The next lecture by Westport Civic trust will be on the topic "Tracking environmental change in the lakes and rivers of the Burrishoole catchment."
This lecture, to be given by Dr Elvira de Eyto, will take place on Tuesday, September 17 at 8pm in the Westport Coast Hotel and will address an environmental issue that is becoming, and to many has already become, of major concern and importance.
How is our environment changing? What are the impacts of humans on our freshwater habitats? Are our attempts at managing our impact on the environment working? These are some of the questions that can best be answered using data collected over very long-time scales: decades, centuries and millennia.
From the salmon returning each year to spawn, to the tiny plants and animals living in the streams draining the Nephins, continuous observation and recording allows us to measure how the environment is changing, and what we can do to manage these habitats better.
In this talk, Elvira will describe the work carried out at the Marine Institute’s research station in the Burrishoole catchment, resulting in many long-term data-sets describing the environmental quality of Lough Feeagh and its rivers. She will talk about what the data tells us about our surrounding environment, and how these data, collected on the west coast of Ireland, are being used across the world to answer questions of global importance.
Elvira de Eyto is a zoologist working at the Marine Institute's research station in the Burrishoole catchment. The twin lakes of Feeagh and Furnace have been a salmon research station for more than sixty years. The data collected in Burrishoole now form one of the longest running continuous records of lake surface water temperature in the world and are used to assess the impact of our warming climate on lake temperatures.
Climate change is rapidly warming lakes around the world, threatening freshwater supplies and ecosystems. Burrishoole is part of a global project involving more than sixty scientists and 235 lakes that have been monitored for at least 25 years. Everyone is welcome to this important, topical lecture by a local, noted expert. No booking is necessary and more details may be had from Pip Murphy on 087-2663423 or on the Civic Trust website on www.westportcivictrust.com
