Music Planet - exploring research through music

Music Planet explores the broadest concepts of Environment and Music. The series will draw on academic research across all disciplines from arts to social science and science to present new concepts that have an impact on all society. The series will present the research messages with reflections made through the performing arts from classical through to new contemporary music. From the comfort of the well-known to explorations in improvisation with both traditional and new composition Music Planet will challenge you to think deeper about life and your planet.

Throughout the centuries, artists have used their chosen media to reflect on nature and human reaction to it. From personal experiences to depictions of catastrophic events works have been created to try and bring sense to natural environments and our place within them. Music Planet takes its theme from these reflections. It will present a series of performance events to reflect on environment in its broadest sense. Some events will focus on Environment in terms of natural elements such as climate and societies response to changes in climate others will explore societal attempts to control environments.


Each event is co-presented by artists together with groups of academics from the arts, social sciences and sciences in order to allow relevant aspects of academic research to be explored. The events are designed to be co-participatory with public audience becoming engaged with the delivery of the event. Before, during and after each event there will be on-line information for exploring further the academic research story behind the events.

Music Planet grew out of an idea that Dr Richard Bates had to perform some of the late Sir Peter Maxwell Davis’ works and link into climate research being conducted by the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Sir Peter was an active campaigner on climate issues and cared passionately about the environment of his adopted homeland, Orkney. His music often explores sounds from natural environments and provides an inspiration to us all. From early discussions with the Music Centre at St Andrews and, in particular with the enthusiasm of Michael Downes, Jill Craig and Bede Williams, Music Planet was born.

The ever growing list of individuals involved in Music Planet include staff at the Music Centre, several Schools at the University of St Andrews, as well as some external organisations.

For a full listing of events, click here.

Feeding the world

Half of all seafood consumed now comes from aquaculture. Aquaculture production has grown by 6.2% a year since 2000 and by 2012 it had reached 66.6 million tonnes worth U$144 billion. Less than 10% of production currently uses genetically selected strains which have the potential to dramatically improve yield, sustainability, and the welfare of farmed livestock. In the face of increasing environmental constraints, the use of genetic selection will need to become the norm in order to meet increasing demand for seafood as the human population grows to an estimated 9 billion by 2050.

Prof. Ian Johnston

Research carried out on fish physiology and genomics over several decades by Professor Ian Johnston and his group in the School of Biology led to an understanding of the genetic control of growth and fillet yield in Atlantic salmon, Scotland´s most important food export. The Biotechnological & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) provided £883K funding in support of this research via Follow-on funding, two LINK grants and an Industrial Partnering Award. Marker assisted selection (MAS) is regarded by many as the future of aquaculture breeding. In MAS natural variations in gene sequence are identified which produce large gains in characteristics of commercial interest such as growth, yield and disease resistance. This enables improvements in a single generation compared with the decades required with conventional breeding programs. The Johnston group discovered natural variants of two genes which when selected together produced fish with 4% more fillet worth £600 per tonne. Last year global production of Atlantic salmon was £1.43 million tonnes.


The discovered genetic markers were patented and in Dec 2012 Professor Johnston and Dr Tom Ashton formed a university spin-out company, Xelect Ltd, to commercialise the research. The company licensed its patented genetic marker for enhanced fillet yield in Atlantic salmon to SalmoBreed A/S which is part of Benchmark Holdings, one of the world´s leading breeding and genetics companies. Xelect has since developed similar genetic selection markers for increased fillet yield in Nile tilapia which have been licensed license to Genomar A/S, the world’s leading Tilapia breeding operation with operations throughout SE Asia. Nile Tilapia is a tropical species with an annual production of 3 million tonnes – 15% of which is for the fillet market. Using Xelect´s genetic markers, broodstock can be identified that will produce offspring with 4% more meat worth U$124 tonne. The company has an active program of research to develop markers for other traits and species and has received funding from the EU H2020 programme, Innovate UK and Scottish Enterprise. Xelect is also sponsoring academic research, including a BBSRC Industrial CASE PhD studentship at Aberdeen University and a project to support a biosecure hatchery in the Shetlands for blue mussels co-funded by the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre.

Xelect also leverages its expertise in molecular biology and seafood to provide genetic and flesh quality analysis services to an expanding range of business in the aquaculture supply chain. Exports now make up 60% of the company´s turnover. Xelect is becoming a strong, well-recognised brand within the industry based on a reputation for scientific excellence and exceptional customer commitment. The BBSRC recently published an Impact Case study on Xelect providing an example of the successful translation of basic academic research into a commercial enterprise with widespread societal benefits.
Visit the BBSRC webpages to read more. 

