Talking Research October 2026

Join us for Talking Research April 2026!

Talking Research is student-led initiative aimed at creating a relaxed social space for PGRs from across Swansea University to socialise, share their research and gain an appreciation for different research projects through short, informal talks.

We have developed into a growing community of PGRs ranging from Masters students to final year PhD candidates, so if you are new to research, Swansea or all of the above, Talking Research provides a relaxed environment to engage with other PGRs.

The event starts at 17:00, with the first talk starting around 17:30. Each talk is around 10 / 20 minutes. Theres plenty of time before, after and between talks to chat to other PGR students. Note, if all the tickets for this event sell out feel free to still come along!

This time we have two exceptional talks :

• Kat Maher: Impacts of non-native herpetofauna in the UK: a review of evidence and a climate-based risk assessment

• Thom Lyons: Pools for pool frogs; the habitat of Britains rarest amphibian , the Northern Pool Frog (Pelophylax lessonae)
• Abstract: Water frogs (Pelophylax spp.) in Britain have a mysterious and complicated history. Long thought to be an introduced genus, studies at the turn of the century revealed pool frogs (P. lessonae) to be a lost native. The last known indigenous population was last recorded in the 1970s and 80s at Thompson Common, Norfolk, but little is known about them prior to their extinction. From 2015 a species recovery project from ARC and Natural England aims to recover the population at this site using closely related Swedish pool frogs. Ten years on, there are observable patterns in pond occupancy at the reintroduction site, raising questions as to how best to optimise future habitat. Furthermore, severe drought at the sites in 2025 and 2026, leading to a declining hydroperiod of the breeding ponds, poses a serious threat to the population. From a sample of 140 ponds, medium to large sized sunny ponds with higher water temperatures and abundant emergant and floating vegetation are more likely to be occupied by pool frogs. A declining hydroperiod poses a serious threat to the reintroduced population with a significant contraction of suitable habitat across the site in 2025 and 2026 compared to previous years.