digi4eco – A digital twin of the ocean
DIGI4ECO, Digital Twin-sustained 4D Ecological Monitoring of Restoration in Fishery Depleted Areas, is a pioneering initiative aimed at unlocking new discoveries crucial for addressing climate change and regulating human activities. The mission is to harness the power of digital technology to advance environmental conservation and socio-economic development, by means of networks of robotic platforms, tailored for […]
Investigating Food Web Dynamics & Environmental Change in a Deep Humic Lake
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 […]
Transforming Rivers by Reducing Aquatic Plastic Pollution (TRAP)
TRAP addresses the critical transnational challenge of aquatic plastic pollution through innovative, eco-friendly solutions to reduce plastic litter reaching the Atlantic Ocean. The main goal is to produce guidelines to design hotspots to trap and retain plastics in rivers and estuaries. It offers an innovative approach to tackle aquatic plastic pollution by combining advanced digital […]
Mesopelagic fish communities of the NE Atlantic
This project aims at advancing our understanding of mesopelagic fish communities in the North East Atlantic Ocean. The mesopelagic zone, or twilight zone, extends from 200 m to 1000 m of depth and it is a poorly understood environment. Such knowledge gap is significant because such environment plays a pivotal role in the ocean’s carbon […]
Extreme Weather Events and Plastic Pollution
Extreme weather events, such as storms and intensive prolonged rainfall periods are becoming more frequent due to intensive anthropogenic activities globally. Through investigating the impact of these extreme weather events on both spatial and temporal scales in marine coastal ecosystems this project will be able to assess both the fluctuating levels of marine plastic debris, […]
Assessing the Flux of Buried Sedimentary Carbon to Marine Coastal Waters After Extreme Weather and Dredging
Humanity’s physical disturbance of the coastal seafloor has expanded considerably in recent decades through dredging, bottom trawling and more frequent severe storms. The natural ‘leak’ in the carbon cycle from burial of vast quantities of carbon in sediments and the removal of harmful persistent organic pollutants from aquatic ecosystems are essential services provided by sediments. […]
Molecular characterization of marine plastic leachates and associated environmental impacts
Plastic production has risen exponentially since the 1950’s when global production started, reaching a staggering figure of 390 million tonnes in 2021. Up to 10 million tonnes of plastics enter the marine environment annually with socio-economic and environmental implications that have captured global stakeholder attention. Under environmental conditions, plastics fragment into smaller pieces, potentially releasing […]
Ecology of the River Barrow estuary
The transitional waters of the Barrow, Suir and Nore rivers converge near Waterford city to form a large and complex estuarine system, supporting species and habitats of conservation importance. The area is subject many pressures, primarily nutrient and organic pollution from agriculture, urban runoff and domestic wastewater. At Great Island, a gas fired power station, […]
U-AVES Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles for Ecological Surveys
U-AVES – Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles for Ecological Surveys Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles for Ecology Surveys (U-AVES) project is a collaboration between A-techSYN, Atlantic Technological University, BlueWise Marine, and Energia Renewables, to investigate the potential use of Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to revolutionise ecological surveys in Ireland through . The U-AVES project will utilise cameras and […]
Climate impacts on phytoplankton
Phytoplankton communities that fuel marine food webs are undergoing profound changes as a consequence of climate change. This has implications for food provisioning, tourism, the economy and human health. Improved management and decision support tools are needed to predict how phytoplankton are likely to respond to changing environmental conditions in the future. The Cli-PhI project […]