Research Highlights
A selection of recent accomplishments from around our School drawn from the Disciplines of Botany, Geography, Geology, Zoology, Centre for the Environment, and the Trinity Centre for Biodiversity Research.
A new model for early planet formation
The Earth and other planets formed soon after the birth of the solar system, 4567 million years ago, by mergers of much smaller planets, which themselves grew from dust and gas in a huge rotating disk around the infant Sun. Remnants of those small transitional planets still exist today in the asteroid belt, beyond the orbit of Mars, and bits of them are delivered to Earth as meteorites. The evidence preserved in those meteorites helps reconstruct the initial planet-forming processes. Trinity Geologist Dr Ian Sanders and Ed Scott of the University of Hawaii published a novel interpretation of the evidence in meteorites for the first steps in planet formation in the international journal Meteorics and Planetary Science. Rejecting the current model, they propose that the first small planets accumulated directly from dust that was highly radioactive, and then underwent rapid internal meltdown, so that subsequent collisions and mergers between them launched their molten contents in enormous plumes of droplets of frozen magma. Many researchers herald the new model as a paradigm shift in mainstream thinking.
Primates and novel human diseases
Many devastating human infectious diseases, including HIV and malaria, originated in wild primates. New research by Dr Natalie Cooper of the School of Natural Sciences and the Trinity Centre for Biodiversity Research and her collaborators at Harvard aims to use information on how parasites are shared among primate species to determine which diseases may emerge in humans in the future. In a paper published in the top ecology journal Ecology Letters, Dr Cooper and colleagues showed that closely-related primate species tended to share the most parasites, but also that factors such as contact rates were important in determining how parasites were shared. They also found that viruses were far less specific in the types of primates they infected. This research implies that although novel human diseases are likely to originate in our close relatives, novel viruses may be transmitted by any species we have regular contact with, including domesticated animals and pests.
Launch of cutting edge geochemical facility
A team of Geologists lead by the newly appointed Chair in Geology, Prof Balz Kamber have set up a new facility providing cutting edge analytical advances in geochemical research. This facility has lead to break-throughs in refinement of geochronological techniques that underpin accurate ageing of geological formations and hence gives ever more accurate understanding of the processes that have shaped Earth. Dr David Chew and co-author Donelick (Chew & Donelick 2012) made advances in dating techniques of apatite that provides a powerful new tool in sediment provenance studies. Dr Quentin Crowley was part of a team that demonstrated a solution to a longstanding problem of lead-loss when dating the mineral zircon (Kryza et al 2012). Prof Balz Kamber co-authored a research paper with his PhD student Joe Petrus that introduces a novel, robust and intuitive way of handling U-Pb isotope data produced by ICP mass spectrometers (Petrus & Kamber 2012). Collectively, these publications are advancing the field of geochronology and will find followers who will use the proposed analytical protocols to further their own analytical studies.
Our Deep Sea Heritage
Given the challenges imposed on the survivability of our marine heritage with predicted global environmental change, particularly deep-sea coral reefs, that are thought to be of major importance to sustain deep-sea fishing stocks, research into the current pressures acting upon coral growth is paramount for management of our future natural resources in the deep sea. The School of Natural Science’s biogeochemistry research group led by Dr Carlos Rocha has recently marked the return of Trinity to Deep-Sea research by publishing their findings in the international peer-reviewed journal Deep-Sea Research Part I. The group is now on the verge of understanding how corals grow in the deep and to what biological or environmental rhythm. This on-going work will assess whether they can be used as an archive of recent environmental change, through collaborative links with laboratories in Germany and developing collaborations in Sweden.
Biodiversity loss and ecosystem stability
Understanding how species extinctions affect the stability of ecosystems is fundamental to the prediction of future biodiversity loss and to ensuring the reliable provision of ecosystem services. Led by Dr Ian Donohue of the School of Natural Sciences, a team of researchers from the Trinity Centre for Biodiversity Research including principle investigator Dr Andrew Jackson, together with collaborators from Northern Ireland, Spain and Switzerland, found that the destabilising effect of biodiversity loss is likely to be considerably greater than thought previously. In their paper published in the leading ecology journal Ecology Letters, Dr. Donohue and colleagues demonstrate for the first time that different species contribute in different ways to the maintenance of stability in ecosystems. Their research indicates that we currently underestimate significantly the overall destabilizing effect of biodiversity loss and thus the true scale of the global extinction crisis that we face.
Geography of the Red Planet
A recent appointment to the School of Natural Sciences, Geographer Dr Mary Bourke studies the physical geography of Mars. She recently discovered a new class of landform that is only found on Martian sand dunes. These furrows form on the surface of dunes under a seasonal carbon dioxide ice sheet. Gas pressure is built up during sublimation and escapes at high velocity to the surface through cracks in the ice bringing dune sediment with it. This newly identified sediment transport process on dunes may mobilise the same volume of sand as the Martian winds, thus making it a unique and important sediment transport process that continues to shape the landscape of our nearest planetary neighbour.
Definitively documenting Ireland’s plant diversity
Plants form a core element of biodiversity and any assessment of biodiversity requires an accurate baseline assessment to be available. Webb's An Irish Flora published by School of Natural Sciences Professor of Systematic Botany John Parnell and principal investigator in the Trinity Centre for Biodiversity Research in collaboration with Dr Tom Curtis in 2012 provides a clear and reliable means of identifying all higher plants that grow wild in Ireland. The book includes all native higher plants and introduced taxa with at least five post-1987 records. Arranged so as to reflect current advances in the genetic understanding of plant evolution it provides the definitive means to identify and document Ireland’s floral biodiversity, as well as providing ecological, breeding biology, habitat preference data and biogeographic information. It is now used by environmental consultants, the general public, students, professional and amateur botanists as well as in University student training.