Dr Aidan Long

Postdoctoral researcher

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher working on the ‘Unlocking the archive’ project. I am currently analysing time series data for salmon growth derived from the extensive scale collection in the Newport Research Facility, which the has been organised, standardised and digitised as part of the project. During my PhD at NUI Galway, I compiled and analysed time series for the abundance and diversity of gelatinous zooplankton in North East Atlantic shelf waters. I am interested in monitoring long term changes in marine populations using multivariate statistical methods to model the complex temporal relationships that populations have with multiple environmental variables. The strong negative relationship that Atlantic Salmon have with temperature makes them particularly vulnerable to further ocean warming, so monitoring changes in the growth response of this species may improve our understanding of Atlantic salmon recruitment and survival and ultimately inform future management decisions.

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This collaboration with the Marine Institute is unlocking the value of fish scale and otolith collections to marine ecosystem and climate change research.