Irish Naturalist's Journal

A journal, with two to three issues annually, publishing articles on all aspects of Natural History. The committee involves members from both North and South.

Beach/Dune Management ­ EU LIFE Project.

Development of data collection tools which may have application within and across rural communities, at both national and international levels.

Critical evaluation of existing data collection tools in selected locations, and experimental re-design for their modification and improvement where appropriate.

Evaluation of the comparability of quantitative and qualitative ICZM data generated by existing institutional structures in selected European locations.

Assessment of the sensitivity of existing data to the socio­cultural context within communities (i.e. can these data take account of the perceptions, concerns, preferences, conflicts etc. of coastal communities).

Identification of information transfer/exchange mechanisms between local communities and institutional structures; the efficacy of these mechanisms; constraints (legal, cultural, socio-economic etc.) affecting these mechanisms and comparisons/contrasts of mechanisms among European regions.

Representation and presentation of data and information used in the ICZM process; similarities/contrasts in priorities and modalities of representation within and across selected European communities.

Start Date: February 2000
End Date: December 2002
EU Funded

Development Potential

Environment and Geology

Ongoing collaboration between the two universities and others from time to time, involving other researchers in e.g. QUB, UCD, TCD as appropriate.

Outputs include: a report on innovatory mineral prospecting methods using environmental indicators, various published papers on the environmental history of the Burren, Co Clare.

The main objectives were, to match resources and instruments available in both universities.
Funding from UL, QUB, mining industry consortium.

RoxAnn Focused Fishing

The project started in 1996, and was completed in 1998. It was funded by the EU to look at
the use of RoxAnn as a tool to assist fishermen in the identification of scallop grounds. The project involved collaborative surveys with all of the partners off Norway, off Galway and Wexford, and off Antrim. The RV Lough Beltra and the RV Lough Foyle were used for surveys off the coasts of the island of Ireland.

Marin Matteknik, Sweden

Marine MicroSystems, UK

Department of Agriculture Northern Ireland (DANI)

Contacts: Ola Oskarsson, Marin Matteknik, Sweden

Development Potential

Workshop on response to findings of the EU Demonstration Programme on Integrated Coastal Zone Management.

As part of the EU Demonstration Programme on ICZM, DGXI approached Dr Niamh Connolly, CRC UCC, and Dr Andrew Cooper, UUC, to co­ordinate a workshop on the findings of the Demonstration Programme. Every country of the EU held such a national workshop. The workshop had speakers from the EC DGXI and the two ICZM DP projects in Ireland, and was attended by representatives of EC offices in Dublin, researchers from UCC, CIT, UUC, QUB, UCD and NUIG, officials from government departments (North and South), state agencies and interest groups. A report was then submitted to DGXI, summarising the all Ireland response to the ICZM DP, as evidenced and agreed at the workshop. The project started in June 1999, and was completed in October 1999. No additional funding was available from the EU for workshop; the Marine Institute provided funding to cover the cost of hire of the venue.

Development Potential

Various ­ including a scoping study to identify innovative options for improving physical access to the water with the aim of supporting the future growth and development of the water­based tourism and leisure sector in Ireland; and ICZM for Bantry Bay using a consensus building approach; status and monitoring of Grey Seals in the Irish Sea.

Professor Buchanan has considerable experience in countryside, environmental resource and heritage management. Professor Buchanan's involvement in CRC projects is in an advisory capacity, based on his considerable experience in countryside and coastal issues. The collaboration arose through a personal contact. He is willing to continue this collaboration, where relevant.

Outcomes have included a joint workshop with the Strangford Lough Management Committee in Portaferry, Co. Down, on Irish Grey seal populations.

Development Potential

Environmental studies on the La Surveilliante Shipwreck in Bantry Bay.

Collaboration with the University of Ulster in conjunction with Duchas, NUI, Galway, Geological Survey of Ireland and others has been ongoing since 1998. Contact was first made through mutual interests. The main objectives of the project are the archaeological assessment of the La Surveilliante shipwreck with the output in a series of reports and publications. There have been two dive and study seasons including a mapping of the wrecks, geophysical surveys, geological and environmental parameterisation of above and below seabed environments as well as a Bay wide geological contextualisation. Resources used include surface demand diving equipment, side­scan sonar, Chirp, ROV's, coring equipment and laboratory and data processing facilities. The project was funded by university initiatives and by Duchas.

Papers are being written up as an on­going (starting 2000) collaboration with Dr Colin Breen based on work that was jointly undertaken.

The project is not open to new collaborators unless additional independent research is initiated in­line with our findings. The outcome of the collaboration is a number of papers in recognised journals and chapters in books. The resources used were in the form of word processors and some cartographic assistance with figures. The initial project was funded by Duchas although the production of papers has continued on a voluntary basis.

Wheeler, AJ (in prep) La Surveilliante shipwreck, Bantry Bay: Environmental dynamics and shipwreck preservation potential. La Surveilliante, Bantry Bay. Office of Public Works Monograph Series (edited by C Breen).

Wheeler, AJ & Breen, C (in prep) Irish maritime heritage management and the environmental influences on shipwreck preservation. In: K Hourihan & J Crowley (eds) Heritige and the Environment.

Bark and Wood Boring insects of living trees. The project started in 1998 and is due to
finish in 2002.

Through COFORD

The objectives to build the basis for improvement of forest conservation and protection by increasing knowledge in the field of BAWBILT (bark and wood­boring insects of living trees). The outcome will be a European databases on expertise, economic costs of damage, means of control, syntheses of current knowledge across Europe (book).

The work to date includes three management meetings, web site, spin­off projects, short­term scientific visits.

Development Potential

Papers are being written up as an on­going (October 1996 ­ present) collaboration with Prof. Julian Orford based on work that was jointly undertaken. The project is not open to new collaborators unless additional independent research is initiated in­line with our findings. The outcome of the collaboration is papers in recognised journals. The resources used were in the form of word processors and some cartographic assistance with figures.

The initial project was funded by the EU fourth Framework Environment and Climate programme although the production of papers has continued on a voluntary basis.

Wheeler, AJ, Orford, JD & Dardis, O (1999). Saltmarsh deposition and its relationship to coastal forcing over the last century on the north­west coast of Ireland. Geologie en Mijnbouw, 77, 295­310.

Wheeler, AJ, Oldfield, F & Orford, JD (1999) Depositional and post­depositional controls on magnetic signals from saltmarshes on the orth­west coast of Ireland. Sedimentology, 46, 545­558.

Gallagher, KA, Wheeler, AJ & Orford, JD (1996) An assessment of the heavy metal pollution of two tidal marshes on the north­west coast of Ireland. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 96B, 177­188.

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