The aim of this course is to help you understand the environment and how it functions. At the end of the week, you will be able to interpret the landscape and ecology of Southwest Donegal. You will also learn how humans impacted this landscape over the past 6,000 years and will be able to formulate a view about how climate change will impact the environment in the future.
During the week we will explore:
This is a practical field course and you will be in the field every day. You will:
You will see evidence of threats to local ecosystems including the impacts of:
You will visit some pristine ecosystems and sites of scientific interest (Special Areas of Conservation) including:
While the course will provide detailed understanding of the ecology of South West Donegal, the principles you learn can be applied to any ecosystem on the planet.
This is a field course and you should be fit enough to spend time in the field each day and able to walk up mountains. You should wear strong boots and warm, waterproof clothing. You will not be permitted to participate in the field work if you do not have the suitable clothing and footwear.
Liam Dolan is a botanist. He uses genetics and paleontology in his research to understand how plants grow since plants colonized the land 500 million years ago. Liam is the Deputy Director of the Gregor Mendel Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna and a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He was the Sherardian Professor of Botany at Oxford University until 2020 and The Queens Trustee at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew until 2022. Liam grew up in Dublin and studied at University College Dublin and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He has been teaching at Oideas Gael since 2007 and wrote the weekly column, Nod don Eolaí at Tuairisc.ie between 2017 and 2018. He is a fellow of the Royal Society.