graduate students

Carlos Chique (PhD): Reconstructing Prehistoric and Historic Eutrophication Trends in a Polluted Freshwater Lake from Co. Monaghan, Ireland. (Hardiman Scholar)

The project aims to analyze a range of palaeolimnological indicators in the sediment record of Lough Muckno (Co. Monaghan) in order to identify prehistorical and historical trends of land-use and nutrient enrichment in the lake. The main indicators used in this project include pollen and Chironomidae (non-biting midge) sub-fossils which will allow to infer changes in local/regional land-use and subsequent impact on the water quality of the system. This reconstruction will lead to the identification of "threshold" changes and different lake environments throughout most of the Holocene. Ideally, it will also allow for the establishment of "reference" conditions for a number of physico-chemical parameters which can then be applied in the context of contemporary water management. Additionally, the project will establish a link between (neo-)limnology and palaeolimnology by interporlating contemporary chironomid sub-fossil assemblages with those observed throughout the sediment record. 

Seamus McGinley (PhD): On the Trail of the Invisible People: a multi proxy study of climate change and human impacts on the environment in the Irish Iron Age (Galway Doctoral Scholarship)

The Iron Age (600BC to AD400) is one of the most enigmatic periods in the history of Ireland.  The archaeologist Barry Raftery described the Iron Age population as “the Invisible People” due to the scarcity of Iron Age houses or other domestic settlement evidence in the archaeological record.  In terms of environmental evidence, the most prominent feature is the Late Iron Age lull marked in pollen records by forest regeneration and reduced farming activity. This phenomenon is often attributed to population decline driven by climate downturn, and sometimes linked to major natural catastrophes.

My main study area comprises two lakes in Co. Westmeath, Lough Lugh on the Hill of Uisneach the mythical centre of Ireland, and Mount Dalton Lough 3km northeast of Uisneach Hill. The palaeolimnological study uses multiple proxies including pollen and chironomid analysis, identification of macroscopic charcoal and geochemical evidence (i.e. C:N ratios,¹⁵δN and¹³δC)  to reconstruct Iron Age cultural landscapes by identifying changing intensity in everyday domestic activity, and changes in surrounding land-use patterns.  Chironomid (non-biting midge flies) analysis from an isolated lake - Lough Meenachrinna in SW Donegal - will also provide a quantitative record of temperature changes in the Irish Iron Age.  
 

Daisy Spenser (PhD): People, land use and time - Linking multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental evidence to the Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological record of the Burren and central Clare, western Ireland (IRC scholarship)

The main aim of my research is to understand the nature of changing human-environment interactions during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in two neighbouring regions of western Ireland, the Burren and central Clare.  Archaeological evidence from North Munster suggests a shift in the focus of human activity from the southern Burren in the Neolithic to the area of central Clare surrounding Mooghaun hillfort by the late Bronze Age, a view supported by previous palynological studies.  

I will explore this apparent shift in human activity – of both a secular and ritual nature – further by integrating two new palaeoenvironmental data sets, chironomid (non-biting midge fly) and new pollen data.  These complimentary strands of palaeoenvironmental data will be combined with further analyses of the archaeological data in order to assess whether the current archaeological interpretation fits with the palaeoenvironmental context provided by these new analyses.

Cores will be taken from Lough Inchiquin, (adjacent to the prehistoric activity focus of Roughan Hill in the southern Burren), and Knocknalappa Lough, (close to prehistoric activity in central Clare), in order to carry out pollen and chironomid analysis, 14C dating and possibly ä15N analysis.

These analyses will allow questions on the chronology, nature and dynamics of human activity in the study area to be explored, with four main objectives:

What does the palaeoenvironmental data tell us of human land use in the two neighbouring regions and how do they compare?

How does the palaeoenvironmental evidence relate to the archaeological evidence in terms of the scale and nature of human activity in the two regions?

Is there change through time?

Can changes in human-environment interactions in the overall study area be related to changes in social dynamics?

By determining how the areas compare in terms of palaeoenvironmental data and whether the results suggest comparable or contrasting levels and types of human activity and agricultural intensity, I will aim to investigate the reasons for this shift in activity from the southern Burren to central Clare.

Karen Taylor (PhD): Environmental impacts of early farming in western Ireland (IRCSET PhD Scholar, Hardiman Scholar)

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 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 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.

Publications:

Taylor, K.J., Potito, A.P., Beilman, D., Ghilardi, B., O’Connell, M., 2013. Palaeolimnological impacts of early prehistoric farming at Lough Dargan, County Sligo, Ireland. Journal of Archaeological Science 40, 3212-3221.

Carla Mateus (PhD): Data rescue, digitisation, quality control and homogenisation of the long-term daily maximum and minimum air temperature and extreme air temperature events in Ireland. (Dr Tony Ryan Research Scholarship)

I have been developing research in Historical Climatology. My research has increasingly focused on long-term climate datasets and extreme weather events.  My PhD project aims the data recovery, digitisation, quality control and homogenisation of all long-term instrumental daily, monthly and seasonal maximum and minimum air temperature records since the beginning of the meteorological observations (back to the early and mid19^th century to the present) in Ireland. Through statistical and climate modelling methodologies I intend to assess long-term climate variability and, trends in frequency, magnitude, duration and distribution of extreme air temperature events such as cold and heat waves. Also, it is important to specify natural climate forcing and atmospheric circulation patterns which cause extreme air temperatures, in order to predict the frequency and magnitude of future events through statistical climate modelling of return period and probability distributions of daily air temperature. This project is important to more accurately predict future climate change scenarios in Ireland.

Ann Bingham (PhD, Botany 2011) Long-term environmental change in lower Lough Corrib and its catchment: a multidisciplinary palaeoecological study (EPA Scholar)

Claire Cullen (PhD, Geography 2012): Deciphering the geomorphic and sedimentary record of the last Irish Ice Sheet in NW Donegal: implications for glacial dynamics and decay configurations (IRCSET PhD Scholar)

Mary Dillon, (M.Sc, Botany 2006) People and past environments. Towards an anthropology of woodlands based on analysis of wood and charcoal from archaeological contexts

Eva Eagleton (MLitt, Geography 2010): Long-term viability of oak stands in Connemara, western Ireland

Ingo Feeser, (PhD Botany 2009) Palaeoecological investigations towards reconstruction of Holocene environmental change in the Burren, Co. Clare, with particular reference to Mullach Mór and selected Burren uplands

Stephen Galvin (PhD, Geography 2011): The impact of volcanic eruptions on the climate and ecology of Ireland since 1800

Beatrice Ghilardi (PhD, Botany 2012) Reconstruction of Holocene environmental change in north-west Sligo with particular reference to the Neolithic (Galway Doctoral Scholarship)

Michelle McKeown (PhD, Geography 2013): A palaeolimnological assessment of the influence of climate change and human impacts on lakes in western Ireland

Annette Overland, (PhD Botany 2007). Palaeoecological investigations of lake sediments and peats towards reconstruction of long-term environmental change at Barrees, Beara peninsula, south-west Cork.

Karen Taylor (MLitt, Geography 2011): Environmental impacts of early farming in County Sligo

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