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.
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...
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).
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.
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.
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/
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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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 !
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 !
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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)
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.