1/Hi all! This afternoon we look (selectively) at what pollen records, tell us about long term changes, from the end of the last Glaciation. How has climate, humans+related processes shaped the 🇮🇪 vegetation over thousands of years? (Nick Miller, From Cogan's Shed, 2004) Image
2/Difficult to summarise 1000s yrs in tweets! Image by Gill Plunkett @QUBelfast does good jobNB. highly generalised, much spatial variation across country; Key points: development of woodland as climate warms start of #Holocene hazel dominant, oak, elm, later alder, how dense? A pollen graph showing curv...
3/Closed canopy? But NB1 Concept of 'Climax' woodland largely discredited; : 'openess' is under-represented in #pollen records! NB2; #ClimateChange driving some changes; other processes inc. soil development. When does human activity impact? Now that's a good qu! A photograph of a woodland ...
4/Clearest evidence of woodland clearance c. 3800 BC, rises in herbs/grasses, falls in trees/shrubs. Much debated 'Elm Decline' around this time. Opening up of woodland by #Neolithic peoples; NB. Not 'slash+burn' in strictest definition! Image showing the herb ribw...
5/Stone axes effective tools to chop down trees! Other techs. prob 'ring barking', fire poss. used to clear drier scrub, burn dead vegetation to new growth. Most clearance restricted, small arable plots+pastoral, prob also driving changes in floral #Biodiversity
6/What did these #Neolithic landscapes look like? Hard to envisage, for some nice reconstructions of #archaeological sites in context, see philarm.com/category.aspx?…
7/It wasn't just humans driving changes in vegetation, soils etc., #Climate shifted through time across Ireland/nw Europe, although underlying processes are still debated. Link between vegetation/climate long suspected +formed basis for 'zonation' of #Holocene based on pollen Table showing Blytt Sernand...
8/The Irish landscape is product of millennia of complex, interacting processes, across different chronological/spatial scales. Where is the baseline for 'natural' vegetation? Do we mean 'pre-human' impact? When is that?
9/Mesolithic? As @AerialAndBugs points out, prob small scale impacts on vegetation then. Climate envelope also different. Post 'Sub-Boreal/Sub-Atlantic' (see 7)? Wetter/colder, but vegetation succession/soils already shaped by millennia of human activity!!
10/ ENOUGH ALREADY! We will return to such musings/implications for how we think of, and look to restore/conserve the Irish landscape later. For now I leave you with: The Mickey Mouse of pollen grains, Pinus sylvestris 😉😂 A pine pollen grain, which ...

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More from @IrelandsEnviro

Feb 10
1/Friday we made it! We saw briefly/incompletely how #pollen #beetles preserved in #peat can shed light on long term #ecological change. There are other 'proxies' + the #peatland #archaeological record, esp rich in 🇮🇪, a remarkable 'archive' of past people/environments/climate A black and white drawing o...
2/#Peat is remarkable for so many reasons, long regarded as of little 'use', now known to be an #ecosystem 'superstar' (TBD further tomorrow!) key for preservation of #Palaeoenvironmental + #Archaeological record. Photo: woody fen peat in auger @Calum_Sweeney_ @EcomuseumsLive A long metal soil sampler c...
3/In this sense, we can think of #Peatlands as representing an intersection between how we understand long term #ecological change, #ClimateChange, human activity/impact + data key for #Conservation #Rehabilitation #Restoration of #Ecosystems Image 1: From Book Image 2! ImageImage
Read 4 tweets
Feb 9
1/ An evening thread! Yesterday #Pollen next its beetles #Palaeoentomology - preserved in #peat fragments of bugs (wing cases, head capsules etc) are difficult to ID but provide key evidence of #Palaeoenvironments - #Prehistoric #woodland, #Biodiversity changes+extinctions! Two people, stood in a pit ...
2/Dr Eileen Reilly (photo 1, r) passed away too young. Her #Palaeoentomological work was groundbreaking. Demonstrated presence of beetles in #prehistory now extinct/rare in 🇮🇪 many associated with wood/trees (Saproxylic), 'Urwald relict' group (see table!) A table showing extinct/rar...
3/E.g: photos 1+2 #Archaeological excavations, Lisheen Bog, Co.Tipp. Samples from Bronze Age oak wood plank trackway, contained remains of Prostomis mandibularis+other bugs. Primary #woodland present in this period despite clearance/farming. A table showing rare/extinc...Image
Read 10 tweets
Nov 28, 2022
1/7 –Hi I’m Jo - I’m an ecologist specialising in plants and bryophytes My aim is to introduce you to the world of bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts). See thread for today’s introduction to this group.
2/7 Here is an example of a hornwort (Phaeoceros species) and a typical habitat where it is found (a soil bank). Hornworts have unusual reproductive structures ‘green horns’, but the main plant is flat and green. ImageImage
3/7 The next group is liverworts. Thalloid liverworts don’t have stems and leaves. Here is Great Scented Liverwort Conocephalum conicum. It has a pattern of lines and dots on its surface and is scented. ImageImage
Read 7 tweets
Nov 27, 2022
Good morning folks 🌊

It's Sunday morning so I am going to keep it light and easy - with a 🧵of interesting videos that you can watch at your leisure😎📺🌊
1/
#RealVoices
Is a series of short films about fishers here in 🇮🇪 and their connection to the sea.
John Brittain, a Galway sea angler tells us how he believes MPAs could lead to better living for coastal communities & a chance to protect biodiversity.
2/
#BlueCarbon
Is the organic carbon captured & stored by the world's oceanic & coastal ecosystems (think seagrasses, macroalgae, mangroves, salt marshes etc.) making the 🌊our biggest ally for mitigating #ClimateChange 💪🌍🌎🌏
3/
Read 9 tweets
Nov 23, 2022
Straight into it this morning - 🧵on where we are with Ireland's new #MarineProtectedArea legislation and when we can expect it to become law 👇🌊🐟🦈🇮🇪
1/ Picture of rugged landscape...
2020
🐟Ireland's Programme for Government commits to ‘30% of marine protected areas by 2030…done on the basis of scientific expertise and in close consultation with all stakeholders’;

🐟MPA Advisory Group publish report ‘Expanding Ireland’s Network of MPAs’;
2/
2021
🐟Government consult on the MPA report and 2,311 public feedback responses are received;

🐟A summary of consultation responses is published indicating overwhelming support of MPAs and 30x30 targets (i.e., 30% of Irish waters as a MPA before 2030 #30x30);
3/
Read 16 tweets
Nov 17, 2022
1/ Good evening everyone and welcome to the 4th day all about plankton research. Now that we have the basics covered on what plankton is, why we study it and the history of plankton research, I’m going to go a bit more personal and introduce you to my own research 👩‍🔬🎣
2/ As I said on Day 1, I am a PhD student @uccBEES and @MaREI studying plankton. Specifically, I am looking at the abundance and diversity of zooplankton in a marine reserve over the course of a 2 and a half year time period.
3/ My study site is Lough Hyne, a marine reserve located just outside Skibbereen in West Cork. It is actually Ireland’s first marine reserve designated in 1981. The Lough is 0.6 km long by 0.4 km wide and is completely marine.
Read 24 tweets

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