1.
River Shannon
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The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland at 360.5 km. It drains the Shannon River Basin which has an area of 16,865 km2, the Shannon divides the west of Ireland from the east and south. County Clare, being west of the Shannon but part of the province of Munster, is the major exception. The river represents a physical barrier between east and west, with fewer than thirty crossing-points between Limerick city in the south and the village of Dowra in the north. The river is named after Sionna, a Celtic goddess, the Shannon has been an important waterway since antiquity, having first been mapped by the Graeco-Egyptian geographer Ptolemy. The river flows southwards from the Shannon Pot in County Cavan before turning west. Limerick city stands at the point where the water meets the sea water of the estuary. The Shannon is tidal east of Limerick as far as the base of the Ardnacrusha dam. By tradition the Shannon is said to rise in the Shannon Pot, surveys have defined a 12.8 km2 immediate pot catchment area covering the slopes of Cuilcagh. This area includes Garvah Lough, Cavan,2.2 km to the northeast, further sinks that source the pot include Pollboy and, through Shannon Cave, Pollahune in Cavan and Polltullyard and Tullynakeeragh in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The highest point in the catchment is a spring at Tiltinbane on the end of the Cuilcagh mountain ridge. From the Shannon Pot, the river subsumes a number of tributaries before replenishing Lough Allen at its head. The river runs through or between 11 of Irelands counties, subsuming the tributary rivers Boyle, Inny, Suck, Mulkear and Brosna, among others, many different values have been given for the length of the Shannon. A traditional value is 390 km, an official Irish source gives a total length of 360.5 km. Most Irish guides now give 344 km, some academic sources give 280 km, although most will refuse to give a number. The reason is there is no particular end to a river that empties into an estuary. The 344 km length relates to the distance between Shannon Pot and a line between Kerry Head and Loop Head, the furthest reaches of the land, the 280 km distance finishes where the Shannon estuary joins the estuary of the River Fergus, close to Shannon Airport. Longer distances emerged before the use of surveying instruments
2.
Republic of Ireland
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Ireland, also known as the Republic of Ireland, is a sovereign state in north-western Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, which is located on the part of the island. The state shares its land border with Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. It is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, Saint Georges Channel to the south-east, and it is a unitary, parliamentary republic. The head of government is the Taoiseach, who is elected by the Dáil and appointed by the President, the state was created as the Irish Free State in 1922 as a result of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It was officially declared a republic in 1949, following the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, Ireland became a member of the United Nations in December 1955. It joined the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union, after joining the EEC, Ireland enacted a series of liberal economic policies that resulted in rapid economic growth. The country achieved considerable prosperity between the years of 1995 and 2007, which known as the Celtic Tiger period. This was halted by a financial crisis that began in 2008. However, as the Irish economy was the fastest growing in the EU in 2015, Ireland is again quickly ascending league tables comparing wealth and prosperity internationally. For example, in 2015, Ireland was ranked as the joint sixth most developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index and it also performs well in several national performance metrics, including freedom of the press, economic freedom and civil liberties. Ireland is a member of the European Union and is a member of the Council of Europe. The 1922 state, comprising 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland, was styled, the Constitution of Ireland, adopted in 1937, provides that the name of the State is Éire, or, in the English language, Ireland. Section 2 of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 states, It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland. The 1948 Act does not name the state as Republic of Ireland, because to have done so would have put it in conflict with the Constitution. The government of the United Kingdom used the name Eire, and, from 1949, Republic of Ireland, for the state, as well as Ireland, Éire or the Republic of Ireland, the state is also referred to as the Republic, Southern Ireland or the South. In an Irish republican context it is referred to as the Free State or the 26 Counties. From the Act of Union on 1 January 1801, until 6 December 1922, during the Great Famine, from 1845 to 1849, the islands population of over 8 million fell by 30%
3.
Limestone
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Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
4.
