Professor James Gow Wilson

Prof. James G. Wilson is Professor in Zoology and Environmental Science. Prof. Wilson graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1976 with a PhD in Zoology (Marine Biology). The subjects of his thesis were the Tellinidae and his interest in littoral bivalves and in the sediments they inhabit is still one of his major research interests. This was also the start of his interest in SCUBA diving as a research tool, and in the value of field work and field experimentation. Starting at TCD on the Irish Estuarine Research Programme, he devised two quality indices, the BQI and the PLI, which have now been applied in Ireland, France and the US as well as Black Sea. Again this has formed a major branch of his research which is increasingly being trialed in other countries. Prof. Wilson has always been interested in the fitness (in the Darwinian sense) of organisms and this is a key concept to understanding natural systems. From this arises his work in bioenergetics and in the network analysis of ecosystems. Prof. Wilson has written or edited 6 books and over 100 scientific papers covering the whole range of his research interests. These have been supported by national and international funding and have included collaborations with colleagues throughout the EC as well as Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, US and Australia. In 1979, Prof. Wilson was appointed to start the first Env. Sci. MSc course. This was very popular and was followed some 10 years later by the equally-sought after undergraduate Env. Sci. Mod. Graduates of both courses are now established all over the world. Now based back in the Zoology Department, he has expanded his teaching to take in some of the more traditional courses such as the Marine Field Trip. Outside TCD, Prof. Wilson has been active in a number of organisations, including the Royal Irish Academy (Secretary to the LSC) and the Estuarine and Coastal Sciences Association, for which he was the Editor of the ECSA Bulletin and then Secretary for many years. He is a qualified cricket coach and umpire, and still plays for a local club and for the TCD Taverners side (for fixtures please contact).

  Animal Taxonomy   Aquatic Ecology   Biodiversity   Biological Modeling   Biological Oceanography   Climate Change   Coastal Zone Ecosystems and Management   Ecology   Ecosystem(s)   Energetics   Environmental biology   Environmental Zoology   Estuarine Sciences   Global Change   Harmful Algal Blooms   Ichthyology   Invertebrate Physiology   Limnology   Marine   Marine and Ocean Sciences   Marine Biology   Marine Ecosystems   Marine Environment   Marine science and Fisheries biology   Marine Zoology   Pollution   Sediment   Sedimentology   Water Pollution

Prof. Wilson's research interests are directed to the interactions between organisms and their environment and the implications for the short-term and long-term fitness of individuals, of populations and of ecosystems. The determination of fitness proceeds in three steps: 1. Investigations toward an understanding of the particular habitat and of the critical environmental stresses; 2. Quantification through bioenergetics and cost/benefit analysis of life strategies; 3. Construction and verification of process models and system models. The focus of these researches has been, on the system side, estuarine and coastal marine systems, and on the organism side, bivalves and particularly the Tellinidae. In estuarine and coastal systems, the major stresses are imposed by environmental factors such as temperature and salinity, and by anthropogenic factors such as the different kinds of pollution. Quality indices and bioindicators provide an integrated synopsis of the degree of perturbation, providing both scientific information as to the fitness of the target organism(s) and also the performance of management and economic strategies on the systems. As well as many articles in this area, Prof. Wilson has written a book chapter on indices; he has edited a symposium volume on Estuarine Management and Quality Assessment; he was one of the authors of the inter-governmental Irish Sea Study Group Report and he has written a book on the Biology of Estuarine Management. The most recent volume on this topic is The Intertidal Ecosystem (RIA, 2006), and he is currently writing a major review on the topic. Bioenergetics is the study of what Darwin saw as the driving force of evolution, the struggle for food. Energy acquisition and partitioning is central to the survival of individuals, of populations and ultimately of the species themselves. Bioenergetics can also quantify the short-term costs and benefits of an organism's life strategy as well as the impact of environmental and anthropogenic stresses. Prof. Wilson has published widely on various aspects of bioenergetics, which have been used to quantify the fitness of individuals, of populations, and of systems. The models include conceptual models which are implicit in many of the ideas in the preceding two sections, but the primary focus is mathematical models which can then be developed for predictive capability. These models can be formulated, and integrated, at process level, for example oxygen consumption and metabolism, at individual and population level with energy partitioning, and at system level with energy and nutrient budgets. As well as individual articles, this philosophy forms the basis of the symposium volume edited for the Royal Irish Academy Eutrophication in Irish Waters. It also forms the basis for other mathematical treatments such as multivariate analysis or systems analysis. The systems analysis approach is also at the core of his work in Dublin Bay and on the biodiversity of the Irish Sea. The latter work is just coming to fruition with the publication in 2001 of the first of 3 volumes, with further investigation planned extending the scope south into the Celtic Sea and offshore.