NUI Galway expertise sought in Chile

NUI Galway expertise sought in Chile

Dr Bob Kennedy, NUI Galway with the SPI camera in Galway Bay.

Dr. Bob Kennedy of NUI Galway’s Environmental Change Institute (ECI) and Martin Ryan Institute (MRI), is to journey to Chile to take part in a multinational expert study of the effects of coastal nutrient enrichment (eutrophication).

Fish-pen mariculture is a very large industry in Chile, but at present there is very little control of the environmental standards maintained by fish farmers. Little is known of the effects that fish farming are having on the Chilean marine environment. However, preliminary qualitative studies and anecdotal evidence gathered by local people indicate that some areas are being seriously polluted. This has led the Chilean government to fund a pilot study into coastal eutrophication. The study will bring together world leaders in the field of coastal pollution monitoring and Dr Kennedy has been invited to join the study cruise because of his expertise in the field of sediment profile imagery (SPI).

Originally constructed in the Martin Ryan Institute with funding awarded to Professor Brendan Keegan of the Benthos Research Group, NUI Galway’s SPI camera is now the most advanced in the world. This is due to development work carried out by Dr Kennedy as part of two projects he works on with Professor Keegan in the Environmental Change Institute, funded under the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions. The camera is set apart from its peers by its professional quality digital SLR equipment, allowing the storage of up to 1200 high quality images.

SPI is a rapid reconnaissance technique for mapping habitat quality on the soft seafloor. The technique uses an inverted periscope that slices vertically through surface sediments to photograph the upper 15-20cm in profile. This surface layer is very biologically and chemically active. Burrowing animals play a vital role in processing organic material that arrives from the water column by mixing sediments with the overlying water, a process termed bioturbation. SPI allows the quantification of the visible effects of bioturbation, and the production of maps of habitat quality on the ocean floor.

The Benthos Research Group, in NUI Galway, under its Director, Professor Brendan Keegan, first brought SPI technology to Europe, and remains at the forefront of development in the area. According to Dr Kennedy, “This SPI project is an example of successful collaboration between the experience of the Martin Ryan Institute, and the new thinking and emphasis on basic environmental research that is inherent in the ethos of the Environmental Change Institute, recently established at NUI Galway. It has enabled us to carry out excellent theoretical ecological work, which will stand to us as Europe attempts to manage its biodiversity in a changing world.”

Other participants in the Chilean cruise include the University of Roskilde, Denmark and Universidad Austral de Chile, who will study the pollution status of the overlying water and sediment column. This study will produce an integrated view of the Chilean coastal environment not previously recorded. Informed environmental management and sustainable development of the Chilean aquaculture sector will be facilitated by this study. A second cruise will follow in 2004.

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