Research Staff:

Postgraduate researcher

Name: Brendan Canning

Contact Details:

Email: brendancanning1hotmail.com

Office Telephone: 00-353-(0)91-492719

Address: Applied Ecology Unit, Centre for Environmental Science, National University of Ireland - Galway, Galway, Ireland

Website: http://www.nuigalway.ie/applied_ecology_unit/

Prof ile:

After graduating in 2008 with a first class honours degree in Environmental Science at NUI Galway, I worked Teagasc (The Irish agriculture & Food development Authority) on the Leenane Hill Sheep Farm surveying the upland vegetation.

Currently I am doing a PhD which is joint venture between the Department of Botany, The Applied Ecology Unit, NUI, Galway and The Department of Economics entitled:

’An evaluation of the biodiversity of Irish uplands’

Research Interests

Biodiversity, Upland Agriculture, Rural Environmental Protection Scheme, Commonage Framework Plans, Carabidae

Education

BSc (Hons) – Enviromental Science

Prof essional Associations:

·         Environmental Sciences Association of Ireland

 Current Activities:

Research

The main focus of my current research relates to an assessment of EU agri-environmental schemes. These schemes aim to encourage “environmentally friendly” farming practices and in Ireland the main scheme currently in operation is the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS).  Although €2.45 billion has been invested in REPS between 1994 and 2007, relatively little research has assessed the effectiveness of REPS in promoting biodiversity and any studies undertaken to date have produced ambiguous results.  It is likely that a range of factors determine the effectiveness of agri-environmental schemes including socio-economic factors and in particular, farmers’ attitudes to and implementation of the scheme. It is in this context that this study is being undertaken whereby upland farms in the west of Ireland will be studied to assess the effectiveness of REPS and the Commonage Framework Plans (introduced by the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) in 1999 to control grazing). This will be achieved by mapping the major habitats of upland farms and evaluating these farms in terms of their contribution to biodiversity and ecosystem function. The latter will be achieved by plant surveys and vegetation condition scoring using NPWS guidelines, in addition to assessing ground beetle communities as bioindicators of habitat quality. The results of this project will then be correlated with a sister project which will be examining farmers’ management practices and attitudes towards biodiversity through interviews and questionnaires.

The assessment of the effectiveness of agri-environmental schemes in promoting biodiversity is necessary to ensure that measures that work are encouraged while those which have little positive effect are discontinued.  It is expected that this investigation will provide a good indication of the biodiversity of upland farms within the context of the socio-economic factors affecting it.

Teaching

I currently demonstrate to second, third and fourth year undergraduate BSc Environmental Science students.

Previous Research:

• Disclaimer
• Privacy
• Copyright
• Accessibility