Tag: Fieldwork
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Strangford Lough flora: an update
Since 2022 I have been recording the flora of some islands in Strangford Lough. I received a Plant Study Grant from the BSBI to work on this in the Summer of 2022 but as it turned out I had committed to a much bigger project than I first thought! I recently submitted my records and…
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Plasmopara euphrasiae: a downy mildew species new to Ireland
Slievenacloy Nature Reserve is an Ulster Wildlife reserve in Antrim. It is very well managed for upland grassland, with a wealth of Devil’s-Bit dominated grassland. I was there for the first time ever on the eleventh of August, and was very impressed by how rich and large the reserve is. In one of the fields…
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Autumn Lady’s Tresses: an orchid species new to Ulster
On the thirteenth of August, I was at Killard National Nature Reserve, Co. Down, with my mum. We were looking for Frog Orchids and other species rare in the county like Quaking Grass and Field Scabious. She found a plant she didn’t recognise and asked me what it was, and it was Autumn Lady’s Tresses.…
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Comparing parasite and host strategies in a Portuguese grassland
This was a small project we threw together over three days on our Plant Sciences fieldtrip to Portugal. Our project compared the strategies used by two parasitic plants in the Orobanchaceae and a shared host species in the Fabaceae.
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Fen soil carbon flux
Today I had the opportunity to work as a field assistant with a PhD student, Thomas Marquand. He is researching CO₂ and methane dynamics in soil in restored and reclaimed fens in East Anglia (with the Centre for Landscape Regeneration). We took samples from the fen exhibit in the Cambridge Botanic Gardens and used a…
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British and Irish Botanical Conference, November 22
Today I went to the BSBI’s November conference in the Natural History Museum in London to present my poster on my summer project surveying islands on Strangford Lough, and do a 60 second flash talk. It was really great to meet other people who are passionate about plants and learn from them.
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Annual Beard-grass: a new species for County Down (H38)
03/11/2023 EDIT: actually a rediscovery, this species was recorded in Belfast pre-1930 Earlier this year, I found a species of grass I didn’t recognise, growing as a pavement plant in East Belfast. With a guide I identified it as Polypogon monspeliensis (Annual Beard-grass), a new species for County Down. This species is known from Dublin…
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The Islands Project
This summer I am cataloguing the flora and plant communities of twelve islands in Strangford Lough, with the help of a BSBI Plant Study Grant. The goal is to have a complete species list of each island and a map showing all of the plant communities and where they occur.
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Sligo Stromatolites
In July I spent a few days in Sligo as a field assistant with an international, interdisciplinary team who are studying peritidal stromatolites. Stromatolites are layered rock formations created by microbes, and peritidal stromatolites form in the area of the shore that is covered by the tide and above where it receives sea spray.