Marine Mammal Conservation: from policy change to bycatch reduction

The research undertaken from 1996 to 2013 by researchers of the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) of the School of Biology focused on the accurate measurement of marine mammal populations and distributions in UK and EU waters. As a result of evidence that the research provided to government:

• effective conservation of marine mammals has been put in place in UK, EU and international waters
• UK and EU policy objectives have been defined for marine mammal conservation 
• UK obligations to EU legislation are being delivered
• marine mammal bycatch has been reduced by over 90% in key fisheries 

Marine mammals spend most of their lives under water and are typically highly mobile and difficult to study. This has necessitated the development within SMRU of new data collection technologies and statistical analysis methodologies to ensure that estimates of population abundance and mortality rates are robust. New techniques include:

• “sparse data sampling” from boats or aircraft, to give robust estimates of marine mammal population density and distribution 
• new telemetry technology which allow individual animals to be tagged and their behaviour and movements to be logged and recovered via satellite or mobile phone 

In 2011, SMRU was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for excellence in applied research promoting best practice in the health and governance of the ocean environment.

Harbour seal decline 
SMRU scientists have accurately quantified the decline in populations of harbour seals in UK waters in the period 2000-07 [research article: DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2007.00311.x], demonstrating that populations were dropping significantly in diverse locations from Shetland to the Wash, but were stable or increasing in the Hebrides. SMRU’s research has been instrumental in the development of policy on marine mammal conservation at an EU level, such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) (2010) which, together with the EU Habitats Directive (1992), places legal obligations on Member States to assess and report on the conservation status of their marine mammal populations. The large majority of the information on cetacean distribution and abundance used by the UK to report under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive was generated by SMRU-led surveys. Other EU countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean have also made extensive use of this information.

Rogue seals in the Moray Firth 
In the Moray Firth seals had been shot due to the perception that they that they impacted on salmon stocks, and thus the local economy. Research in the period 2005-08, using photo sampling of seals combined with analysis of their diets, suggested that only a small number of rogue seals specialising in river feeding were responsible. Research showed that targeting individual seals in rivers is a more effective management option [research article: DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-1795.2011.00469.x]. This resulted in the Moray Firth Seal Management Plan (MFSMP), which saw a dramatic reduction (~60%) in seal shooting in the area. This led to the development, successful drafting and progression to legislation of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, which introduced a new system for licensing the removal and disturbance of seals and for placing protective measures on seals when that is deemed necessary.

Quantifying and assessing the importance of marine mammal bycatch 

In 2006, a global analysis by SMRU scientists and collaborators highlighted the bycatch of marine mammals in fisheries as the main threat to their conservation status [research article: DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00338.x]. Under the EU Habitats Directive, MSFD, Council regulation 812/2004, the UK is required to reduce marine mammal bycatch to levels that are sustainable. To address these obligations, SMRU has implemented an observer scheme on UK fishing boats to quantify bycatch. SMRU has identified and helped to implement specific acoustic deterrent devices (Pingers) that have been effective in reducing cetacean bycatch by over 90% from over 400 animals in 2004/5 to just a handful in 2010-12 in the pair-trawl bass fishery in the English Channel. SMRU research has also shown that acoustic deterrent devices, known as a ‘pingers’, deployed in the Cornish Offshore Gillnet fishery in the period 2009-12 can reduce porpoise bycatch by over 90%. Since July 2013, the UK Marine Management Organisation is enforcing the use of ‘pingers’ in certain areas.

The Head of Science at the International Whaling Commission has said, “the work of SMRU on matters related to cetacean conservation and management has been of immeasurable value to our work and to cetacean conservation. The theoretical and practical developments that have arisen from SMRU scientists represent a remarkable degree of innovation from a single group. The impact on the conservation and management has been profound.”

Animal-borne telemetry tags for conservation and weather forecasting

CTD tag on a southern Elephant Seal

The Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) Instrumentation Group, of the School of Biology, has designed, built and supplied about 400 telemetry tags per year since 2008, resulting in economic benefit to companies in the UK and abroad of over £7M, informing decisions on the conservation of species and contributing to weather forecasting and ocean prediction. Tags have enabled national agencies in 15 countries to build their knowledge of endangered or threatened species and allow judgements to be made about the regulation of offshore industrial developments. This includes species such as the Monk Seal and Steller Sea Lion.

Elephant Seals have provided temperature
profiles from the southern ocean.

Seal-borne unobtrusive instruments can provide information on conductivity and temperature during the animals’ dives, particularly useful in Polar Regions, which is relayed to World Meteorological Organisations to improve weather and ocean forecasting. Hundreds of thousands of conductivity/temperature/depth (CTD) profiles from seals tagged with SMRU instruments have been incorporated into the World Ocean Database, providing over 50% of all such profiles available for the Southern Ocean south of 60°S. Tags on elephant seals in the southern oceans have improved Global Ocean circulation models significantly, leading to better forecasting of the weather.

This movie explains how the animal-borne instruments used during the SEaOS, SAVEX and MEOP projects are working. These 'tags' are glued to the seals fur (so that they drop off during the next moult) and record behavioural and oceanographic data during the animals' migration.