the final report will be shared openly for feedback and input from workshop participants and interested stakeholders. The aim is for the report and roadmap to be used to identify potential research projects, as well as collaboration opportunities and support applications for funding. All this will aid the responsible scale-up of lithium production from salars in South America.

Thanks

We would like to thank all the participants at the workshops and meetings for their valuable time and engagement. We would also like to thank the British embassies in Argentina and Chile and Simon Chater, who is head of science and innovation at the , for all their help.

Funding

The project is funded through the UK Science Innovation Network of the and . Funding was also received from the Chilean embassy.

51ÁÔÆæ research team

• Jon Ford
• Rowan Halkes
• Andrew Hughes
• Evi Petavratzi

About the author

Rowan Halkes

For the last 10 000 years, humans have manipulated fallow deer populations with varying outcomes. Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) are now endangered, whilst European fallow deer (Dama dama) are globally widespread and are simultaneously considered wild, domestic, endangered and invasive.

Fallow deer populations

New research led by Durham University and the University of Exeter combined DNA analyses with archaeological approaches, including isotope analyses in collaboration with BGS. This multi-proxy approach suggests that, after the last glacial maximum, there were two distinct European fallow deer populations. The analysis revealed that Persian fallow deer were more widespread than has previously been proposed, whilst European fallow deer were likely restricted to Anatolia and the Balkans, and two distinct populations existed on either side of the Bosphorus, a waterway in Istanbul, Turkey.

Additionally, tracing their spread reveals that fallow deer were repeatedly sourced from the furthest available populations. The Neolithic deer on the Aegean island of Chios, and likely Rhodes, derived from the Balkans, rather than nearby Anatolia, whilst those on Majorca in Roman times were D. mesopotamica rather than the D. dama, which could have come from the Iberian peninsula. As well as this, the deer reintroduced to medieval Britain were brought from Anatolia instead of Iberia or Italy, as previously thought.

Re-establishing fallow deer

There are several active campaigns to re-establish fallow deer in the Balkans and preserve the last remaining wild herd in Daği-Termessos National Park, Turkey. However, without knowledge of the species’ deep-time biomolecular and phylogeographic history, deer are being sourced from the least appropriate populations. For instance, those being reintroduced to the Balkans possess Anatolian ancestry.

Furthermore, these Anatolian deer are being introduced to regions that have, for thousands of years, preserved deer with Balkan ancestry. Whilst Anatolia-derived deer are increasing in numbers around the world, the DaÄŸi-Termessos herd is still under threat. The research suggests that north European deer of Anatolian ancestry could be introduced to the DaÄŸi-Termessos park, while Iberian/Italian/Rhodes deer populations would be a better source for Balkan rewilding projects.

Future protection?

Ancient dispersals of people, ideas and animals are widely celebrated as cultural heritage. However, this study found that the more recent the animal migration, the more negative the attitude is towards them. Such perceptions can translate into animal management and policymaking.

The fallow deer of Rhodes were introduced during the Neolithic and are viewed as a cultural asset, protected by Greek law and featured on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. The fallow deer of Barbuda are equally culturally significant as the island national animal, yet they have no legal protection and are labelled as ‘invasive’ within the conservation literature. In truth, they are dismissed only because their introduction occurred too recently to have acquired a patina of age-based authenticity.

While many species may legitimately be labelled as invasive, this is not true of all translocated populations, and some do deserve protection. Preoccupation with native and wild species can come at the expense of often equally endangered translocated animals that are not only critically entangled with human history but also offer a conservation resource for replenishing diminished autochthonous or indigenous populations. This study suggests it might be time to rethink our attitudes towards animals with the planet biodiversity crisis.

A total of 418 specimens were submitted for multi-element isotope analyses at the laboratory with the results providing information on the environmental conditions the deer were living in and their diet, thus improving our overall understanding of the species’ ecological history.

Angela Lamb, BGS Isotope Geochemist.

More information

The BGS site at Keyworth has been progressively rewilded in recent years and there’s been an increasing interest from staff in recording the nature present. During a recent survey for clearwing moths, a single hornet moth boring was discovered in the buttress root of a Lombardy poplar tree. The hornet moth is a species of clearwing moth; three other clearwing species had already been recorded at the site using pheromone lures, but the presence of the rare hornet moth had not been suspected — even though there are several established poplar trees including aspen, Lombardy and black poplar, which are all potential host trees.

