Irish Geography

Transforming the Fisheries by Patrick Bresnihan

2022-06-30T03:22:03+00:00

Supporting the public health response to COVID-19 in Ireland: the role of HIQA

2022-06-30T02:19:16+00:00

The Geographies Closest in: Intimate Geographies and/of COVID19

2022-06-30T02:28:20+00:00

Health and Wellbeing under COVID-19: The GreenCOVID Survey

2022-06-30T02:45:24+00:00

Excess Mortality in Dublin during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Using RIP.ie as a geographical source

2022-06-30T02:58:40+00:00

Back gardens and friends: the impact of COVID-19 on children and adolescents use of, and access to, outdoor spaces

2022-06-30T03:05:41+00:00

The Public Health (Alcohol) Act: Spatial issues and glaring gaps

2022-06-30T03:13:22+00:00

John Harwood Andrews, 1927-2019

2022-06-30T03:29:46+00:00

Incorporating host-parasite biotic factors in species distribution models: Modelling the distribution of the castor bean tick, Ixodes ricinus.

2022-06-30T00:10:55+00:00

Understanding where ticks are found, and the drivers of their geographic distributions is imperative for successful epidemiological precautions. Predictive models of tick distributions are often projected using solely abiotic (e.g. climate) variables, despite the strong biotic interaction that host species undoubtedly have with parasitic species. We used species distribution modelling to project the distribution of Ixodes ricinus in Ireland and the United Kingdom using different combinations of abiotic, biotic, and abiotic-biotic variables. We found that models parameterised solely on abiotic variables generally reported lower accuracy and ecological realism than models that incorporated biotic factors alongside climate. We also investigated representation of host distribution in models, testing four different methods (habitat suitability of individual hosts, presence-absence of individual hosts, ensembled habitat suitability, and ensembled presence-absence). Biotic representations of ensembles host distributions alongside abiotic variables reported the highest accuracy, with the variable representing host diversity (e.g. number of host species) the most important variable when measured using a jackknife test. Moreover, our results suggested how host distributions are represented (i.e. presence-absence, habitat suitability) greatly impacted results, with differences reported among habitat specialists and generalists. Results suggest that it is now imperative for projections of parasitic species to include a representation of biotic factors with host species. This research has improved our understanding of the drivers of tick distributions in a national context, and the investigation of biotic representation should foster discussion among researchers working in species distribution modelling and the wider biogeography discipline.

The Wild Atlantic Way – A Tourism Journey

2022-06-30T01:48:54+00:00

The Wild Atlantic Way is possibly the most celebrated, high profile tourism initiative to be launched in Ireland in recent years. It consists of a defined touring route along the western seaboard, one of the most scenic, remote, and sensitive stretches of Irish landscape. This paper presents the principal findings from a survey of 341 tourism and hospitality product providers along the Wild Atlantic Way. The main aim of the research was to investigate the perceived impacts (economic, environmental, and socio-cultural) of this new tourism initiative on the local areas through which it passes. The results paint a generally positive picture of the effects of the route so far. However, a number of significant issues are of concern to many of the respondents; these include insufficient or inappropriate infrastructure, heightened traffic problems, increased pressure on local facilities and the perception of imbalance with regard to the dispersal of economic gain from the route. The importance of striking a balance between accessibility and sustainability is a key message which can be taken from the study.