Hello everyone. I'm José Fariñas @DrJoseMFarinas, honoured to take over from @c_guilfoyle1 as the new curator of the account. Colin & @IrishRainforest showed us their inspiring work with upland habitats in Ireland. If you allow me I'll shift the focus to the marine realm. Image
Just a bit about me first. I'm a Lecturer in applied freshwater and marine biology at the Atlantic Technological University in Galway City @ATU_GalwayCity and my many interests as a researcher @MfrcATU focus on the functioning, biodiversity and resilience of biogenic habitats... ImageImage
which are those marine habitats structured by living organisms, which could be many, from tube building 'worms' (Sabellaria, Serpula -left pic by @SeaSearchIre-) to bivalves (mussels, oysters, flame shells), seagrass and seaweed (kelp, Ascophyllum and other brown algae). Image of a Serpula vermicul...Image
While in the past the main focus of my research was shellfish biogenic reefs (e.g. oysters, more on that later) my work in projects such as @GENIALG_EU gave me the seaweed bug and I became obsessed with the ecological role of seaweed. Not only wild seaweed but also cultivated. ImageImage
For #GENIALG I was initially based at @nuigalway @RyanInstitute working with Dr. Ronan Sulpice and Prof. Mark Johnson @MarkJ97 and great many research students doing their work with me, among them Inés Coca now at @BlueWise_Marine who did her MSc on kelp farms. ImageImage
Many others helped (Sam Afoullouss @Afroloose) & a cohort of @EUErasmusPlus @IMBRSea students I had the fortune to work with me. I'll name them all on the dedicated thread to ecosystem services/impacts from seaweed farming. Check out the GENIALG results
genialgproject.eu/results/ ImageImage
There is more to learn on the ecological role of seaweed #aquaculture, that's where @Anthony_Adu_G @GMIT_Research PhD come in. Based at the @MfrcATU working on benthic and canopy diversity and food webs with me & @TheConorGraham. Anthony and I will present at #ICESASC22 Dublin. ImageImage
Moving onto the large seaweed expanses of Asco (Feamainn Bhui) we are lucky to have in Irish shores. They are crucial to the functioning of intertidal ecosystems, supporting food webs in our shorelines. We are collecting baseline biodiversity data to characterise these habitats. ImageImage
We have seagrass beds in Ireland and I will talk about them but do follow @ProjectSeagrass and others. Like seaweed, they are ecologically important, provide habitat for a plethora of species, eg fish that use them as nurseries. They are also carbon sinks! 📸Salthill and Ventry. ImageImage
Finally, shellfish. I've a deep interest for bivalves as keystones, they can create 3D complex habitats host to 1000s of species. But shellfish make an easy meal. Exploited since the Mesolithic the habitats they created are globally endangered, a poor reflection of what we lost. ImageImage
Shellfish, are gregarious, create raised habitats for other organisms to settle. As filter feeders they maintain water quality, act in bottom up control of trophic webs, making nutrients available to infauna, also locking carbon in biodeposited sediments.
I will focus on two shellfish habitats we have in the island of Ireland, mainly because they are those I have worked on more extensively and study in detail in the past: the horse mussel Modiolus modiolus and the native oyster Ostrea edulis. ImageImage
Drawing from my PhD studying the (sadly) famous Strangford Lough Modiolus & research collaborations with colleagues @QUBelfast @HeriotWattUni on Modiolus+native oysters I will summarise their main ecological role, distribution + decline. Right📸 Richard Shucksmith @ImagesEcology ImageImage
Restoring these habitats to ambitious baselines by reintroducing or supplementing the ecosystem engineers that create them can help in the battle to reverse current biodiversity/climate crisis. I'll hope to cover some approaches with links to Ireland towards the end of the week. ImageImage
I could talk loads more but I think I will better leave it here, enough for an 'introductory' thread! I have definitely forgotten many people and organisations, and links to papers which I will mention in the corresponding threads over the next weeks, eg those @NativeOysterNet
An end note: photos (many not great) will all be mine but I'll credit authors if not (eg the very talented Richard Shucksmith @ImagesEcology). Threads will be based on my work + peer reviewed research. Any opinions will be mine. I hope you will find my tenure here interesting! Image
That last tweet was meant to be a short video! Small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) (aka lesser-spotted dogfish) sheltering in a kelp bed (Laminaria hyperborea) off Cuan Pier, Ventry Harbour. The rope you see guides the diver along the 100m survey transect.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Ireland's Environmentalists

