Dr. Stephen Waldren
Assoc Prof/ Curator of Botanic Gardens, Botany

Projects

• Title
  • Biodiversity and environmental change: an integrated study encompassing a range of scales, taxa and habitats
• Summary
  • This research cluster, involving researchers from eight institutions, will provide an integrative multi-disciplinary research framework for national and local biodiversity policy in Ireland. Core research in the cluster directly addresses the protection and management of ecological resources in the context of pressures that might lead to environmental change by focusing on habitat fragmentation and loss, impacts of non-native species, climate change, pollution and resource management. The research will also extend capability by developing fundamental biodiversity research and capacity building in taxonomic skills as well as biodiversity indicators and biomonitoring tools. Additionally, two cross-cutting research projects will make specific progress in the inventory and output of taxonomic data and in the understanding of political processes, including public participation, that also shape biodiversity policies. While utilising national information were appropriate primary data collection will be concentrated in the greater County Clare area to maximise integration across disciplines, habitats, taxa and drivers of change. Desk studies, workshops and working groups will synthesise current knowledge and identify priority areas for future research. Our strategic aim is to build a foundation for collaborative biodiversity research capacity in Ireland through a network of researchers delivering the high quality multidisciplinary research required for sustainable management of Ireland's biodiversity.
• Funding Agency
  • Environmental Protection Agency (~€1.6 million)
• Date From
  • Jan 2006
• Date To
  • July 2009

• Title
  • Assessing the Conservation Status of Turloughs
• Summary
  • This integrated, multidisciplinary project will for the first time integrate hydrological, biological and chemical nutrient data from selected turloughs. This novel approach will involve close collaboration between zoologists, botanists, limnologists and hydrogeologists with excellent track records of research in relevant areas. This team will collate existing disparate data, and generate a very large amount of novel data, in the key areas of: . turlough hydrology, . vegetation description, . aquatic algal and invertebrate communities, . soil and water nutrient chemistry. Standard, well-tested methodologies will be used throughout; the novel aspect of this project is in the integration of what are too often disparate disciplines. Integrated, consistent data drawn from the main research areas outlined above will be used to develop new models relating hydrology with turlough ecology, thereby providing improved ecological understanding of the main factors and processes affecting turlough biota. This will be used to formulate scientifically sound prescriptions for both monitoring and maintaining the international conservation value of this EU priority habitat.
• Funding Agency
  • National Parks & Wildlife Service (~€0.8 million)
• Date From
  • Jan 2006
• Date To
  • Jan 2010

• Title
  • Plant Conservation in the Kachenjunga National Park, Nepal
• Summary
  • This project will examine threats to the alpine plant communities, their traditional use by indigenous ethnic minority groups, and devise ways of ensuring conservation of the regions highly specialised plant diversity while also ensuring the sustainable livelihoods of local communities
• Funding Agency
  • IRCSET
• Date From
  • Oct 2008
• Date To
  • Oct 2011

• Title
  • Conservation biology of Trichomanes speciosum
• Summary
  • This project, a collaboration between the National Botanic Gardens and TCD, will examine the conservation biology of the Killarney Fern (Trichomanes speciosum), a species listed on the EU Habitats Directive. The project will develop appropriate monitoring protocols for the independent gametophyte and sporophyte generations, examine the level of threat to different populations, and assess the genetic diversity within and among Irish populations.
• Funding Agency
  • NPWS/National Botanic Gardens
• Date From
  • Oct 2008
• Date To
  • Apr 2012

• Title
  • Quantifying links between turlough vegetation community diversity and hydrology
• Summary
  • This project will derive quantitative relationships between the vegetation of turloughs (priority EU habitats, largely restricted to Ireland) and the incidence of flooding. Vegetation communities in a range of turlough basins will be described quantitatively, thereby providing great improvement on currently available qualitative descriptions. These data will be used to describe how vegetation changes along gradients of flooding, using data derived from continuously monitored water depth in selected turlough basins, and this approach will be used to derive predictive models of turlough vegetation in relation to flooding. The information provided will help to deliver both environmental and biodiversity conservation policy.
• Funding Agency
  • Environmental Protection Agency (€75,000)
• Date From
  • Oct 2005
• Date To
  • Oct 2008

• Title
  • Conservation biology of Saxifraga hirculus
• Summary
  • Saxifraga hirculus is a Red Databook species in Ireland and is a threatened plant of Eurpean interest (EU Habitats Directive annex 2). This project will examine the population structures and status, population genetics and clonal spread using AFLP, and reproductive biology of S. hirculus, which in Ireland is restricted to flushes in blanket bogs in Co. Mayo and in Antrim (Northern Ireland). Initial field work has already located several colonies not previously noted in the Irish Repubic. [In collaboration with Dr Deirdre Lynn. Personnel: Ms Caoimhe Muldoon]
• Funding Agency
  • National Parks & Wildlife Service
• Date From
  • April 2004
• Date To
  • April 2007