Birr, County Offaly
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Birr is a town in County Offaly, Ireland. It was formerly called Parsonstown, after the Parsons family who were landowners and hereditary Earls of Rosse. The town lies within a parish of the name in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe. Birr is a designated Irish Heritage Town with a carefully preserved Georgian heritage, Birr itself has graceful wide streets and elegant buildings. Many of the houses in Johns Place and Oxmantown Mall have exquisite fanlight windows of the Georgian period. The town is known for Birr Castle and its gardens, home of the Parsons family, the town is situated at the meeting of the Camcor and Little Brosna rivers which flow on into the River Shannon near Victoria Lock. Birr railway station opened on 8 March 1858, but finally closed on 1 January 1963, the Ormond Flying Club has been in operation at Birr Airfield for over 30 years. The area has been linked with aviation for some time – as a British Army airstrip was previously near the current field, Birr lies on the N52 and N62 national secondary roads. The routes are combined as they pass through Birr, the R439, R440 and R489 regional roads also terminate in the town. Bus Éireann provide public services to the town. The Athlone to Limerick service regularly passes through the town daily, kearns privately owned bus service provides a number of direct bus services to Dublin from Birr. A monastery was founded here by St Brendan of Birr and it produced the MacRegol Gospels, named after the abbot at the turn of the 8th/9th century and now to be seen in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The Synod of Birr, held in 697, was the occasion on which the Cáin Adomnáin, in Gaelic Ireland, Birr was located in the OCarroll territory of Éile. This petty kingdom formed an area now forms the south of County Offaly. The tuatha was subject to the overkingdom of Munster and formed a border with the Kingdom of Meath to the east, the boundary between Ely OCarroll and the ancient Meath is co-terminous with the present boundary between the Diocese of Killaloe and the Diocese of Meath. The OCarroll family had a located at the present site of Birr Castle. Following the Plantations of Ireland, Birr was located in the Barony of Ballybritt following the formation of Kings County in 1556, the town itself is an old market and former garrison town dating to the 1620s. The town was also the location of the Crotty Schism, one of the few schisms to affect the Catholic Church in Ireland in the 19th century
5.
Angling
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Angling is a method of fishing by means of an angle. The hook is attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself can be dressed with lures or bait, a bite indicator such as a float, and a weight or sinker are sometimes used. Angling is the method of sport fishing, but commercial fisheries also use angling methods such as longlining or trolling. Catch and release fishing is practiced by recreational fishermen. In many parts of the world, size limits apply to species, meaning fish below and/or above a certain size must, by law. The species of fish pursued by anglers vary with geography, among the many species of salt water fish that are caught for sport are swordfish, marlin, tuna, while in Europe cod and bass are popular targets. In North America the most popular water sport species include bass, pike, walleye, muskellunge, yellow perch, trout, salmon, crappie, bluegill. In Europe a large number of fish for species such as carp, pike, tench, rudd, roach, European perch, catfish. South Africa has a great fishing coast where anglers fish for species like cod, White Steenbras, some fish are sought for their value as food, others are pursued for their fighting abilities or for the difficulty of pursuit. The use of the hook in angling is descended, historically, the word gorge, in this context, comes from the French word meaning throat. Gorges were used by ancient peoples to capture fish and animals like seal, walrus, a gorge was a long, thin piece of bone or stone attached by its midpoint to a thin line. The gorge would be baited so that it would rest parallel to the lay of the line. When the game would swallow the bait, a tug on the line would cause the gorge to orient itself at right angles to the line, some laws and regulations require hooks to be barbless. This rule is implemented to protect populations of certain species. A barbed hook could kill a fish if it were to penetrate the gills, which of the various techniques an angler may choose is dictated mainly by the target species and by its habitat. Angling can be separated into two categories, using either artificial or natural baits
6.
Brown trout
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The brown trout is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. The latter migrates to the oceans for much of its life, Sea trout in the UK and Ireland have many regional names, including sewin, finnock, peal, mort, and white trout. The lacustrine morph of brown trout is most usually potamodromous, migrating from lakes into rivers or streams to spawn, S. trutta morpha fario forms stream-resident populations, typically in alpine streams, but sometimes in larger rivers. Anadromous and nonanadromous morphs coexisting in the river appear genetically identical. What determines whether or not they migrate remains unknown, the scientific name of the brown trout is Salmo trutta. The specific epithet derives from the Latin trutta, meaning, literally. Behnke relates that the trout was the first species of trout described in the 1758 edition of Systema Naturae by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus. Systema Naturae established the system of nomenclature for animals. Salmo trutta was used to describe anadromous or sea-run forms of brown trout, Linnaeus also described two other brown trout species in 1758. Salmo fario was used for riverine forms, Salmo lacustris was used for lake-dwelling forms. The native range of brown trout extends from northern Norway and White Sea tributaries in Russia in the Arctic Ocean to the Atlas Mountains in North Africa. The western limit of their range is Iceland in the north Atlantic. Brown trout have been introduced into suitable environments around the world, including North and South America, Australasia, Asia. Introduced brown trout have established self-sustaining, wild populations in many introduced countries, by 1866,171 young brown trout were surviving in a Plenty River hatchery in Tasmania. Thirty-eight young trout were released in the river, a tributary of the River Derwent in 1866, by 1868, the Plenty River hosted a self-sustaining population of brown trout which became a brood source for continued introduction of brown trout into Australian and New Zealand rivers. Successful introductions into the Natal and Cape Provinces of South Africa took place in 1890 and 1892, by 1909, brown trout were established in the mountains of Kenya. The first introductions into the Himalayas in northern India took place in 1868, the first introductions in Canada occurred in 1886 in Newfoundland and continued through 1933. The only Canadian regions without brown trout are the Yukon and Northwest Territories, introductions into South America began in 1904 in Argentina
7.
