MariBiome: The Changing Use of Ireland's Ocean: Measuring and monitoring the impacts on our marine biodiversity and ecosystems
Funding body
Marine Institute
Project duration
1st July 2025 - 30th June 2030
Principal Investigator(s)
Research team
Prof Anne Parle - DCU, Nicolette Sale, PhD student- DCU, Mitch Wosinksi- DCU, Prof Gerard Dooly - University of Limerick, Luke Griffin, PhD student-UL, Prof Paulo Prodohl- Queen's University Belfast (QUB), Dr Dinesh Babu Duraibabu - Atlantic Technological University, Tousif Redwan - Atlantic Technological University, Dr Marcia Isabel Cadena Aizaga-DCU, Hayley O'Connell, Lauren McMorrow
Project Partners
Dublin City University, Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Sligo, Queen's University Belfast and University of Limerick
Funder(s)
The MariBiome Project (Grant-Aid Agreement No. PBA-BIOD-24-02) is carried out with the support of the Marine Institute under the Marine Research Programme, and funded by the Government of Ireland.
MariBiome is a five-year project funded by the Marine Institute and involves DCU, Atlantic Technological University Sligo, Queen's University Belfast and University of Limerick.
The project combines engineering, analytical chemistry, marine sensing and molecular biology to transform research from the laboratory to the field over the course of
the five years.
The project aims to gain an understanding of the baseline of biodiversity in marine sites and to observe the patterns of change linked with climate change and anthropogenic activities by measuring pathogenic and chemical contaminants.
New monitoring tools will be developed that are less costly and will have a lower impact on the environment compared to existing ship-based methods of monitoring. Some of the methods that will be used in this project include biodiversity surveys, eDNA assays, autonomous sampling platforms, chemical analysis and AI/machine learning. MariBiome promotes the safeguarding of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) by offering a cost-effective, less invasive innovative tool for comprehensive marine environment monitoring.