• Title
  • Conservation genetics of Luronium natans
• Summary
  • Luronium natans is known in the wild from a single population in a stream outflow from blanket of in Connemara. Questions have been raised about whether the plant is native or introduced into Ireland- this could greatly affect the conservation effort put into this taxon. Until the project can resolve the genetic relationship between the Irish, Welsh and NW English populations, it seems prudent to adopt the precautionary principle and ssume native status, as the existing population is small. The project will use AFLP to examine the genetic relationships among populations, and use DNA sequencing to determine a molecular method to differentiate the taxon from Baldellia ranunculoides, which when sterile is very difficult to separate from Luronium. [In collaboration with Dr Naomi Kingston. Personnel: Dr Rhian Smith.]
• Funding Agency
  • National Parks & Wildlife Service
• Date From
  • April 2004
• Date To
  • September 2004

• Title
  • Invasive species control and threatened plant recovery on Pitcairn Island, south-central Pacific Ocean
• Summary
  • This project works closely with the community of Pitcairn Island (most are direct descendents of teh Bounty mutineers) to control invasive Roseapple (Syzygium jambos) in selected experimental plots, and replant these areas with native trees propagated in the island nursery. In addition, monitoring of threatened native plant populations, initiated in 1997, has continued, and recovery of some of the most critically threatened taxa started. The endemic Abutilon pitcainense and Mysrine aff. niaensis, both considered extinct in 1997, have recently been refound and are in cultivation both on Pitcairn and in Trinity College Botanic Garden. Progeny raised from self pollinations will be genetically screened using AFLP to determine the most suitable individuals to initiate a breeding programme as the first step in the recovery of these globally threatened species. [Personnel: Ms Noeleen Smyth]
• Funding Agency
  • UK Fogeign & Commonwealth Office, IRCSET, Fauna & Flora International
• Date From
  • October 2002
• Date To
  • December 2005

• Title
  • Experminetal translocation of Otanthus maritimus and Gymnocarpium robertiananum
• Summary
  • Experimental translocations of Otanthus maritimus and Gymnocarpium robertianum began in 1996, and have been monitored by Dr Waldren and researchers since then. Both are restricted to single native sites in Ireland. Following an initial decline in survivorshipof Gymnocarpium, numbers have stabilised at about 18% survival: much of the initial decline can be attributed to an abnormally dry spring following translocation. For Otanthus the decline has been more progressive, caused by problems with the translocation microsite (erosion, competition from Ammophila arenaria). Further translocations were funded in 2003, and these will be monitored in 2004. [In collaboration with Dr Deirdre Lynn]
• Funding Agency
  • National Parks & Wildlife Service
• Date From
  • April 2003
• Date To
  • September 2004

• Title
  • Conservation biology and biogeography of Spiranthes romanzoffiana
• Summary
  • Spiranthes romanzoffiana is an amphi-Atlantic species, with the bulk of its global population in North America. In Europe the species is restricted to Ireland and some of the Hebridean islands of Scotland. In Ireland the species is rare and local, and populations often show very large annual fluctuations in the numbers of flowering spikes. The rarity coupled with highly disjunct didtribution has lead to suggestions that the species may be introduced in Ireland. This project aims to investigate the biogeography of the taxon using molecular tools (AFLP, microsatellites) while also assessing the ecology, population size and census, and reproductive biology of Irish populations. [Personnel: Mr Darach Lupton]
• Funding Agency
  • National Parks & Wildlife Service, Heritage Council, Trinity College post-graduate studentship
• Date From
  • April 2003
• Date To
  • April 2006

• Title
  • Nutrient fluxes in turlough soil and plants
• Summary
  • This project examines nutrient fluxes in turlough soils and their associated plant communities. Turloughs are temporary water bodies in karst limetsone in the west of Ireland. They lack an overground water exit and are intimately linked with subterranean water supply- hence nutrient inputs are often diffuse and catchment-based. This study is examining how patchy the distribution of plant-available nutrients is within and between contrasting turloughs, and whether variations in nutrients within turlough basins is an important driver of vegetation change within a basin. [Personnel: Ms Sarah Kimberley]
• Funding Agency
  • EPA ERTDI programme
• Date From
  • Oct 2002
• Date To
  • Oct 2005

• Title
  • Conservation genetics of Asparagus prostratus
• Summary
  • Asparagus prostratus (A. officinalis ssp. prostratus) is a prostrate coastal plant restricted to western Europe (Netherlands to western Spain). We have assessed the population size of all Irish populations, and collected silica-dried tissue material throughout the distribution of the species. We are currently completing AFLP analyses of this material, which will enable us to place the Irish and British populations in a wider European biogeographic setting, allowing us to comment on the global significance of these populations. [Personnel: Dr Rhian Smith]
• Funding Agency
  • National Parks & Wildlife Service, National Musuem & Gallery of Wales
• Date From
  • Oct 2000
• Date To
  • Oct 2002

