Two lines of research of the Marine Climate Change Programme are carried out in the Marine Institute base in Newport: “Fish Growth and Survival” and “Climate and Catchment Environment”.
The Marine Institute facility in Newport is based in the Burrishoole Catchment, where upstream and downstream fish traps have been in operation since 1970, allowing for a full census to be carried out on adult and juvenile salmon and sea trout along with silver eels. Considerable datasets have been collected from the monitoring stations in this catchment area over the last 50 years, encompassing biological and environmental data: salmonid and eel stock abundance, growth, and survival parameters; macro-invertebrate fauna; sea-lice species, abundance, and fecundity; genetics; freshwater and marine temperature, riverine water level and discharge, rainfall, meteorological data.
Over the next two years, data related to salmonid and eel development and survival, collected in the Burrishoole Catchment, will be reviewed to link fish data with downscaled weather data and to produce predictions of migratory fish population dynamics under various climate scenarios. Ageing and growth analysis on both salmonids and eels will be carried out using a new digital analysis system which was installed in 2007. The aims of the project are to model past and future growth of fish in the Burrishoole catchment, add to our current understanding of how changes in our climate may affect these species, and to contribute to the Marine Institute’s Ocean Climate Status Report.