As this is only the third known site of a hornet moth colony in Nottinghamshire and there are fewer than 10 known in the East Midlands, the moth is classified as scarce nationally. This colony lies near the present northern limit of the hornet moth in Britain.

With the discovery of the first boring, closer examination of the bases of nearby poplars revealed a total of over 60 similar borings on five individual Lombardy and black poplar trees. The dense clusters of these borings almost give the appearance that the root-bole of the trees have been sprayed with bullets or resembles a Swiss cheese! Part of an extruded hornet moth pupal case was also found proving very recent (2023) activity in the colony. Subsequently, a single adult male hornet moth was attracted to a pheromone lure.

In terms of lifecycle, adult hornet moths emerge to fly and mate in June and July each year. The females rarely fly far and deposit their eggs near the base of trees of their host species, which hatch into caterpillars (larvae) that then grow and develop for two to three years. During this time, they bore a tunnel up to 10 cm long into the base of the host tree. Finally, they move to the tunnel entrance and pupate before finally emerging as an adult moth. As they emerge, the moths extrude their larval case from the boring.

Pheromone lures

The use of pheromone lures to detect moths and clearwing species has taken off in recent years in Britain. Small rubber bungs or plastic vials are impregnated with pheromones that match those released by the female clearwings to attract mates. These sources slowly release the chemical attractant, creating a plume of scent in a downwind direction. Once detected, the male flies to the source to investigate. The lures can be placed in muslin bags or into the basket in the roof of a trap. Pheromone lures have long been used in mainland Europe to capture pest clearwing species that infest fruit crops such as currants and raspberries. Their widespread use in Britain is more recent.

Clearwing moths

Clearwing moths are named for their transparent wings, which resemble leaded stained-glass windows. In all there are about 15 species of clearwings found today in Britain and, with the recent increased use of pheromone lures, their distributions are becoming better defined. In addition to the hornet moth, the similar lunar hornet moth, which favours willow trees, has been recorded at BGS Keyworth. Both species are hornet mimics with bold yellow and black markings, but they lack the very narrow waists of true hornets between the thorax and abdomen and possess feathered antennae.

Two further clearwing species, the red-tipped (another willow species) and the currant, have been recorded at BGS to date. Lunar hornet moths and red-tipped clearwing are found along many of the willow-lined streams draining the wolds of south Nottinghamshire north towards the River Trent and along the Grantham Canal. Just such a stream is found immediately behind BGS Keyworth and is no doubt the home ground for these two species. The currant clearwing occurs widely, most commonly in gardens and allotments with currant bushes.

About the authors

Steve Mathers

Steve Mathers is a former BGS Geologist and the butterfly county recorder for Nottinghamshire.

From food to biotechnology, the impressive fungal bodies we all know as mushrooms have a dynamic variety of beneficial uses. That just one of the reasons why colleagues from our Keyworth headquarters have started the BGS Mushroom Club.

What began out of curiosity and an excuse to explore the fascinating variety of fungi growing on site at Keyworth has now turned into a growing community of staff with a shared interest. The club gives passionate foragers a chance to share their knowledge and time, searching for and identifying different fungi whilst learning more about their contribution to local biodiversity. The club work is also helping to build a more holistic rewilding output on site, creating spaces for nature to thrive in a healthy and sustainable way, and is an important pillar of the 51ÁÔÆæ Environmental Sustainability Strategy.

I think fungi are one of the most fascinating groups of microbes. As a microbiologist, I probably am biased towards finding fungi cool, especially because I have learnt so many amazing facts about them! They are used in so many applications, from food to biotechnology, have many types of visually impressive fruiting bodies and can survive some of the most extreme conditions on Earth.

What I love most about the mushroom club is that it brings members of staff from many different areas together over a common love for these organisms, creating a community out of a shared interest.

Jess Mackie, BGS Geomicrobiologist.

So far, the club has identified around 20 different types of mushrooms in Keyworth, including the shaggy inkcap, candlesnuff fungus, violet-toothed polypore and even a variety that probably wouldn’t look out of place in the wizarding world: the obscure-sounding wolf-milk slime!

According to the club founders, the shaggy inkcap is particularly prolific on site throughout October to November. It is an edible species, forming tall, white pillars that dissolve as they grow, creating a black ‘ink’ which spreads the spores. This ink can be used to write with. Inkcaps can be found around the canteen and orchard area.