• Title
  • Using molecular markers to study the historical biogeography of the 'Lusitanian' element in the Irish flora
• Summary
  • This project examined the history of Irish populations of species with a 'Lusitanean' distribution, especially Erica mackaiana, Erica ciliaris, Erica vagans, and Daboecia cantabrica, using molecular markers. Variation within and among Irish populations was compared with European populations using AFLP and microsatellite markers. Irish Daboecia populations showed a large separation from NW Spanish and Pyrenean populations, suggesting that the taxon has been genetically isolated from the continental material for a considerable period of time. Irish E. mackaiana populations also show some differentiation from continental populations, although there are problems with the Irish material due to hybridisation, and a more detailed study of the phylogeography of the taxon is needed which takes into account hybridisation with E. tetralix. [Personnel: Dr Naomi Kingston]
• Funding Agency
  • Enterprise Ireland
• Date From
  • Oct 2000
• Date To
  • Oct 2002

• Title
  • The effects of management practices on the dynamics and conservation status of turlough plant communities
• Summary
  • There were two main objectives to this project: (i) Examination of the effect of grazing and fertilization on turlough swards, using field plots, (ii) Investigation of the molecular evolution of the physiologically and morphologically distinct turlough form of Ranunculus repens. Field plots show immediate effects of both fertilizer applcation and grazing, with both tending to reduce diversity. Molecular studies (ISSR, AFLP) on R. repens revealed that many genotypes may be present in a turlough basin, despite the obvious capacity for clonal growth. Moreover, comparison of genetci variation among different turlough populations suggests that turlough plants may be more closely related to each other than to R. repens populations in other habitats. A form of R. repens with finely dissected leaves also occurs in the Breckland meres: our molecular data suggest it is not genetically very close to the morphologically similar turlough populations. [Personnel: Dr. Deirdre Lynn, Ms. Susan Murphy]
• Funding Agency
  • Enterprise Ireland
• Date From
  • Oct 1999
• Date To
  • Oct 2002

• Title
  • Conservation biology of Colchicum autumnale and Campanula trachelium
• Summary
  • This project has focussed on the conservation biology of two rare species whose distribution centres on the Nore Valley. Populations have been censussed, there reproductive output assessed and conservation genetics examined using AFLP. Some doubts have previously been raised about the native status of Colchicum in Ireland, but use of molecular markers indicates a large proportion of genetic variation within Irish populations, similar to that found in other western European populations; moreover, the Irish and British populations form well supported group together with populations from NW Spain, and this group is genetcially distinct from the French and Pyrenean (both French and Spanish) populations. Campanula exists as fragmented populations, and experimental work suggests that the smaller populations may be suffereing from the effects of inbreeding. Male-sterile plants have been recorded in Irish populations of this species with variable frequency. [Personnel: Dr Rhian Smith who has recently successfully defended her Ph.D thesis]
• Funding Agency
  • National Parks & Wildlife Service, Trinity College post-graduate studentship
• Date From
  • October 1997
• Date To
  • April 2004

• Title
  • Genetic variation in native populations of Irish Ash (Fraxinus excelsior)
• Summary
  • Ash is a native hardwood which has great potential for development as a major productive species for farm forestry. It is valued for its strong and flexible timber and currently its demand greatly exceeds supply. The main aim of this project is to undertake research that will improve the agronomic characteristics of the crop. We will determine genetic variation within and between natural populations of Irish ash using powerful molecular techniques including, microsatellite, AFLPs and chloroplast DNA markers to enable foresters to select optimal material for planting and for breeders to select appropriate locally adapted genotypes for crop development schemes. Molecular marker systems are also required for marker aided selection purposes and for the mapping of Quantatative Trait Loci (QTLs). [In collaboration with Dr. Trevor Hodkinson and Dr. Gerry Douglas (Teagasc). Personnel: Ms Maeve Harbourne]
• Funding Agency
  • Teagasc (Walsh Fellowship)
• Date From
  • October 2001
• Date To
  • September 2004

• Title
  • Biogeography and speciation of the genus Peperomia Ruiz & Pavón in Eastern Polynesia
• Summary
  • This project used DNA sequencing (plastid trnL-F; nuclear ITS) and moprphologial characters to assess variation within and among species of Peperomia in south eastern Polynesia (Australs, Society, Pitcairns, Cook islands). Morphological characters are highly cryptic due to the reduced nature of the flowers in Peperomia, but sequencing provided informative characters that could separate species and allow assessment of their biogeography. in some cases there was evidence of hybridisation, and AFLP helped to resolve these issues. Essentially, there are a small number of taxa (e.g. P. blanda) which occur widely in the Pacific (and elsewhere) but have not speciated. Other clades have speciated widely, resulting in other widespread species but also a number of local (archipelago or single island) endemics. A small number of taxa show wide disjunctions, and theproblem of understanding these is often clouded by hybridisation. [Personnel: Dr Una Bradley]
• Funding Agency
  • Trinity College post-graduate studentship, Enterprise Ireland studentship
• Date From
  • October 1999
• Date To
  • October 2002