Ireland's Environmentalists Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @IrelandsEnviro

Aug 21
Hi again all - today is my last day as host of the account - I just wanted to say thanks to all for reading and engaging throughout the week ! Image
I will be continuing on my normal account (@c_guilfoyle1) and will try to keep giving updates on my research and ongoings in Wild Nephin - research topics over the coming years will include birds, ecosystem services and more ✅
If anyone has any more queries or questions please feel free to get in touch !
Read 9 tweets
Aug 20
Good morning all ! For my second last day on the account, I thought I would talk a bit about the first bit of research I was ever involved in, during the final year of my undergrad degree - The 2019 All Ireland Squirrel and Pine Marten survey Image
I was lucky enough to be offered an 8-week internship role on the survey along with a classmate of mine at the time, Victoria Molloy, under the supervision of Colin Lawton of NUIG. Image
Many of you will have already heard the of the story between squirrels and pine martens – it has been one of the few positive ones in Irish nature in recent times – but I will give a quick run through of it for those who haven’t
Read 17 tweets
Aug 17
So today I wanted to introduce some of the first pieces of work I’ve been undertaking as part of my PhD, which has been focused on mapping and assessing habitats in the Nephin Forest – with the goal of setting a baseline prior to any restoration taking place.
This baseline will describe the conditions and assess the state of the degraded site – it can then be used to measure changes over time to the site. See this paragraph from @SERestoration Principles for Eco Restoration
Firstly, we decided that identifying the extent of habitats and their condition within the site would be important info for any baseline.
Initially, this involved desk-based work using satellite imagery to manually delineate each habitat type.
Read 12 tweets
Aug 16
Good morning all - Today I would like to talk a bit more about the habitat which would have been dominant prior to the planting of the Nephin Forest – peatland (specifically, blanket bogs). 📸 - @WildNephin 🧵
I’ll also delve into why so many of our blanket bogs are now under forest and the problems associated with the afforestation of these habitats.
Small areas of blanket bog likely began to form in Ireland in the early Holocene (post ice-age) but only began to expand around 4,000 years ago – this was likely due to a combo of the climate becoming wetter and, in some areas at least, by the clearance of forests.
Read 24 tweets
Aug 15
So, a bit of background to start. Wild Nephin National Park is located in northwest Co. Mayo and covers approximately 170km2 of what is mostly vast blanket bog and mountainous terrain.
The Nephin Forest (light blue outline in pic) is a large area - about 5000 ha - of mainly non-native coniferous forest which now dominates the landscape in the eastern portion of Wild Nephin, making up around 30% of the total park area.
The forest is nestled in between the Owenduff/Nephin SAC/SPA (Shaded green) and Bellacorick Bog Complex SAC (Shaded red)
Read 12 tweets
Aug 15
Hello and good morning all - I'm Colin Guilfoyle (@c_guilfoyle1) - delighted to have been given the chance to be the 2nd person to host this account.

Well done to @IrishRainforest for such a great start last week - it'll be tough to follow up but I'll do my best!
So, to begin, I am a @MarineInst Cullen Scholarship PhD student with @ATU_GalwayCity @MfrcATU in the first year of my research, under the supervision of @HeatherLally, @TheConorGraham and @edeeyto
My research is focussed on biodiversity conservation and habitat restoration in @WildNephin National Park in Co. Mayo - in particular, an area of the park known as the Nephin Forest.
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(