APS255

Environmental

Interpretation Field Course

(Ireland)

6th-14th April 2019

Lough Mask at Petersburg Outdoor Education Centre

http://www.petersburg.ie/

Environmental InterpretationUnderstanding what controls the

present day landscape, and

ecology. How the forces of nature

and the effects of humans have

affected the world.

Present day vegetation and landuse

Historical landuse legacy

Prehistoric landuse legacy

Postglacial vegetation history

Soils- formation and use

Sources and origins of soil

Geology & landforms

Glacial processes

Lough Corrib

Introductory lectures in Semester 2a in advance of the field course

1. Introduction to Environmental Interpretation

2. Glacial and post-glacial Ireland

3. Human impacts on the Irish Landscape

4. Irish woodland history and conservation value

5. Geological history of Western Ireland

6. Research projects and final instructions

Petersburg Outdoor Education

Centre located on the Southern

shore of Lough Mask.

Petersburg Outdoor Education

Centre located on the Southern

shore of Lough Mask.

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We have a coach that takes us from

Sheffield to Holyhead on Saturday

morning and on a ferry to Dublin port

on the afternoon to arrive at

Petersburg in the evening.

On Sunday we return by the same

route to Sheffield.

Where we stay AccommodationWe stay in ensuite rooms with 2 bunk beds in each room, and are

fully catered.

We have meeting room and lab/work space available for study.

Teaching arrangements

• We will spend five days in the field carrying out a programme of studies

and collecting data on specific habitats and environmental variables and

learning techniques.

• Short lectures will be given to introduce the activities of each day.

• In the evenings data will be collated by all groups and written up in short

reports, posters or presentations.

• The 6th day will be dedicated to project work carried out in small groups,

together with data analysis.

• The 7th day will involve presentations of the group project results,

feedback on this, and then the writing of individual reports on the project.

Sat Sun-1 Mon-2 Tues-3 Wed-4 Thur-5 Fri-6 Sat-7 Sun

Travel Woodland conservation assessment, ancient woodland indicator species, habitat surveys.

Hot rocks and cold ice-from ancient volcanoes to the effects of the last ice age- forces shaping the landscape.

Soil and substrate controls on past and present land use and vegetation in the uplands.

Water-Rock interactions. Pathways & properties of water flow through the Lough Mask catchment.

Connemara: biodiversity, coastal habitats,landscape and Earth history.

Research Project in ClonburWood

Project presentation and write-up

Travel

Aims and ObjectivesThe field course is designed to provide an introduction to the environment of

Western Ireland, with particular emphasis on the use of interdisciplinary skills for

environmental interpretation and assessment.

This course will provide an in-depth study of some important habitats, including an

assessment of the impacts of humans and background information on the

historical, political and economic factors governing land usage in the region.

It will provide training in techniques used for mapping and defining different types

of habitats, identification of important functional groups of plants, and the ecology

of different major habitat types.

It will consider plant adaptive traits and includes seeing rare species with extreme

adaptations such as several plant species that do not photosynthesise but instead

are parasitic on other plants or on mycorrhizal fungi of other plants.

The course will provide opportunities to examine the processes that have shaped

the landscape and use lectures and field teaching to consider the geological and

glacial history of the region, how humans have used the land and the resulting

patterns and processes that control the distribution of organisms today.

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Red spots mark

locations visited

and studied in detail.

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The

Field

centre

Environmental Interpretation Field Course

Acquired skills and knowledgeYou may expect to acquire skills in:

Recognition of major habitat types and use of habitat surveys and habitat mapping.

Conservation value assessments

Techniques for sampling and recording vegetation and selected environmental variables.

Plant species identification including indicators of ancient woodlands, grassland and moorland species.

Investigation of effects of land-use history and management on soil and vegetation.

Investigation of relationships between vegetation composition, plant adaptations, and environmental variables.

Geological and palaeo environment interpretation.

Interpretation of glacial features in the landscape.

Study of water chemistry and how it changes through interactions with different rock types.

For the west of Ireland you may expect to acquire knowledge and understanding of the:

Characteristics of the main vegetation types.

Some characteristics of the main types of soil and peat bogs.

History of land use and land occupation and the impact of humans on the environment.Characteristics of the main rock types and the sequence in which they occur and their relationships to the geological history

of the Earth.

Some highlights

Habitats: Rare semi-natural Irish woodland with natural regeneration and veteran trees; lakeshore habitats in

woodland and limestone pavement with specialist adapted species; acid upland grasslands, and bogs; highly

biodiverse machair grasslands on coastal wind-blown sand, sand dunes; rocky and sandy beaches.

Plants: Woodland habitats, woodland lichens including rare species such as Loberia pulmonaria and L. virens.

Rare plants including heathers, orchids and parasitic plants such as Lathraea squamaria and Monotropa

hypopitys see: http://sppaccounts.bsbi.org/content/monotropa-hypopitys.html; grassland, moorland, peat bog,

and machair grassland species.

