Trinity College Dublin, Ecology and Evolution
There are many threats to our environmental security: climate change, habitat loss and degradation, pollution. All are damaging the environment and impacting on our long-term survival. One threat that seems to have been often overlooked by the public, however, is the effect of invasive species. Invasive species are non-native species that adversely affect the invaded …
Continue reading “How Do We Solve A Problem Like Invasive Species?”
For the longest time floral nectar was considered to be made of two components: simple sugars (such as sucrose, fructose and/or glucose) and water. Research carried out in the past two decades however has repeatedly shown this paradigm to be incorrect. As analytical techniques such as high resolution GC-MS and HPLC have become commonplace, the …
Continue reading ““Toxic” nectar and pollen in an invasive plant species”
This post by Maureen and Marcin is based on their paper in the November 2019 issue of Science of The Total Environment, “Thermal effluents from power plants boost performance of the invasive clam Corbicula fluminea in Ireland’s largest river”. (Penk & Williams, 2019) The River Shannon is Ireland’s largest river, with a storied biological and …
By Francesco Martini We are living in a biodiversity crisis, with many species shrinking in numbers and at risk of going extinct. To put a stop to, or at least slow down this seemingly inevitable fall into the abyss for many of the world’s species, one action that is considered effective is establishing protected areas. …
Today we are celebrating our science using pictures! Here below, you can find a collection of pictures from our PhD student and research staff from Trinity College Dublin who kindly participated in this initiative.
Drumroll please! It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! The votes have been cast, they’ve been counted and recounted, and we can finally showcase the entries and reveal the winner of the 4th EcoEvo blog photo competition!
There are >20,000 different species of bee worldwide. They are a diverse group, encompassing the tiny 2mm long Perdita minima and the massive 38mm long Megachile pluto. They all* have one thing in common: their larvae feed on pollen from flowers. The protein in the pollen is necessary for larval growth and development, and thus for producing healthy …
Invasive freshwater fish (Leuciscus leuciscus) acts as a sink for a parasite of native brown trout Salmo trutta (2020) Tierney et al. Biological Invasions. Read it here. Adapted from blog published at Ecology for the Masses Alien invasions and parasite infection From house cats to cane toads, invasive species are one of the biggest threats …
Continue reading “Disease dynamics and the impact of incompetent invaders”
Natural history museum collections are invaluable snapshots of history. Research collections are snapshots of the animals and plants collected in history. Research collections are also a reflection of the people and attitudes at the time it was curated. There is a well-represented collection of native Australian animals in the Zoology Museum at Trinity College Dublin. …
This past August, I was lucky enough to visit the Galapagos Islands during my travels through South America. My visit here was quite possibly the highlight of my trip, with plenty to keep me thoroughly engrossed. Set some 1000 km off the coast of South America, the Galapagos Islands were first stumbled upon by Tomas …