1 / 30

Freshwater Biology @ QUB

Freshwater Biology @ QUB. Chris Harrod School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University of Belfast c.harrod@qub.ac.uk. www.fsbi.org.uk/2010. School of Biological Sciences: outline. Organised into 2 separate research clusters:

Download Presentation

Freshwater Biology @ QUB

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Freshwater Biology @ QUB Chris Harrod School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University of Belfast c.harrod@qub.ac.uk

  2. www.fsbi.org.uk/2010

  3. School of Biological Sciences: outline Organised into 2 separate research clusters: • Ecology, Evolution, Behaviour and Environmental Economics • Molecular Biosciences • Microbial ecology & functional biology • Identification, characterisation and function of aquatic toxins • Parasitology

  4. Freshwater research in EEBEE • 8 academics & > 15 postgraduate research students active in freshwater biology across Ireland, the UK, Europe and further afield • Broad scale • Molecule to ecosystem • Many different taxa (animal bias)

  5. Ecology, Evolution, Behaviour & Environmental Economics • Ecology • Invasion ecology • Autecology • Limnology • Ecosystem function • Conservation • Fisheries management • Scientific support to Lough Neagh eel fishery • Environmental impact assessment • Theoretical biology • Taxonomy • Water quality • Evolution • Phylogeography • Speciation & rapid evolution • Population genetics • Conservation genetics • Margaritiferamargaritifera • Pollan • Arctic charr • Brown trout • Life history specialisation in invasive species • Divergent migratory components • Eels • Trout • Lampreys

  6. Ecology, Evolution, Behaviour & Environmental Economics • Behaviour • Individual specialisation • Interactions between native & invasive species • Functional response curves • Telemetry • Acoustic & radio • GPS • Depth & accelerometer • Foraging ecology of piscivorous predators • Environmental Economics • Economic valuation of environmental and natural resources. • Willingness to pay for ferox trout conservation

  7. Undergraduate aquatic ecology research

  8. Current activities

  9. Support for Lough Neagh fishery: • Few fisheries-independent data available for management and conservation • 122 random purse seine samples distributed across the main bed of the lough • Species abundance per haul • Individual length (± 1 mm) • First quantitative estimates to include eels since the ban on trawling (1980s)

  10. Lough Neagh: fish community Abundance Biomass

  11. River lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) in Lough Neagh • Evidence of freshwater feeding • Scarring of resident fishes, e.g. pollan • Relative impact of parasitism on different prey? • Evidence for anadromous v freshwater feeding?

  12. Evidence for freshwater foraging Inger et al 2010 J App Ecol 47: 121-129

  13. Inger et al 2010 J App Ecol 47: 121-129

  14. Isotopic variation in Lough Neagh Freshwater

  15. Isotopic variation in Lough Neagh & Strangford Lough Marine Freshwater

  16. Cormorants: energetic conduits between aquatic habitats Marine Freshwater

  17. Relative importance of freshwater v marine feeding in breeding cormorants • Bird Island breeding colony • Subset forage on L. Neagh (70 km) • Why? • Freshwater provisioned chicks have greater condition factors R2=0.44, P=0.01 Brown et al, in prep.

  18. Invasive species

  19. Invasive Aquatic Species in Irish water bodies • Funded through EPA STRIVE • Collaboration with National Biodiversity Data Centre, & Central Fisheries Board • QUB leading on WP2: Invasive species impacts on community structure and function • Lagarosiphon major in Lough Corrib • Leuciscus cephalus in the River Inny

  20. Lough Corrib and Lagarosiphon major • Kevin Gallagher (PhD student) kgallagher23@qub.ac.uk • Paul McIlwaine (Mphil student) pmcilwaine03@qub.ac.uk

  21. Marked habitat shift… Pre-invasion Post-invasion

  22. Growth rates differ in fish captured in invaded and native habitats Mean ± 95% CI back-calculated length at age

  23. Hemimysis anomala (another Ponto-Caspian invader) 5 mm Kevin Gallagher (kgallagher23@qub.ac.uk ) Collaboration: Dan Minchin & CFB

  24. The current distribution and status of Hemimysis in Ireland • Lough Ree: found at 4 sites (north, south, east and west of the lough). • considered widespread. • Also present in • Lough Key • Lough Boderg (Dr Dan Minchin) • no evidence of Hemimysis in Loughs Allen, Scur, Garadice, upper / lower Lough Erne or Lough Neagh. • Future work • More study sites • Examine relative abundance at invaded sites. • Public awareness campaign

  25. Hemimysis – examining feeding behaviour • Small bodied invasive Hemimysis anomala, killed and consumed x7 more juvenile Gammarus pulex than the larger-bodied native Mysis relicta, in one third of the time. Hemimysis – 12 hours Mysis – 40 hours

  26. Invasive freshwater plants in Ireland:Distribution, spread and physiological responses to climate change Ruth Kelly (PhD student) rkelly35@qub.ac.uk

  27. Evolutionary ecology of the three spined stickleback in Ireland • Important (and undervalued) ecological role • Key model for evolution of new species • Almost unstudied in Ireland • Mark Ravinet (PhD student) mravinet01@qub.ac.uk

  28. Stickleback phylogeography • Mixture of lineages present in Ireland – and perhaps some uniquely Irish? Green = Irish populations

  29. Stickleback phylogeography • Mixture of lineages present in Ireland – and perhaps some uniquely Irish? Green = Irish populations Barents Sea/North Eastern European Trans-Atlantic Irish/Western European

  30. Funding bodies Fisheries Society of the British Isles

More Related