Dr. Catherine Coxon

Summary

The project will develop potential environmental supporting condition metrics for a subset of Groundwater Terrestrial Dependent Ecosystems (GWDTE), focusing on turloughs, fens and raised bogs. The metrics are required for the Water Framework Directive characterisation process. The research activities will first identify and collate existing geospatial data relevant to the creation of a draft "potential" GWDTE register. This will be complemented by activities which will use remote sensing techniques to further identify GWDTEs. The main body of the project will then focus on the identification of appropriate environmental supporting conditions for turloughs, fens and raised bogs. This will be achieved from a combination of existing ecohydrological data (where available) and some additional field study where required, particularly for the fens. Metrics will then be defined for each of these wetland types that provide a robust assessment of the environmental supporting conditions which will then be tested back on a subset of the respective wetlands which have not previously had any significant ecohydrological studies carried out on them. This project is led by Dr. Laurence Gill, TCD Department of Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering. I have a role in several work packages and am co-supervising the PhD project on environmental supporting conditions for fens.

Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency

Programme

EPA Research Programme 2014-2020

Summary

The objective of this project is to investigate the occurrence of synthetic organic compounds arising from rural activities in Irish karst and fractured bedrock aquifers. The primary focus is on veterinary drugs including anthelmintics, anticoccidials and pyrethroids. The project aims to determine the controlling factors (both source and pathway) on these occurrences. The research is being carried out as part of the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG) Research Challenge to Secure and Protect Groundwater Resources, by a doctoral student, Damien Mooney, in association with Dr Martin Danaher (Teagasc, Ashtown), Dr Karl Richards and Dr Per-Erik Mellander (Teagasc, Johnstown Castle), Prof. Laurence Gill (TCD) and myself.

Funding Agency

SFI

Programme

SFI Research Centres Programme

Project Type

PhD studentship

Summary

This PhD project investigates the impact of domestic wastewater effluent on Irish karst springs, as part of the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG) Research Challenge to Secure and Protect Groundwater Resources. Detailed assessment of several springs representative of karst networks of different scale and morphometry is being undertaken in order to determine the contribution of on-site effluent contaminants by the use of chemical and microbiological fingerprinting methodologies. The project is being carried out by Luka Vucinic, supervised by Prof. Laurence Gill and co-supervised by myself.

Funding Agency

SFI

Programme

SFI Research Centres Programme

Project Type

PhD studentship

Summary

This research projects aimed to investigate nitrogen attenuation processes along groundwater pathways in two Irish agricultural catchments: an arable catchment in Co. Wexford and an intensive grassland catchment in Co. Cork. Factors influencing groundwater denitrification were investigated. The research was conducted in association with the Agricultural Catchments Programme based at Teagasc, Johnstown Castle, Wexford, as a doctoral project by Eoin McAleer, supervised by myself and co-supervised by Dr. Per-Erik Mellander and Dr. Karl Richards (Teagasc).

Funding Agency

Teagasc

Programme

Walsh Fellowship

Project Type

Ph.D. studentship

Summary

The goal of this project was to evaluate state-of-the-art environmental flow methodology to identify best practice, trial alternative approaches in catchments of contrasting hydrogeology with long-term flow data, and provide recommendations to EPA for establishing a landscape-based framework for setting EFlow standards that will help to maintain ecological status and ecosystem services provided by Irish rivers. The research was carried out by Dr Katherine Webster and Katie Tedd (research fellows) in association with Prof Ian Donohue (PI) and myself.

Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency

Programme

STRIVE

Project Type

Desk study