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This report describes the BGS Geoscience for Sustainable Futures (GSF) National Capability (NC)/Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme. It used ODA funding to advance collaborative geoscience research and innovation to address challenges in lower- and middle-income countries. We describe the programme’s progress towards achieving lasting change (‘impact’) in the contexts where activities were carried out. These activities were organised into projects under three research platforms (RPs) focusing on different development issues and working in different regions: • RP1: integrated resource management in eastern Africa (addressing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2, 3, 6 and 12) • RP2: resilience of Asian cities (SDGs 6, 11 and 13) • RP3: global geological risk (SDGs 1, 9 and 11) For each platform, a ‘Theory of Change’ (ToC) approach was used to plan and navigate the pathway to impact. This approach requires first analysing the institutional and environmental context of the location being considered, so that an impact objective may be defined. From this, the behaviour and capacity changes (‘outcomes’) that are expected to lead to that impact are identified. Those outcomes will rely on outputs such as reports, policy briefing notes, databases and web portals, which are produced by various activities, such as workshops, research and conference attendance. An idealised ToC is shown in Figure 1. The theories of change developed during the programme in this report are significantly more complex. As of 27 May 2022, the programme’s outputs include: • 96 peer-review journal articles • 42 reports • 8 book chapters • 15 maps • 14 technical products, databases and datasets • 4 webtools Around 200 engagement activities have also been undertaken. To assess how much progress the RPs have made towards producing outcomes and impact, ‘impact narratives’ were prepared for each project and analysed to determine the types of outcome that had emerged or were emerging a

Regional humidity is important for terrestrial ecosystem development, while it differs from region to region in inland Asia, knowledge of past moisture changes in the lower basin of northern Xinjiang remainly largely unclear. Based on a pollen record from Jili Lake, the Artemisia/(Amaranthaceae + Ephedra) (Ar/(Am + E)) ratio, as an index of regional humidity, has recorded four relatively dry phases: 1) 400 BCE to 1 CE, 2) the Roman Warm Period (RWP; c. 1–400 CE), 3) the Medieval Warm Period (MWP; c. 850–1200 CE) and 4) the Current Warm Period (CWP; since 1850 CE). In contrast, the Dark Age Cold Period (DACP; c. 400–850 CE) and the Little Ice Age (LIA; c. 1200–1850 CE) were relatively wet. Lower lake levels in a relatively humid climate background indicated by higher aquatic pollen (Typha and Sparganium) after c. 1700 CE are likely the result of intensified irrigation for agriculture in the catchment as documented in historical records. The pollen Ar/(Am + E) ratio also recorded a millennial-scale wetting trend from 1 CE to 1550 CE which is concomitant with a long-term cooling recorded in the Northern Hemisphere.

Rapid development and climate change in southeast Asia is placing unprecedented pressures on freshwater ecosystems, but long term records of the ecological consequences are rare. Here we examine one basin of Tasik Chini (Malaysia), a UNESCO‐designated flood pulse wetland, where human disturbances (dam installation, iron ore mining, oil palm and rubber cultivation) have escalated since the 1980s. Diatom analysis and organic matter geochemistry (δ13Corg and C/N ratios) were applied to a sediment sequence to infer ecological changes in the basin since c. 1900 CE. As the Tasik Chini wetland is a rare ecosystem with an unknown diatom ecology, contemporary diatom habitats (plant surfaces, mud surfaces, rocks, plankton) were sampled from across the lake to help interpret the sedimentary record. Habitat specificity of diatoms was not strongly defined and, although planktonic and benthic groupings were distinctive, there was no difference in assemblages among the benthic habitat surfaces. An increase in the proportion of benthic diatom taxa suggests that a substantial decrease in water level occurred between c. 1938 and 1995 CE, initiated by a decline in rainfall (supported by regional meteorological data), which increased the hydrological isolation of the sub‐basin. Changes in the diatom assemblages were most marked after 1995 CE when the Chini dam was installed. After this time both δ13Corg and C/N decreased, suggesting an increase in autochthonous production relative to allochthonous river flood pulse inputs. Oil palm plantations and mining continued to expand after c. 1995 CE and we speculate that inputs of pollutants from these activities may have contributed to the marked ecological change. Together, our work shows that this sub‐basin of Tasik Chini has been particularly sensitive to, and impacted by, a combination of human and climatically induced changes due to its hydrologically isolated position.

Numerous studies have shown the effects of how stress impacts memory, especially in clinical setting. However, less is known about how minor changes in stress can influence learning and memory. The current study looked at how self-report measures of stress can influence learning behavior. The current study used 55 participants from the General Psychology class at Carroll College. There was no significant difference between the total number of correct responses on factual questions between low stress and moderate to high stress. There was also no significant difference between the total number of correct responses on conceptual questions between low stress and moderate to high stress. The following study failed to show that mild stress effects conceptual or factual memory retention.

Lake sediments constitute natural archives of past environmental changes. Historically, research has focused mainly on generating regional climate records, but records of human impacts caused by land use and exploitation of freshwater resources are now attracting scientific and management interests. Long-term environmental records are useful to establish ecosystem reference conditions, enabling comparisons with current environments and potentially allowing future trajectories to be more tightly constrained. Here we review the timing and onset of human disturbance in and around inland water ecosystems as revealed through sedimentary archives from around the world. Palaeolimnology provides access to a wealth of information reflecting early human activities and their corresponding aquatic ecological shifts. First human impacts on aquatic systems and their watersheds are highly variable in time and space. Landscape disturbance often constitutes the first anthropogenic signal in palaeolimnological records. While the effects of humans at the landscape level are relatively easily demonstrated, the earliest signals of human-induced changes in the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems need very careful investigation using multiple proxies. Additional studies will improve our understanding of linkages between human settlements, their exploitation of land and water resources, and the downstream effects on continental waters