Complex Ecological and Evolutionary Systems

Mafalda Viana

Member of the Trinity Centre for Biodiversity Research & Complex Ecological and Evolutionary Systems & Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology Group

Research Interests

My main research interest is in ecological patterns and processes. I am particularly interested in modelling the spatial and temporal dynamics of systems, be these populations, species, assemblages or communities. I use these models to elucidate the causes and processes driving the formation of these spatio-temporal patterns and the consequences of these patterns for the system and/or the environment.

PhD project: Spatial and temporal patterns in discarding practices of the Irish fisheries.

Discards is the portion of the catch returned to sea. It is estimated that approximately 23% of the total world catch is discarded which raises many ecological and conservation concerns as their survival rate is extremely low. Mainly due to lack of data, very little is known about the spatial and temporal distribution of discards. The main aim of this PhD project is to model the spatial and temporal dynamics of discards in order to identify its underlying drivers and understand the discarding process to inform future mitigation plans for Irish waters.

This project (PhD/FS/08/001(01)) is carried out under the Sea Change strategy with the support of the Marine Institute and the Marine Research Sub-programme of the National Development Plan 2007–2013, co-financed under the European Regional Development Fund.

Peer-reviewed publications

Viana, M., Jackson, A.L., Graham, N. & Parnell, A.C. Accepted. Disentangling spatio-temporal processes in a hierarchical system: a case study in fisheries data. Ecography. doi

Viana, M., Graham, N., Wilson, J.G. & Jackson, A.L. 2011. Fisheries discards in the Irish Sea (Division VIIa) exhibit temporal oscillations and trends reflecting underlying processes at an annual scale. ICES Journal of Marine Science 68(1) 221-227. doi

Viana, M., Pierce, G.J., Illian, J., MacLeod, C.D., Bailey, N., Wang, J.J. & Hastie, L.C. (2009) Seasonal movements of veined squid Loligo forbesi in Scottish (UK) waters. Aquatic Living Resources, 22(3), 291-305. doi

Pierce, G.J., Valavanis, V.D., Guerra, A., Jereb, P., Orsi-Relini, L., Bellido, J.M., Katara, I., Piatkowski, U., Pereira, J., Balguerias, E., Sobrino, I., Lefkaditou, E., Wang, J., Santurtun, M., Boyle, P.R., Hastie, L.C., MacLeod, C.D., Smith, J.M., Viana, M., Gonzalez, A.F. & Zuur, A.F. (2008) A review of cephalopod-environment interactions in European Seas. Hydrobiologia, 612, 49-70. doi

Conferences

• ICES ASC 2010 - A multilevel approach to understanding fisheries discards in Irish Waters. Nantes, France.
• ISEC 2010 – Multilevel modelling of fisheries discards informs sampling design and directs further research to identify causes. Kent, UK.
• Linking Advice, Research and the Fishing Industry 2010 - Temporal oscillations of fisheries discards in the Irish Sea. Galway, Ireland.
• ICES ASC 2009 – Basis for a Bayesian Approach to Fisheries Discards. Berlin, Germany (Poster).
• CIAC 2009 – Evidence on Loligo movements in Scottish waters. Vigo, Spain.