Lough Feeagh is a deep, oligotrophic humic lake located within the Burrishoole catchment on the west coast of Ireland. is the catchment is an internationally important long-term ecological monitoring site, with over 70 years of diadromous fish records (Atlantic salmon, Brown trout and European eel) and extensive high-frequency monitoring of lake and river physico-chemistry, plankton and hydrology. Lough Feeagh is a key reference site within the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) and is widely used to study the impacts of climate and land-use change on freshwater ecosystems.
This project will investigate food web dynamics and environmental change within this deep humic lake in collaboration with the Marine Institute. The project will utilise long-term datasets collected by the Marine Institute to quantify trophic structure, energy flows and ecosystem functioning within the lake. The project will investigate how environmental pressures, including climate-driven warming, changing stratification, and catchment land-use change (e.g. forestry cessation and rewilding) influence food web dynamics and key species.
The research will involve defining functional groups across the lake ecosystem (phytoplankton, zooplankton, macroinvertebrates, fish and microbial components), compiling and analysing long-term biological and environmental datasets, and constructing an Ecopath food web model. Dynamic Ecosim simulations will then be used to explore ecosystem responses to scenarios such as rising water temperatures, altered carbon inputs, changes in fish populations, and shifts in plankton communities.
Funding: This project is funded under a Marine Institute Cullen scholarship grant.
