2018

As part of the “Modelling maerl habitat dynamics in response to increased storminess” project funded by Geological Survey Ireland, Dr Siddhi Joshi and Dr Eugene Farrell carried out fieldwork last week on Trá an Doilín maerl beach in Carraroe, County Galway. They monitored the morphodynamic change in the very dynamic intertidal swash zone using 7 ultrasonic downward-facing distance sensors mounted on a large frame. A Go Pro camera was attached to the frame and high resolution cross shore beach profiles were collected using GPS and UAV. The offshore wave climate in Greatmans Bay was measured using a Nortec AWAC sensor. Results will be combined with coupled models of the maerl beach (XBEACH) and with a nested regional hydrodynamic model of Galway Bay developed by the team. They would like to thank the great support from colleagues in NUIG Geography for their laboratory and field support during the project (Daithi Maguire, Kevin Lynch, Liam Carr, Siobhan Comer and Terry Morley) as well as the support from members of the local community. The results will be presented to the local community during a public talk upon completion of the project.