Lamprey
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Lampreys are any jawless fish of the order Petromyzontiformes, placed in the superclass Cyclostomata. The adult lamprey may be characterized by a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth, the common name lamprey is probably derived from Latin lampetra, which may mean stone licker, though the etymology is uncertain. Currently there are about 38 known extant species of lampreys, parasitic species are the best known, and feed by boring into the flesh of other fish to suck their blood, but only 18 species of lampreys are parasitic. Adults of the species do not feed, they live off reserves acquired as ammocoetes. The lampreys are an ancient lineage of vertebrates, though their exact relationship to hagfishes. Adults superficially resemble eels in that they have scaleless, elongated bodies, lacking paired fins, adult lampreys have large eyes, one nostril on the top of the head, and seven gill pores on each side of the head. The pharynx is subdivided, the part forming a respiratory tube that is isolated from the mouth by a valve called the velum. Near the gills are the eyes, which are developed and buried under skin in the larvae. The eyes complete their development during metamorphosis, and in adults are covered by a thin, instead of true vertebrae, they have a series of cartilaginous structures called arcualia arranged above the notochord. Hagfish, which resemble lampreys, have traditionally considered the sister taxon of the true vertebrates. Studies have shown that lampreys are amongst the most energy-efficient swimmers and their swimming movements generate low-pressure zones around their body, which pull rather than push their bodies through the water. Parasitic lampreys feed on prey as adults by attaching their mouthparts to the animals body, then using their teeth to cut through surface tissues until they reach blood. A study of stomach content of some lampreys have also shown remains of intestines, fins, although attacks on humans do occur, they will generally not attack humans unless starved. Non-parasitic lampreys, which are freshwater species, do not feed as adults, they live off reserves acquired as ammocoetes. Lamprey leukocytes express surface variable lymphocyte receptors generated from somatic recombination of leucine-rich repeat gene segments in a recombination activating gene-independent manner, northern lampreys have the highest number of chromosomes among vertebrates. Pouched lamprey larvae also have a high tolerance for free iron in their bodies. Adult lampreys spawn in rivers and then die, the young larvae, ammocoetes, spend several years in the rivers, where they live burrowed in fine sediment, filter feeding on detritus and microorganisms. Then, ammocoetes undergo a metamorphosis lasting several months, some species do not feed after metamorphosis, while others migrate to the sea or lakes, where they feed on different species of fish and even on marine mammals
8.
Salmon
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Salmon /ˈsæmən/ is the common name for several species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. Other fish in the family include trout, char, grayling. Salmon are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, many species of salmon have been introduced into non-native environments such as the Great Lakes of North America and Patagonia in South America. Salmon are intensively farmed in parts of the world. Typically, salmon are anadromous, they are born in water, migrate to the ocean. However, populations of species are restricted to fresh water through their lives. Various species of salmon display anadromous life strategies while others display freshwater resident life strategies, folklore has it that the fish return to the exact spot where they were born to spawn, tracking studies have shown this to be mostly true. A portion of a salmon run may stray and spawn in different freshwater systems. The percent of straying depends on the species of salmon, homing behavior has been shown to depend on olfactory memory. The term salmon comes from the Latin salmo, which in turn may have originated from salire, the nine commercially important species of salmon occur in two genera. The genus Salmo contains the Atlantic salmon, found in the north Atlantic, the genus Oncorhynchus contains eight species which occur naturally only in the North Pacific. As a group, these are known as Pacific salmon, Chinook salmon have been introduced in New Zealand and Patagonia. Coho, freshwater sockeye, and Atlantic salmon have established in Patagonia. † Both the Salmo and Oncorhynchus genera also contain a number of species referred to as trout, within Salmo, additional minor taxa have been called salmon in English, i. e. the Adriatic salmon and Black Sea salmon. The steelhead anadromous form of the rainbow trout migrates to sea, also a number of other species have common names which refer to them as being salmon. The British Columbia salmon fossil provides evidence that the divergence between Pacific and Atlantic salmon had not yet occurred 40 million years ago, Both the fossil record and analysis of mitochondrial DNA suggest the divergence occurred by 10 to 20 million years ago. This independent evidence from DNA analysis and the fossil record rejects the theory of salmon divergence. Atlantic salmon reproduce in northern rivers on both coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, landlocked salmon live in a number of lakes in eastern North America and in Northern Europe, for instance in lakes Sebago, Onega, Ladoga, Saimaa, Vänern, and Winnipesaukee
9.
