IPCC International Bog Day event

Sunday 28th July 2024 marked International Bog Day. This annual event, organised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Peatland Programme, provides an opportunity for public outreach to raise awareness of peatland-related issues: highlighting their many benefits and the importance of their conservation and restoration. As part of this event, representatives from Maynooth University’s Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units (ICARUS) attended an open day at the Irish Peatland Conservation Council (IPCC) in the Bog of Allen Nature Centre, Lullymore, Co Kildare.

The day started with a tour of the centre with its museum and grounds. This was followed by informal public presentations and poster displays by ICARUS members describing the Hostir and PCARB projects currently being conducted within ICARUS. The Hostir project exhibited a poster titled How stormy was the past in Ireland? (How stormy will it be in the future?) The poster described the main strand of the project to investigate how testate amoebae are being used to assess the impacts of salt spray deposition in coastal blanket peat during periods of increased storminess. A microscope and linked live screen showing the slides from our Malin Beg field site in Donegal accompanied the exhibit. Members of the public could then see images of various test species, as well as volcanic ash shards from eruption layers used in dating the various depths within the cores. Public interaction was lively, with questions about how the samples are prepared and how they are used in interpreting past environments.

The day ended with a guided walk to the nearby raised bog at Lodge Bog, where members of the public could explore more of the flora and fauna local to this unique landscape. Many thanks to Nuala Madigan and the staff and volunteers at IPCC for hosting us and for allowing us to enthuse about all things palaeoecological and peat related.

IPCC: http://www.ipcc.ie/

PCARB: https://lisaorme0.wixsite.com/pastcarbon/team-members-1