karen taylor  

PhD Candidate, Irish Research Council Scholar (2012 – Present) MLitt (Research) – NUI Galway (2009 – 2011) BA (Hons) – NUI Galway, Geography and Psychological Studies (2005 – 2008)
Room:	116, Geography
Email:	k.taylor1nuigalway.ie

Working Title:

Ecological impacts of early farming in the northwest of Ireland

Research Description:

The aim of this palaeoenvironmental research project is to assess the ecological impacts of prehistoric farming in north-west Sligo, Ireland. This research will provide an insight into the effects of Neolithic and Bronze Age farming practices on the environment through a multi-proxy analysis of a lake sediment core taken from Lake Dargan.

My research area of interest is palaeolimnological and palaeoenvironmental studies with a focus on the development of prehistoric farming during the Neolithic (4000 – 2000 BC) and Bronze Age (2000 – 600 BC) in Ireland. My work has a unique quality, as it is interdisciplinary by virtue of combining scientific techniques from palaeolimnology and applying them to archaeological inquiry. The amount of information accessible through archaeological investigations at times can be quite limited. In contrast, palaeolimnology offers an uninterrupted chronology of sediment which allows for multiple types of analysis and the production of detailed information. My work thus bridges the gap between the two subjects and provides new insight into our past and the previously known archaeological database.

My research aims to assess both the intensity and effects of Neolithic and Bronze Age farming practices through a multi-proxy analysis of lake sediment cores from multiple sites in northwest Ireland. This will be investigated through palaeoenvironmental proxy evidence including chironomid, macroscopic charcoal, pollen and stable isotopic analysis of carbon and nitrogen (ä13C, ä15N, and C:N). These proxies will detect various prehistoric human impacts in the study site lake catchments, and will help to inform early farming practices in the region.

This study will also emphasize the usefulness of chironomids in archaeological research and will provide insight into the human-environmental relations of the Neolithic and Bronze Age people and their development of agriculture in the northwest of Ireland. This scientific methodology has already been proven to be highly successful in detecting the impact of human activity at one study site, Lake Dargan in County Sligo as the focus of my research MLitt. And so, my PhD will be a continuation of this research, by expanding the multi-proxy approach on a larger scale.

Supervisors:

Dr Aaron Potito

Research Cluster:

Research Interests:

• Palaeolimnology
• Chironomids
• Stable Isotopes
• Neolithic
• Bronze Age
  

Presentations:

• (2012): “Ecological impacts of early farming in western Ireland: a palaeolimnological approach”, Irish Quaternary Association (IQUA) Spring Meeting and AGM, at Queen’s University Belfast, April 2012
  
• (2012): “Ecological impacts of early farming in western Ireland: a palaeolimnological approach", American Association of Geographer's (AAG), in New York, February 2012.
  
• (2011): Department of Geography Seminar Series, NUI Galway, January 2011.
  
• (2010): Department of Geography Seminar Series, NUI Galway, January 2010.
  
• (2009): Irish Postgrad Training Conference, Glencree, Co. Wicklow
  

Funding: