My PhD, which began in July 2015, is funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Services and aims to develop a monitoring strategy for burrow nesting seabirds in Ireland. These include the Atlantic Puffin, Manx Shearwater and European Storm Petrel. I am particularly interested in long-term monitoring studies, primarily the effects of anthropogenic activities and climate change on the population dynamics and distribution of seabirds. With an absence of such studies in Ireland, I share an interest parallel to that of Prof John Quinn’s and Dr Mark Jessopp’s (my supervisors) goal of understanding and monitoring Ireland’s seabird populations. My current research focus is on testing novel methods for obtaining more accurate population estimates of burrow nesting seabirds.