Raised bog
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Raised bogs, also called ombrotrophic bogs, are acidic, wet habitats that are poor in mineral salts and are home to flora and fauna that can cope with such extreme conditions. Raised bogs, unlike fens are exclusively fed by precipitation and from mineral salts introduced from the air and they also differ in character from blanket bogs which are much thinner and occur in wetter, cloudier, climatic zones. Raised bogs are threatened by peat cutting and pollution by mineral salts from the surrounding land. There are hardly any raised bogs today that are living and growing. The last great raised bog regions are found in western Siberia, the term raised bog derives from the fact that this type of bog rises in height over time as a result of peat formation. They are like sponges of peat moss, full of water, in Germany, the term Hochmoor, strictly refers only to the classical, lens-shaped bogs of northwest Germany. A living raised bog needs a moist, balanced climate in which to grow, the quantity of precipitation has to be greater than the water losses through discharge and evaporation. In addition, the precipitation must be spread through the year. Raised bogs in Europe have been developing for about 11,000 years, since the beginning of the Holocene, as far as their origins are concerned, a distinction is made between lake mires or siltation-formed raised bogs and mire-formed raised bogs. The former emerged in a secondary process after the silting up of lakes or oxbows, at first, fens emerged under the influence of groundwater. Oxygen deficiencies and high acidity in the constantly moist substrate inhibited the decomposition of plant parts. Thus the raised bog rises very slowly above the level of the groundwater level, by contrast, mire-formed raised bogs, are created directly on the mineral substrate of in low-salt area without having been initially formed as fens. The formation of a raised bog is a very slow process. Furthermore, there are a number of transitional and intermediate bogs, the main constituent of the peat are the rootless peat mosses, that only slowly grow in height, whilst at the same time the lower layer becomes peat as the air is excluded. Depending on the location, various species of peat moss are involved in making the raised bogs. The growth rate of the layer is only about a millimetre per year. Growing bogs can be divided into two layers, the acrotelm is the upper part and includes the vegetation layer and the bog floor. Here fresh organic substances are created by the growth and dying of plant elements, the catotelm is the underlying water-saturated part with less biological activity
10.
Bog
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A bog is a wetland that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses, and in a majority of cases, sphagnum moss. It is one of the four types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, quagmire, and muskeg and they are frequently covered in ericaceous shrubs rooted in the sphagnum moss and peat. The gradual accumulation of decayed plant material in a bog functions as a carbon sink, Bogs occur where the water at the ground surface is acidic and low in nutrients. In some cases, the water is derived entirely from precipitation, water flowing out of bogs has a characteristic brown colour, which comes from dissolved peat tannins. In general, the low fertility and cool climate results in relatively slow plant growth, large areas of landscape can be covered many metres deep in peat. Bogs have distinctive assemblages of animal, fungal and plant species, Bogs are widely distributed in cold, temperate climes, mostly in boreal ecosystems in the Northern Hemisphere. The worlds largest wetland is the bogs of the Western Siberian Lowlands in Russia. Large peat bogs also occur in North America, particularly the Hudson Bay Lowland and they are less common in the Southern Hemisphere, with the largest being the Magellanic moorland, comprising some 44,000 square kilometres. Sphagnum bogs were widespread in northern Europe but have often been cleared and drained for agriculture, a 2014 expedition leaving from Itanga village, Republic of the Congo discovered a peat bog as big as England which stretches into neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. There are many highly specialised animals, fungi and plants associated with bog habitat, most are capable of tolerating the combination of low nutrient levels and waterlogging. Sphagnum moss is generally abundant, along with ericaceous shrubs, the shrubs are often evergreen, which is understood to assist in conservation of nutrients. In drier locations, evergreen trees can occur, in case the bog blends into the surrounding expanses of boreal evergreen forest. Sedges are one of the more common herbaceous species, carnivorous plants such as sundews and pitcher plants have adapted to the low-nutrient conditions by using invertebrates as a nutrient source. Orchids have adapted to these conditions through the use of fungi to extract nutrients. Some shrubs such as Myrica gale have root nodules in which nitrogen fixation occurs, Bogs are recognized as a significant/specific habitat type by a number of governmental and conservation agencies. They can provide habitat for mammals, such as caribou, moose, the United Kingdom in its Biodiversity Action Plan establishes bog habitats as a priority for conservation. Russia has a reserve system in the West Siberian Lowland