The wolf-milk slime has been a particularly interesting find this September. It is a slime mold that appears in the form of many tiny red balls that are filled with a pink paste, which pops out when squeezed and looks almost like toothpaste!

The group is collecting photos and videos of their finds, catalogued by the month they were found, in the hope that they will be able to predict which varieties we might see all year round. The aim is to improve the group identification skills and create a calendar and map of mushrooms describing which fungi can be found where on site and the time of year each species appears.

I’ve always been a fan of mushrooms, but I really started getting into fungi identification during lockdown. I love going out into nature and spotting all these amazing fruiting bodies that form part of a much larger system which can grow for kilometres under the ground.

My favourite mushrooms are morels (so much I even have a tattoo of some) and I am fascinated by slime moulds. Starting the BGS Mushroom Club really began as an excuse to talk about the variety of cool fungi we find on site, but it been really useful to have a record of what growing and where, which could help inform future rewilding work.

Penny Reeve, BGS Digital Communications Manager.

Mushrooms should always be considered a wonderful addition to any site diversity as they play a key role in nutrient cycling by degrading organic matter and making it more available for plants and other soil dwellers. The club hopes to inform more people about the variety of mushrooms on our doorstep, which contribute to the great diversity of organisms we already have here in Keyworth.

Caution

Some mushrooms are highly poisonous and can be easily confused with edible species. Always exercise caution when foraging. If in any doubt, leave the mushroom in place.

About the author

Managing our landscapes, from individual gardens to vast areas of native woodlands and peatlands, is vital for sequestering and storing carbon while also increasing and protecting the biodiversity of our plants and animals. A has shown that a hectare of woodland sequesters as much carbon dioxide (CO₂) each year as 13 flights between London and Rome. 

At BGS, we have been creating meadows from our former lawns and, by maintaining native trees in small patches of woodland, we are contributing to carbon sequestering.  

Our Keyworth site, located on the outskirts of Nottingham, was highlighted as a prime place to manage one of our estate landscapes and return the area to a more natural state. Our grassland areas are now 80 per cent ‘no mow’ between April and October, after a recent survey of these areas showed we have many ‘old’ meadow plants, including bee orchids. Various patches of the site have been left to go completely wild and now hundreds of small native trees (hawthorn; blackthorn; holly, etc.) have popped up between the large established trees, while the undergrowth is a mass of brambles and nettles, which is great for butterflies and bees. 

Other initiatives to increase our biodiversity include:

• maintaining a pond, which is filled from rainwater diverted from a nearby roof
• installing 60 bird boxes for small birds and owls
• adding several hedgehog boxes
• planting an orchard with twelve apple and pear trees, which will bear fruit for staff and insects in the next couple of years  
• establishing three large bug hotels and several bee mounds in our newly created orchard for our smaller guests (insects, mice, voles and shrews)

In one sunny space, we recently removed and chipped several Leylandii, thus creating an place that is desirable to our local grass snakes. The space includes a large, warm compost area, swathes of heat-absorbing wood chip and rock caves built from waste rock-core material. 

To celebrate the Queen Jubilee we created a walkway of Japanese cherry trees. While not native, these cherry trees will provide nectar early in the season to feed early-emerging bees and other insects. We have planted thousands of spring bulbs including bluebells, snowdrops, wild garlic and daffodils. The Keyworth grounds have also been enhanced with wild-flower circles; the ox-eye daisies have looked particularly amazing through June. 

The BGS Keyworth site is a good example of how, by changing the management of the grounds, we are helping to sequester carbon as well as reaping multiple other benefits. We save money by reducing our gardening costs, improve the health of our plants and animals, and the beautiful grounds are admired by our staff and encourage lunchtime walks, which supports the health and well-being of both staff and visitors.

About the author

Marine scientists have long acknowledged the global importance of understanding deep-sea hadal biodiversity for habitat management. So far, however, efforts have been largely focused on shallower waters, typically in the upper 5000 m of the ocean.

In April 2019, the record-breaking Five Deeps Expedition provided a rare and exciting opportunity to apply state-of-the-art technology to observe the biodiversity and geodiversity of these deep-sea environments. A team of marine researchers, led by Alan Jamieson of Newcastle University, made the first crewed descent to the bottom of the Java Trench (also known as the Sunda Trench) – an arc-shaped, deep ocean trench some 3200 km long located in the eastern Indian Ocean, south and west of the islands of Sumatra and Java.

