Author: EcoEvo@TCD

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Research White Day Greetings

Inspired by the sciency Valentines from Twisted Doodles and E/V Nautilus the researchers at Trinity College decided to spread a little research love this Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, we missed the boat on Valentines Day so a month later we are celebrating the romantic holiday of White Day, celebrated across Asia! White day is a chance for those who received valentines gifts to return the favour, but since milk or dark chocolate is usually given on valentines, white chocolate is given on white day to show that the gifts are not simply being recycled from the previous month.

So, with our undying love for our research at the front of our minds, we put together this collection of our most eye-wateringly romantic scientific sentiments, perfect to send to your loved one this White Day.

“Acanth live without you” – Paula Tierney

“If I had the whole zoo, I would still choose you!” – Andrew Mooney Continue reading “Research White Day Greetings”

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Natural Capital: Making nature pay?

“Proponents of natural capital accounting offer a compelling argument: by quantifying and valuing natural capital impacts and dependencies, and translating those assessments into systemised accounts, decision-makers in government and the corporate sector will be able to make more informed and, ultimately, sustainable decisions.

But can we assume that reliable and accurate economic information will translate into radical and effective action? It is over a decade since the Stern Review (2006) made the economic argument for Climate action. The 700-page Report concluded that failure to act would result in costs amounting to 5% of Global GDP per year, now and forever. Despite the sound economic warnings, action on climate change has not moved ahead at anything like the pace that is required. So what, if anything, is different about natural capital; why and how will putting nature on the balance books make a difference to how governments and corporations make decisions?…”

Read the full blog post on the Irish forum on Natural Capital.

The arguments outlined in this blog are developed in more detail in a report written for the National Economic and Social Council this year; Valuing Nature: Perspectives and Issues.

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About the Author

Dr. Patrick Bresnihan is a lecturer in Geography, Trinity College Dublin. His work spans the fields of political ecology, science and technology studies, and environmental humanities. Areas of research include the fisheries, water services, alternative energy and natural capital.  Find out more about his research here:

Website | TCD Profile
Twitter | @pbresnihan
Academia.edu | Profile

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Legumes: Giving Nitrogen Fixation A Leg Up

Featured Undergraduate post by Ciara O’Flynn.

At first glance, plants seem impressively independent. Unlike us, they can make their own food, through a process called photosynthesis which uses energy from sunlight. This is a pretty neat ability but, plants aren’t entirely self-sufficient. In order to grow and develop fully, they must get a sufficient supply of minerals from the soil – including a particularly important mineral: Nitrogen.

You might be deceived into thinking this is an easy task. Nitrogen does make up 78% of our atmosphere after all. However, plants can only assimilate nitrogen in the form of nitrate or ammonium, which means the nitrogen in our atmosphere first needs to be converted into one of these forms. This can be achieved naturally by bacteria and blue-green algae, but this doesn’t always meet the enormous nitrate demands for plants growing in dense quarters – say for example in a cropping system. This is where legumes come in! Legumes are a type of plant that has a symbiotic association – or a working relationship – with a class of bacteria called rhizobia. These rhizobia congregate in specialised areas called nodules in the legume’s roots. In these nodules, rhizobia love nothing better than to sit around all day and convert inert atmospheric nitrogen to nitrate which legumes and even neighbouring plants can readily absorb. Continue reading “Legumes: Giving Nitrogen Fixation A Leg Up”

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The 2017 EcoEvo hall of fame

As the year draws to a close, we thought we’d reflect on a some of our favourite scientific papers from 2017. There were only five entrants this year, but representing a broad range of work from across ecology and evolution, as chosen by PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from the School of Natural Sciences. So, without further ado, here are the papers from 2017 being entered into the EcoEvo hall of fame:

Carlson CJ, Burgio KR, Dougherty ER, Phillips AJ, Bueno VM, Clements CF, Castaldo G, Dallas TA, et al. (2017). Parasite biodiversity faces extinction and redistribution in a changing climate. Science Advances 3, e1602422.

“This paper got a lot of press this year as it is essentially the poster paper for the parasite conservation movement. The authors suggest that within the next 100 years, 5% to 10% of parasitic species may go extinct based on habitat loss alone and up to 24% of species are predicted to go extinct based on co-extinction with hosts. Thankfully, Acanthocephala (my study organisms) are predicted to fare well enough in the next 100 years, but it was an eye-opening analysis that provides important information to the parasite conservation cause.” Maureen Williams. Continue reading “The 2017 EcoEvo hall of fame”

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The Botany Bake Off (2017 edition)

Cakes and baking have always been running themes in the Botany Department here at TCD. This year, members of the Department have turned things up a notch for the second ever Botany Bake off! The rules were simple; bake something that represents your research or work in the department. The stakes don’t get higher than this…

This cake represents the research of Prof. Jennifer McElwain using fossil leaves to reconstruct the evolution of the earth’s atmospheric composition and climate over millions of years. The leaves around the edge are of the Ginkgo tree. The pattern on the cake top shows what these leaves look like under a microscope. The ‘molecules’ on top of the cake represent the CO2 and H2O in the atmosphere around the plant leaves.


