This is the sort of science that anyone can do. By taking part the public are doing real science – and the publication of this scientific paper is a demonstration of how seriously citizen science is now taken by the community of professional scientists.

We have been challenged by other professional scientists as to whether ‘ordinary people’ can make accurate observations, suitable for real science. Of course they can – and we tested this in our study.

Our study shows that the different representations of terrestrial water cycle processes in global hydrological models are responsible for a much larger uncertainty in the response of hydrological drought to climate change than previously thought. We don’t know how much changed climate patterns will affect the frequency of low flows in rivers

Our results clearly indicate that preservation of old-growth forests is vital for the conservation of specialist species. While the re-growth of forests following clearance is valuable in soaking up carbon, the biodiversity benefits will take a very long time to emerge.

Continued monitoring of the fish community of Bassenthwaite Lake will help us to understand what has happened and to inform appropriate conservation actions.

“We can now show that cormorant numbers relate to the availability of natural resources over huge surface areas of Europe, and they are strongly influenced by natural and man-made events many hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away.”