The world first — and only — fully certified crewed vessel capable of diving to full ocean depth, the DSV Limiting Factor acquired a video transect from the deepest point of the trench up a near-vertical escarpment in waters more than 7000 m deep. The team, which includes marine researchers from BGS and Newcastle University, recently confirmed their extraordinary discoveries in an open-access paper published in .

Applying new technology to the largely unexplored depths of the Indian Ocean produced an extraordinary set of rare and unique discoveries in just five days.

The Java Trench is largely unexplored and it was a unique opportunity to be able to freely explore such complex terrain and observe the distribution of biological species and geological formations that make up these habitats.

Heather Stewart, BGS Marine Geologist.

One of the least understood of the world five oceans, the Indian Ocean is the third largest, spanning 70.56 millionkm² and accounts for 19.8percent of the global ocean volume.

The complex sea-floor geomorphology of the Indian Ocean hosts subduction trenches, seamounts, ridges, plateaux, coral atolls and fracture zones. Despite a wealth of research into the coastal marine biodiversity of the ocean, few previous research expeditions have explored water depths exceeding 5000 m, leading to a significant knowledge gap.

At 7192 m depth (more than five times the height of Ben Nevis) the team managed to capture some of what are thought to be entirely new species from the deepest point of the trench, using the submersible and fleet of autonomous scientific landers. During the five-day expedition they observed new species of hadal snailfish as well as an extraordinary-looking animal believed to be a stalked ascidian, otherwise known as a sea squirt, that by luck drifted past the video camera. The first hadal were found as well as the deepest and were also observed.

Researchers steered the submersible from the soft-sedimented trench axis up a 150 m-high, near-vertical escarpment and across a plateau at a depth of around 7050 m. The exposed rock face of the escarpment hosted areas of debris formed by structural weaknesses in the bedrock eventually failing leaving piles of debris at the base of steep sections. Orange, yellow and white colours pick out these bedrock fractures in a spectacular display of chemosynthetic bacterial communities that live off fluids oozing from the cracks in the rock face.

Ideally we would return and do many more submersible surveys to explore a greater area of sea floor on a variety of geomorphological and geological features. We could then assess how common these chemosynthetic communities are and figure out how important a role they play in the food web at these extreme depths.

Heather Stewart.

We’re very excited by the potential for more studies. Research like this will help to steer the first steps towards more hypothesis-driven and less exploratory-driven science at full ocean depth.

Eventually, this will bridge the gap between this type of observational research and the early taxonomic work completed in the 1950s, to lift the quality of research from the deep water hadal zones closer to that of its shallower counterparts.

Alan Jamieson, Newcastle University senior lecturer.

As part of BGS commitment to supporting staff with their sustainability efforts, we recently made time for employees at BGS sites around the UK to spend a few hours on projects focusing on increasing sustainability, both in their offices and in the local area.

Keyworth

In Keyworth, a group of staff built a mega bug hotel out of waste pallets, logs, rocks, dry moss and grass. The newly named ‘Buggingham Palace’ now sits majestically in our Snake Wood, which is a habitat designed to home our growing population of grass snakes. We’re hoping to see guests flock to the hotel soon!  

Close to Snake Wood, staff planted more apple and pear trees in our orchard. Triassic mudstones lie just below the thin soil, which makes for good moisture retention and is great for the trees but makes digging holes to plant the saplings hard work! A good crop of fruit for staff and wildlife should start appearing in the next two to three years.

Recently we’ve also fixed 60 nesting boxes around the site — mostly on trees — for blue tits, great tits, house sparrows, robins and wrens. With the help of our on-site workshop supervisor, staff have been encouraged to make their own.

A group of staff organised a ‘mendathon’; staff brought in their clothes that needed some attention, which were repaired for further use rather than being thrown away. Our knitting circle tried ‘sustainable knitting’ using recycled materials including plastic bags to create items such as sleeping mats for the homeless.