Fauna: red squirrels (sometimes), Irish Hare, bats, many birds, insects, brimstone butterflies. Ferox trout from

Lough Mask. Invasive alien species including zebra mussels which have invaded Lough Corrib and Lough

Mask.

Sandy beaches made up of coralline algae and by tiny sea shells of foraminifera – one of the most important

group of organisms in the oceans. Highly biodiverse coastal “coral” reefs. Carboniferous fossils of corals,

gastropods etc.

Water chemistry: Unique limestone dissolution processes including vertical tubular dissolution, limestone

caves and water passing underground and re-emerging. Impacts of rocks, urbanization and agriculture on

river and lake water quality and eutrophication problems.

Earth processes: A wide range of rock types formed by volcanic, intrusive, sedimentary and metamorphic

processes. Rocks of the oceanic crust that have erupted in a deep ocean, rocks that have erupted into shallow

ocean, rocks that have intruded into the continental crust. Sedimentary rocks that provide critical evidence of

“snowball earth” freezing over of the whole of the planet in the Precambrian era. Metamorphic rocks that have

been partially melted and recrystallized by deep burial under high temperatures and pressures. Evidence of

glacial erosion and sediment deposition at the end of the last ice age. Processes of weathering of rocks and

formation of soils.

Lake shore and woodland habitats

Deciduous and planted exotic conifer woods and

limestone pavement

Woodland specialist species

and ancient woodland indicators

Limestone pavements and species

associated with these habitats

Conservation value of woodlands

and UK National Vegetation

Classification (NVC) survey methods

Habitat survey methods

used by professional

Environmental

Consultants

Ecological and biogeochemical

effects of flooding of limestone by

Lough Mask

Boulders increasing dissolution

Tubular dissolution of limestone

Coolin Lough

Lough Mask

Upland ecology, landuse and substrates

Rig and furrow

former potato fields

Soils in the uplands: their

roles in the relationships

between past and present

land use and vegetation.

Grassland species

Carboniferous limestone

Granite

Metamorphosed sediments

Sedimentary and volcanic

The Geology of Ireland

Timeline of the

Field course sites

Pillow larva

Carboniferous fossil corals

Shell middens

from Neolithic

people

White sand beaches of foraminifera, ostracods

and sponge spines

Coastal erosion and the role of

vegetation adaptations required for

stabilizing dunes

Granite formation and

weathering processes

Species-rich machair grassland with exceptional floristic abundance and diversity

with orchids and hemi-parasitic plants along with a diverse array of insects and birds.

Some machair is threatened by erosion caused by rising sea levels, extreme storm

events, overgrazing and recreational use by humans.

‘Coral’ strands

Biodiverse “coral strand”

beaches comprised of shells

and algal biogenic carbonate

Assessment

The field course is a 10 credit module.

There are 4 components to the assessment.

1. Group work and Individual reports 30%

2. Field notebooks 30%

3. Group presentations 10%

4. Project report- handed in on last day 30%

All the assessed work is done on the course.

Student Feedback

“This was an amazing course and has provided me with more field knowledge than any other module.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable course and I believe I will keep my acquired skills throughout my life.”

“This field course has been the best part of University so far. I have learned more in a week than in many

weeks of lecture and the high number of staff makes everything more interesting.”

“Although the intensity of the work was high I found this by far the most rewarding module so far in terms

of learning experience and stimulation to learn”

“This course was very rewarding. The variety of different features and plant communities was very good. It

was incredibly useful to be able to talk and interact with the lecturers to further my specific interests. The

historical background was really interesting too. I love plants and biodiversity and conservation surveying”.

“This field course was organized very well. It had the right balance between lectures, guided walks and

practical assessments. The areas covered by the course were very varied but always relevant to the main

aim. Challenging but not too difficult. The input of the staff members was very impressive. They were

very helpful, well prepared and always willing to answer questions”

“Coming from a biology background I was worried that I would find some of the more geography-based

content of the field course difficult. However, I found that the intensive nature of the trip with plenty of

staff contact allowed me to ask questions when I needed to. I also met many new people from my course

which I am very happy about.”

“This course taught me how to design and analyse experiments in the most efficient way. Compared to

the other courses this field course gave me very clear aims and well structured tasks every day.”

“This very intensive course gave me many useful and transferable skills for both my potential 3rd year

project and post University life. As someone who knew little about plant identification and many aspects of

ecology I never felt I couldn’t ask someone. I made some good friends and the group size seemed to

work well”.

The evening view from Petersburg Outdoor Education Centre

across Lough Mask http://www.petersburg.ie/

Passports

You will need a valid passport.

If you do not hold a passport you will need to apply for one.

If you are not a UK/ EU citizen you may need an entry Visa for which you may need

to pay a fee.

You will need some spending money (euros) for food and drink on the journey to and

from the field centre.

No alcohol is allowed at the field centre or on the bus.