MANTEL ITN
Management of climatic extreme events in lakes and reservoirs for the protection of ecosystem services
Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland
The Centre for Freshwater and Environmental Studies at Dundalk Institute of Technology is the Coordinating Institute of the MANTEL ITN
Personnel
Eleanor Jennings is Co-ordinator of the MANTEL ITN Project, and is Director of the Centre for Freshwater and Environmental Studies at Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland. Her main research interests are nutrient and carbon cycling, and modelling of catchment and in-lake processes, including climate change impacts. To date she has collaborated on over 25 national and EU funded projects. Through this work Eleanor has active and on-going collaborations with groups in Europe and globally. In addition to MANTEL, Eleanor co-leads the BEYOND 2020 research cluster (contributing to the Burrishoole Ecological Observatory in collaboration with the Marine Institute (2017-2020)); leads research into dissolved organic
carbon processing in humic lakes (a Marine Institute Cullen Fellowship); cattle exclusion from watercourses (EPA Ireland-funded COSAINT project); integrated catchment management projects (TIMe and Extra-TIMe projects, EPA funded); and application of near-real time modelling to manage lakes and reservoirs as part of the Water JPI PROGNOS project. Eleanor is an active member of GLEON (Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network), and was Chair of the NETLAKE COST Action (2012-2016) which now continues as a European community for those interested in high frequency monitoring in aquatic systems.
Valerie McCarthy is a lecturer and principle investigator at the Centre for Freshwater and Environmental Sciences at Dundalk Institute of Technology, and is co-supervisor of Ewan Geffroy (ESR for Project 4). Her research interests are concerned with theoretical community and ecosystem ecology in freshwater systems and investigating the linkages between aquatic systems and their catchments. Valerie completed a PhD in Freshwater Ecology at Trinity College, Dublin under the EPA ERDTI Programme (2002-PHD-2-36), investigating elemental limitation in zooplankton food supply and its effects on zooplankton community structure and pelagic trophic interactions. Her current work focuses on how lake and wetland systems
respond to perturbations arising both directly and indirectly from human induced impacts such as nutrient loading and climate change. She was lead researcher on the Wetland Project, which formed part of the Interreg IVA Tellus Border Project, 2011 – 2013. Valerie has previously managed a DoELG-funded project assessing the impact of wastewater treatment systems on surface water quality and is currently collaborating with Queens University, Belfast on a project investigating ecohydrological and biogeochemical processes in groundwater dependant wetlands.
Harriet Wilson is the ESR working on MANTEL Project 1. Harriet has a varied academic and research background, including a mixture of physical and social science, as well as field and computer based studies. She studied Geography at King’s College London, where she focused on hydrological modelling and remote sensing. In her second year, Harriet went to Ecuador as part of the Royal Geographical Society Field Work expedition program. For her research project she worked with low-cost Arduino sensors to characterise stream temperature dynamics, and then interpolated this data into a catchment wide model. Following the completion of her degree, Harriet then worked as a research assistant on a remote sensing project related to algal blooms.