Wallingford

In the Wallingford office, several staff had an introduction to biological recording. They did a nature walk to search for invertebrates around the site, identified them in the office and uploaded images to which is a citizen science app for biological data. Twelve species were recorded, including three species of bugs:

• Miris striatus (fine-streaked bugkin)
• Palomena prasina (green shield bug)
• Rhopalus subrufus

These have already been approved by the national recorder for Mirid bugs and so will be available for inclusion in future research studies. We also identified damselflys, including the azure damselfly (Coenagrion puella), and the rare click beetle (Agrypnus murinus), which has been recorded fewer than 600 times in the UK.

Cardiff

At our Cardiff office, the staff organised a nature walk, exploring parts of the Alexandra Gardens and Bute Park, a short distance from the office. In several park areas, the grass has been left unmown to allow wildflowers to bloom, which helps feed and shelter insects and other invertebrates, birds and small mammals. Speedwell, buttercups and daisies were all identified and bee records were submitted to the local nature record centre. Staff also collected rubbish along the way using biodegradable rubbish sacks and second-hand litter pickers from the local recycling centre, Y Caban.

Edinburgh

At the Lyell Centre in Edinburgh, a book exchange has been set up for staff to bring, exchange, borrow or take books. Staff also had a plant swap/sale, which was a great success, with donations from many green-fingered BGSers and other staff from across the Lyell Centre! All money raised will be donated to Ukraine. A Lyell Centre Wilding Group has also now been established on site. The group aims to do some baseline studies on the current wildflower population and will be writing a proposal for the establishment of a small allotment at the back of the Lyell Centre for the benefit of staff.

Sustainability

Supporting our staff to be more sustainable both inside and outside work forms part of our sustainability strategy. In this strategy, we endeavour to reduce BGS environmental impact whilst staying at the cutting edge of our research through a series of commitments. Our strategy follows our parent organisation (51ÁÔÆæ) vision to â€˜embed sustainability in everything we do’ (51ÁÔÆæ Strategic Prospectus, 2018). We will embed it in all we do and continue to make a positive contribution by lowering our environmental impact and addressing current environmental challenges and global sustainability issues. 

Part of our commitment to sustainability at BGS is developing our sites to support and nurture the local environment. A team of volunteers from BGS and Wild Things: Keyworth came together to help brighten up Keyworth village and provide a space for local wildlife to thrive.

51ÁÔÆæ secured NERC funding for 12 000 spring bulbs to brighten our Mary Ward nature area at our headquarters in the village, providing a haven for wild animals, insects and birds.

How do you plant thousands of bulbs?

We knew that planting some 12 000 bulbs in one morning would be a challenge even for the more enthusiastic gardeners among us, so we began a recruitment drive to call on staff and volunteers from the community to bring their spades and help. Numbers began to grow and by the weekend we had managed to entice a gathering of around 30 staff and volunteers. Luckily it was a bright, warm morning so there was no worrying about planting in really muddy areas.

Armed with gardening tools, our staff and volunteers got down to the job of planting hundreds of beautiful native snowdrops, bluebells and wood anemone. Hopefully they will come into flower soon, providing nectar for early insects as well as a lovely display for walkers using the path through the woodland.

Wildlife on site

Having installed wildlife cameras over the winter, perhaps one of the most exciting developments has been watching the array of local animals who have been visiting the woodland over the frosty season, from beautiful muntjac deer to foxes, badgers, brown rats, buzzards and owls.

As well as our feathered and furry animal visitors, we hope the improvements will be enjoyed by members of the public.

Recent improvements

The woodland has a right-of-way path maintained by the council and recently, they improved two patches of earth along the path, flattening them and installing handrails to aid walking. Other improvements include removing damaged and diseased tree branches. Some parts of the bramble will soon be cut down to allow new growth and keep parts of the woodland open.

A big thank you!

We couldn’t have done this without the support and help of our staff and , a local group set up in Keyworth to be a voice for the natural world and a shared way to do more to help. They recently helped to establish a Hedgehog Highway in the area and it is fantastic to be able to reach out to others in our local community and bring them together with BGS staff members to support the area we live and work in.

We’ll look forward to sharing some pictures of our work in bloom on Twitter in a few weeks’ time.

The Mary Ward nature area

The Mary Ward nature area is a small patch of woodland that runs behind the BGS site at Keyworth, which can be accessed from Platt Lane. It takes its name from Mary Ward College, the local college that used to be on the site and named after the famous scientist, artist and astronomer, Mary Ward (1585–1645), a nun who championed women rights to education.

About the author