This cake was presented by Dr. Laura Russo to represent her research in the food webs of pollinators. The apple pastry roses represent different plant species, depended upon by various fondant pollinator species! Continue reading “The Botany Bake Off (2017 edition)”

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Inaugural EcoEvo@TCD photo competition

EcoEvo@TCD is getting a new look – one focused around the work we do here in the School of Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin. To get a broad picture of what goes on here at Trinity, we’ve put together some photos that represent a range of research and teaching activities from across the school. Check out the full gallery below:


View from the Swiss Alps near the Swiss-French border around Lake Geneva. This photo looks out of the valley from the town of L’Etivaz, where we were staying during fieldwork in June 2017.

Alain Finn is a research assistant in Yvonne Buckley’s research group. Find out more about his work on Twitter | @finchyIrl


A bird is released on Kabaena Island, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, after having its measurements taken as part of a biogeographical study of the region. Photo credit: Emma Shalvey.

Fionn Ó Marcaigh is a PhD student in Nicola Marples’ research group. Find out more about his work here.


Prof. Yvonne Buckley botanizing in the Burren (alliteration intentional). Photo by Dr. Laura Russo.

Dr. Laura Russo is a postdoctoral research fellow in Jane Stout’s research group. Find out more about her work here. Twitter | @lrusso08 Continue reading “Inaugural EcoEvo@TCD photo competition”

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Seizing the new collaborator at scientific conferences

Approaching established scientists is nerve wracking when you are just starting out in your own scientific career. It terrified me, but having done so successfully, it is now not so such an intimidating prospect.

When I first went to science conferences as a new PhD student, my fellow early stage researchers and I used to award each other mingling points for having the confidence to break out of our trusted established circle and speak to people we had not met before. Knowing networking was a vital part of attending scientific meetings, we needed motivation to do more than catch up and share free wine. I am glad we pushed each other to do so. I have just returned from a 3 week research visit to Southern France, which would not have taken place, had I not plucked up the courage to approach a now collaborator after her keynote talk a few years ago. Now back in a chilly post-Christmas Dublin it seems like a good time to time to reflect on how my path to approaching new scientists has changed:

Having a question I want answered

After giving a talk it is great to hear somebody enjoyed it and finds your research interesting, but this may not lead to much further conversation than ‘thanks very much’. If you have a research question you would like to explore with someone they are far more likely to be interested. Scientists become leaders in their field in areas that excite them. Approaching scientists with a hypothesis that needs testing and an innovative way of doing should lead to a stimulating conversation.

Creating a new collaboration at a conference recently lead me to get to travel to Montpelier and play with new molecular toys.
Creating a new collaboration at a conference recently lead me to get to travel to Montpelier and play with new molecular toys.

Continue reading “Seizing the new collaborator at scientific conferences”

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A recipe for collaboration

 

Recently, along with Adam Kane, Kevin Healy, Graeme Ruxton and Andrew Jackson, we published a review on scavenging behaviour in vertebrates through time in Ecography.

This paper was my first review paper as well as my first paper written from afar, without ever actually meeting in a room with the co-authors for working on the project.

Difficulty: *

Preparation time: 5 month to submission

Serves: 5 people (but any manageable number of people who you like working with will do)

Ingredients:

  • An exciting topic:

For this recipe you will need an exciting topic.

In this case, prior to writing the review, we had often discussed the prevalence of scavenging behaviour through time and what ecological factors influence it.

Indeed, it came as a natural follow up to a paper published by the other co-authors earlier this year on ‘the scavenging ability of theropod dinosaurs’.

More generally, the topic should be broad enough to allow every person to look for anecdotes (did you know there was once a ‘scavenging bat called *Necromantis*?’ and to bring these together in an interesting, more generalised framework. Continue reading “A recipe for collaboration”

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Research haikus

Last month, the Zoology Department’s Dr. David Kelly launched his first book of Japanese short form poetry, Hammerscale from the Thrush’s Anvil. At the launch of the book, David invited us in the audience to try our hand at writing our own haikus.

Taking him up on his challenge, and taking inspiration from his book, a few of us in the School of Natural Sciences have penned our own poems based on our areas of study. We even have a contribution from David Kelly himself!

Trying not to sacrifice coherency at the alter of syllable number was a rather new struggle for most of us, but we managed and, I’d like to think, emerged with a greater appreciation for the poets in our midst. Read on for our science-y foray into the arts!

(Paula Tierney @_ptierney)

_______________ Continue reading “Research haikus”

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Winning research – Zoology storms the Lightning Talks

 

Earlier this month, postgraduate students of the Zoology department compete in the fourth annual ‘School of Natural Sciences Lightning Talks’ alongside students and staff from Botany and Geology.

We all presented 120-second snapshots of our research and were judged by a panel. Judges included the Head of the School of Natural Sciences Professor Fraser Mitchell, Science Gallery’s Aine Flood and Trinity’s press officer for the Faculty of engineering, mathematics and science, Thomas Deane.

Zoology had two winners on the night, Darren O’Connell (@oconned5) for his presentation on ‘Character release in the absence of a congeneric competitor’ and myself, Rachel Byrne, on my research titled ‘Parasites of badgers in Ireland- an untold story.’

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Continue reading “Winning research – Zoology storms the Lightning Talks”