Dr. Nicholas Payne

Summary

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.

Funding Agency

Marine Institute

Summary

This work will combine a variety of complementary approaches to explore several general questions related to the ecology of Irish tunas. These include the use of cutting-edge bio-logging tools to explore the impact of catch-and-release fishing on tuna and refine best practices; identify spatial dynamics, population connectivity, and environmental preferences of tuna throughout the NE Atlantic; and to design and test new electronic tagging techniques for small fishes such as albacore tuna. To address these diverse objectives, we have assembled a multidisciplinary team to support the Cullen Fellow, who will use state-of-the-art techniques spanning physiology, bio-logging, genetics, spatial analyses, and hydrodynamics. Expected outcomes of the project include data that will improve stock assessment of tunas across the Atlantic, enhanced understanding of the timing and environmental drivers of tuna appearances in Irish waters, and the provision of new tagging tools for researching fishes in general.

Funding Agency

Marine Institute

Summary

Temperature strongly influences the distribution of life. The range of temperatures that different species can tolerate is traditionally thought to be regulated by variability in environmental temperature; for example, tropical species have evolved to tolerate a narrow range of temperatures because their environment is thermally stable. However, a recent idea about how temperature influences the rates at which organisms process energy is beginning to question this classical paradigm. That study questioned a classic paradigm that underpins our thinking about diverse ecological phenomena such as the increase in biodiversity toward the equator, and the shifts in range size across latitude and altitude. I will scrutinise this new hypothesis and explore its broader implications by compiling large, taxonomically diverse datasets on range sizes and thermal niches of diverse taxa, performing controlled physiological experiments, and measuring thermal performance of ectotherms in the wild. My award will revisit core principles of thermal ecology, and test new ideas about how temperature regulates the distribution of species. This is an important area of research given the ongoing changes to our climate, and the implications of the work are important for organisms ranging from plants to animals.

Funding Agency

Science Foundation Ireland

Summary

Funding Agency

Irish Research Council