Help Fund our UofG Thailand Research Expedition

Introduction

We are the 2022 Thailand Expedition team, a mix of 8 life science students from the University of Glasgow who will be travelling to Thailand in June for 6 weeks to carry out environmental research. This year we're headed to the island of Koh Phangan to study coral health and amphibian diversity. 

Walk the Width 
Over the four weeks of April, and through a variety of methods including cycling, running, walking and swimming, our team will be travelling the distance equal to the widest east-west point across Thailand, resulting in a cumulative total of 780km!

To sponsor us as we complete this challenge, donate here on our GoFundMe. All money raised will go directly towards funding our research. 

 As full time students who are not only within the 2-months-to-go planning stages of our expedition but also preparing for our end of year exams next month, this will be quite a challenge. However, we are excited to be raising money for our research with the added bonuses of getting to know each other better as a team and ensuring we maintain active lifestyles building up to what will be a physically demanding 6 week expedition. 

We will have weekly updates, including photos and personal stories from our team members as they complete their distances so keep your eyes on our social media pages and our blog. 

About

The Exploration Society supports teams of University of Glasgow students as they explore the world on zoological, geographical and marine expeditions. The earliest record that we have of an expedition is in 1920 and over the past 100 years, hundreds of students have been given the opportunity to undertake research in the field. Expedition teams carry out field research for 4th-year honours and masters projects, in a pursuit of publishing papers.

You can check out our society website here: http://glasgowexsoc.org.uk/

 

Our visions

We need your help, no matter how small, it could make all the difference for our team. We are truly and honestly grateful for any contribution you may make and would like to extend our greatest appreciation!

 

Your help will allow us to grasp this opportunity to conduct real life scientific research that could not only help the environment, looking into the impact of tourism as well as filling in gaps in amphibian knowledge but give us life changing experiences within research, which for some of us would be our dream job. We are so excited for this chance to better the understanding we have of our planet and the way we affect it, perhaps even help aid further research into how we can treat it better. We are determined to make a difference!

For these reasons, it is essential that research is undertaken into the effects tourism has on the environment and local ecosystems surrounding Koh Phangan, so that dive site traffic management is encouraged. As well as our hopes to fill in potential gaps of Koh Phangan's national park biodiversity list of amphibians and reptile species, creating a baseline for future researchers and further aid conservation efforts.

Check out our website for more info: https://expeditionthailand.wixsite.com/uofgthailand

 

Projects/proposals

Please contact us on GoFundMe or our website contact form for our completed and fully detailed prospectus or any questions!

 

In 2019 the first expedition to Phuket was successfully carried out, focusing on marine research in the surrounding Andaman Sea. In 2021, unfortunately due to COVID-19, the team was not able to travel to Thailand. Instead of giving up, this strong willed team created a whole new project and produced research into the environmental impacts of Scottish seaweed farms on the abundance and diversity of the organisms living below them

 

This year's Thailand expedition aims to conduct two research projects based around coral health and amphibian diversity. We will also be carrying out several outreach projects and presentations within the local community working with businesses, places of education and NGOs based in Koh Phangan and Scotland.

 

The projects will continue some of the work of the 2019 expedition, aiming to establish new data in conjunction with CORESea and hopefully the DMCR, and the NHRCP. Tourism and especially diver impact is a central theme for the two marine projects, whereas the terrestrial project plans to fill gaps in amphibian knowledge and set up a baseline of data which can be expanded by future expeditions. Each project will be carefully planned in Glasgow with support from professional university supervisors to ensure the execution of high-quality research. The projects will then be undertaken in the field on Koh Phangan by the project leader and another member of the team. We hope to collect data and produce projects of publishable quality, which will maintain the scientific reputation of the University of Glasgow. Updates of project work, as well as details of the projects themselves, will be shared on our website blog and other various social media outlets (keep an eye out!).

 

Thank you!!

Even if you cannot donate right now, you can still support our research by sharing this page or any of our social media platforms to friends and families our reaching out to us directly to organise a collaboration between our team and your company/organisation!