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Recent habitat suitability models used to predict the occurrence of vulnerable marine species, particularly framework building cold-water corals, have identified terrain attributes such as slope and bathymetric position index as important predictive parameters. Due to their scale-dependent nature, a realistic representation of terrain attributes is crucial for the development of reliable habitat suitability models. In this paper, three known coral areas and a noncoral control area off the west coast of Ireland were chosen to assess quantitative and distributional differences between terrain attributes derived from bathymetry grids of varying resolution and information content. Correlation analysis identified consistent changes of terrain attributes as grain size was altered. Response characteristics and dimensions depended on terrain attribute types and the dominant morphological length-scales within the study areas. The subsequent effect on habitat suitability maps was demonstrated by preliminary models generated at different grain sizes. This study demonstrates that high resolution habitat suitability models based on terrain parameters derived from multibeam generated bathymetry are required to detect many of the topographical features found in Irish waters that are associated with coral. This has implications for marine spatial planning in the deep sea. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Marine Geodesy to view the free supplemental file. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During an investigation into the L2 proficiency and L3 acquisition skills of 10- to 12-year-olds in Irish primary schools, questions of metalinguistic awareness and cross-linguistic influence were raised. Do children who are more balanced bilinguals develop a higher sense of metalinguistic awareness than less balanced bilinguals? What evidence of cross-linguistic influence do those children display? Which language, or language teacher type, is most suitable in an Irish context for the development of these language learning skills? Following on from a primarily quantitative survey of all schools participating in the Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative in Ireland, and language testing of a smaller group of children, the evidence shows that more balanced bilinguals display a higher level of general proficiency and are more likely to independently display higher levels of metalinguistic awareness and evidence of cross-linguistic transfer. An examination of the features and characteristics of language and a summary of the main features of metalinguistic awareness and cross-linguistic influence provide a background for the results presented. The schools involved in the study include both early total immersion schools (Gaelscoileanna), where Irish is the language of instruction, and English-medium schools, where Irish is taught as L2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]