Dr. Nicholas Payne

This project is co-funded by the AIB Trinity Climate Hub and EU through the pilot Choose Europe for Science Programme. The project will broadly explore how climate change is reshaping the distribution of marine species across the Northeast Atlantic. Research topics and proposals may span marine spatial ecology, physiology, climate science, oceanography, and engineering in interdisciplinary ways

TUINNIN-IN is a collaborative project aimed at understanding the importance of Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABFT) to Ireland"s marine ecosystems and society, and enhancing the sustainable management of the species into the future. It will take a multidisciplinary approach exploring available- and new data to furnish a variety of predictions and recommendations, and with several main objectives that will benefit the Irish economy and society while simultaneously enhancing ecological knowledge and management outcomes for ABFT in Ireland. TUINNIN-IN will resolve ABFT diet and trophic role using complementary dietary tracers; build distribution models to explain why ABFT abundance varies through space and time and predict how occurrences will shift in the future; adopt ecosystem accounting methods to reveal the broad economic and social benefits of ABFT to Ireland and how they can be maximized; and create a new research network to bring Ireland to the forefront as a leading European hub of tuna research. As well as being a primary research programme, TUINNIN-IN is also a partnership and networking platform, represented by a range of academics and policy advisers, and with a dedicated legacy building work package aimed at building long-term research capacity in Ireland, and to confer self-sustainability of the Postdoctoral Fellow as a future researcher leader

MOSAIC will establish an ambitious interregional, multi-purpose marine observation network, linking oceanography to biodiversity, using innovative sensor technologies and tool kits. We will gather policy facing data on protected species and their habitats and produce forward-looking indicators to underpin conservation efforts in an ever-changing ocean.

SHARK ISLAND is a multidisciplinary project linking biologists, policy makers and the general public to enhance sustainable ecosystem service provision of Ireland"s unique shark and ray resources, while simultaneously improving conservation outcomes for the animals in Ireland"s waters. SHARK ISLAND combines research on the physiology, welfare and ecology of sharks and rays; creates new formal partnerships between scientists and anglers; and evaluates the potential for new shark and ray ecotourism ventures in Ireland. SHARK ISLAND will deliver a user-friendly platform and resources aimed at informing stakeholders, managers and policy makers with high quality accessible outputs to support best conservation practices for sustainable interaction with Irish sharks and rays, several of which are endangered. This will be achieved by synthesising and analysing existing datasets, collecting new field data, conducting market research on the exchequer value of shark and ray tourism in Ireland, and by creating `citizen science" reporting databases that will represent new shark and ray conservation monitoring tools. As well as being a primary research programme, SHARK ISLAND is a partnership and networking platform with a dual focus of (1) encouraging broader participation in shark and ray ecotourism in Ireland and (2) conservation of the unique elasmobranch populations in a region that is increasingly recognised as a global `hotspot" for these animals. The project will lay the foundations for future marine ecotourism, and conservation of sharks and rays around the Irish coast.