Last updated 05:42, Friday, 19 September 2008

As a youngster, Barbara Maher had one ambitious career in her sights – to become a diamond hunter. Now she hunts for “diamonds” of a different kind in her detective’s role, seeking out the culprits that are threatening the very future of one of Britain’s best known lakes. So what can be done to lessen the impact of the silt from Newlands Beck? Prof Maher points to “softer” management of the beck and the planting of trees to hold the soil and reduce the impact of the rain.

“When I was young I read a book about people prospecting for diamonds and wanted to become a diamond hunter,” said Professor Maher.

However, she got “sidetracked” by the study of magnetics and that led her to her present work, investigating the soil and sediment that flows into Bassenthwaite Lake and threatens the very life of the lake.

The Lancaster University professor was awarded the Royal Society’s Wolfson Research Merit Award 2002-2011, aimed at helping universities to retain talented researchers. She is also a past holder of the Charles Chree medal for pioneering contributions to the study of magnetic signals from the geological record as a means of determining climate change.

That may sound complicated but Prof Maher will be one of more than a dozen experts taking part in a special jargon-busting science conference in Keswick on February 23. The scientists will be given just 10 minutes to explain their role in protecting Bassenthwaite Lake from the steady decline it has faced since the Second World War.

Barbara Maher’s field of expertise lies in using magnetic properties to answer important questions about climate change and the environment. She has been closely involved in research about magnetic materials which can solve serious water contamination problems.

But although her research once took her to North East China, where she studied the impact of the monsoon on millions of lives, her latest “crime scene” has been among the hills, rivers and fields of the Lake District. She believes that if Bassenthwaite Lake dies, it will have a huge impact not just on the environment but on the local economy.

Already the vendace, a rare Ice Age fish, may be extinct in the lake. And Barbara Maher speculates what the effect on the tourist industry might be if the ospreys failed to return to their happy hunting ground.

Carbon dating of silt in the lake reveals 8,000 years of information, showing differences in climate, human activity and river changes over the millennia.

Barbara Maher says that Bassenthwaite is “a jewel in the Lake District landscape” – a diamond by another name.

Sample containers in the surrounding streams and becks catch sediment as it flows into the lake, especially after heavy rain, and it is possible to identify where silt in Bassenthwaite has come from. “Scientific projects can be used to contribute to our understanding of how sediment moves from the fells to the lake,” said Prof Maher. “Once trouble spots have been identified, they can be dealt with.”

In Bassenthwaite’s case the main culprit turns out to be the innocent looking Newlands Beck. “It was a surprise result of our investigations,” admits Prof Maher. “We found that this modest beck contributes 10 per cent of the water into the lake, but 90 per cent of the sediment.”

Work done years ago on building up the sides of Newlands Beck means water can’t drain off into the fields and there is also the effect of the steep valley sides and mountains. “We took a detailed magnetic footprint and compared it with the lake,” said Prof Maher. Periods of sedimentation can be traced back to the lead mining history of Newlands, deforestation and more intense farming.

But there is a new and more sinister force at work, according to the lake detectives — the vast amount of winter rainfall in the area, in Prof Maher’s view the product of climate change.

But climate change is becoming a hug concern for the Liverpool-born scientist, who worked at universities in Edinburgh and East Anglia before the lure of the fells drew her to her current post in Lancaster. “I have become quite anxious that we might start to see really serious thresholds,” she said. “You can’t get these temperature increases just by natural causes. The sea ice cover is disappearing dramatically and instead of gradual change you hit tipping moments.

“Many people are feeling the effects of flooding in this country and anyone who has been flooded will know how miserable an experience that is. Householders are finding that they can’t insure or sell their properties.”

Bassenthwaite used to be a pristine lake until the humans came along. Now, says Prof Maher, it is filling in quite fast with silt through the unintentional effects of land use, and climate change can only make it worse. Her research, which has been funded by Lancaster University through its 40th anniversary studentship awards, has shown that every waterway has its own magnetic footprints, making it possible to identify the major culprits. Steep slopes, spoil heaps and old mineral mines and work on the riverbank may all contribute to pushing silt straight through into the lake.

“Once over scientists were seen as nerdy and science became an unpopular subject to study,” said Barbara. “Now there is a much greater attempt being made to engage with people. There’s a theory that scientists sit in ivory towers but that’s totally false. People need to know this information to make their own judgements and it’s up to us to take communication with the public seriously.”

For Bassenthwaite Lake restoration scheme boss John Pinder, the upcoming conference is all about dispensing with “technical stuff and complicated lingo” and taking the sting out of science to give people a pioneering peep into the problems of a troubled lake.

“The time has come to explain it in easy speak,” he said. “It’s taking science by the scruff of the neck and shaking out the complexities.”

The Science and Solutions conference runs from 9am to 12.30pm on February 23 in Crosthwaite Science Centre, Crosthwaite Road, Keswick and entry is free. Details can be obtained by calling 01768 215851.

Barbara Maher hopes that her “magnetic” personality and some exciting if disturbing facts about Bassenthwaite will attract a local audience keen to learn more about one of the true diamonds in the glittering Lake District crown.