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Monitoring of cold-water corals (CWCs) for pathogens and diseases is limited due to the environment, protected nature of the corals and their habitat and as well as the challenging and sampling effort required. It is recognised that environmental factors such as temperature and pH can expedite the ability of pathogens to cause diseases in cold-water corals therefore the characterisation of pathogen diversity, prevalence and associated pathologies is essential. The present study combined histology andpolymerase chain reaction(PCR) diagnostic techniques to screen for two significant pathogen groups (bacteria of the genusVibrioand theprotozoanHaplosporidia) in the dominant NE Atlantic deep-water framework coralsLophelia pertusa(13 colonies) andMadrepora oculata(2 colonies) at three sampling locations (canyon head, south branch and the flank) in the Porcupine Bank Canyon (PBC), NE Atlantic. OneM. oculatacolony and fourL. pertusacolonies were collected from both the canyon flank and the south branch whilst fiveL. pertusacolonies were collected from the canyon head. No pathogens were detected in theM. oculatasamples. Neither histology nor PCR detectedVibriospp. inL. pertusa, although Illumina technology used in this study to profile the CWCsmicrobiome, detectedV. shilonii(0.03%) in a singleL. pertusaindividual, from the canyon head, that had also been screened in this study. A macroborer was observed at a prevalence of 0.07% at the canyon head only. Rickettsiales-like organisms (RLOs) were visualised with an overall prevalence of 40% and with a low intensity of 1 to 4 (RLO) colonies per individual polyp by histology.L. pertusafrom the PBC canyon head had an RLO prevalence of 13.3% with the highest detection of 26.7% recorded in the south branch corals. Similarly, unidentified cells observed inL. pertusafrom the south branch (20%) were more common than those observed inL. pertusafrom the canyon head (6.7%). No RLOs or unidentified cells were observed in corals from the flank. Mean particulate organic matter concentration is highest in the south branch (2,612μgl−1) followed by the canyon head (1,065μgl−1) and lowest at the canyon flank (494μgl−1). Although the route of pathogen entry and the impact of RLO infection onL. pertusais unclear, particulate availability and the feeding strategies employed by the scleractinian corals may be influencing their exposure to pathogens. The absence of a pathogen inM. oculatamay be attributed to the smaller number of colonies screened or the narrower diet inM. oculatacompared to the unrestricted diet exhibited inL. pertusa, if ingestion is a route of entry for pathogen groups. The findings of this study also shed some light on how environmental conditions experienced by deep sea organisms and their life strategies may be limiting pathogen diversity and prevalence.

The present study assessed the effects of a distinct visual stimulus (a light) associated with each component of a four-component chain of nonsense syllables. When these added lights were used to train the chains of nonsense syllables, speed of acquisition was unaffected, but errors were reduced, loss of previously acquired responses was reduced, and the probability of correct responding independent of imitative prompts was increased. (Author)

This report assesses the quality and availability of data resources applicable to offshore wind farm development on the continental shelf of Ireland. Research was guided by five aims: · Establish data standards · Outline data requirements · Describe available data · Reveal data gaps · Use data assessments to strategize future work To address these objectives systematically, a meta-analysis of peer-reviewed offshore windfarm site analyses was performed. This analysis revealed standards in the types of variables, methods, and data resolutions used in such analyses. This standard was used to guide the data assessment for development of Ireland’s offshore wind-energy industry. Wind data were found to be the most commonly used variables in the reviewed literature, followed by water depth and protected areas. Conversely, geological characteristics and shipwreck locations were the least examined variables. Methodological commonalities from the literature review also suggest a multi-phase assessment structure for site assessments. Following this standard, variables are organised into two distinct groups: utilization restrictions (i.e. exclusion-zone variables) and de-risking factors (i.e. suitability variables). Similarly, a format for future analysis is suggested that uses these variables in two phases of assessment: an initial, low-resolution examination, followed by more focused examinations of specific regions.

This report presents the work done to rank the importance of the GIS parameters used in EirWind’s spatial MCDA. This is a crucial step in ensuring transparency in the MCDA’s design. Because the GIS model is modular and its parameters’ weights can be modified, this document also helps guarantee the best possible performance of the model by its various end users. Thus, this work serves as a bridge between the EirWind researchers, the diverse experts who provided input used to inform the MCDA, and the users of the final GIS model. The importance of individual GIS parameters was assessed using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) analyses on a set of nine criteria (the largest set likely to be viable for this type of assessment). AHP is a common technique for deriving scores of importance “weights” for sets of disparate parameters or criteria. For this research, AHP analyses were applied to survey responses from 25 experts in industrial or research positions. AHP results were assessed against more intuitive, general statistics for the same set of criteria. The validity of the AHP responses was assessed using a consistency ratio calculated from the pairwise response matrix of each respondent. When required, AHP responses were adjusted to increase consistency. Results are reported in sets that differentiate the adjusted results from others categorised by internal consistency of the responses. Thevalues from the adjusted set of AHP calculations was deemed the most likely to balance validity and representativeness. These results reveal wind speed (energy) to be the most important criteria, followed by water depth and visual impact. Ocean currents and geological criteria were found to be the least important. The adjusted AHP scores for all criteria are summarised in Figure ES1. The AHP analyses are used to inform weights (i.e. relative importance) of individual GIS parameters that make up a geospatial multi-criteria decision aid (MCDA). The assessments presented in this report suggest that the adjusted AHP values are most correct for this purpose. However, these results are only an attempt to maximise objectivity in an otherwise subjective endeavour. End users of the MCDA are free to assign GIS weights as they see fit and the model has been designed to facilitate this. Thus, results on the ranking of criteria importance are presented from five different assessments in this report.&nbsp