Fiona A Kavanagh

Atlantic Technological University Galway

Plastic pollution is prevalent in all habitats and microplastic ingestion has been recorded in several different species examined to date. However, most studies have focused solely on commercial species. This study investigates microplastics (MPs) by assessing the levels present in a mixed demersal trawl at two sites in a coastal embayment. MPs wer...

Microplastics are pervasive items in the environment and it has been suggested that subtidal sediments are a potential sink and hotspot areas for these pollutants. Due to logistic limitations, this environmental compartment is not routinely sampled, which is evident in the limited number of studies conducted in subtidal zones, compared to intertida...

A new species of Ischnomesidae (Crustacea: Isopoda: Asellota), Haplomesus longiramus sp. nov. is described from the Bay of Biscay. This species is unusual due to the presence of long, thin anterolateral projections supporting the antennae and an elongate pereonite 4. These features are also seen in Haplomesus biscayensis Chardy, 1975, and the two s...

Two new species of Ischnomesidae, Haplomesus celticensis sp. nov. and Haplomesus hanseni sp. nov. are described from the southwest of Ireland and the Argentine Basin respectively. Both species lack the expression of pereopod VII, a characteristic that we argue is produced by progenesis, not neoteny as suggested by Brökeland & Brandt (2004). Haplome...

Preliminary findings on microplastics abundances in Galway Bay, Ireland

Microplastic concentrations have been reported in a variety of environmental matrices and organisms across the world. Assessments of environmental concentrations are essential to understand trends and ensure decision-making processes that reduce environmental pressure. In this study, a combined sampling approach to surface waters, benthic sediments...

Microplastics are a major global concern in the marine environment. The use of marine biota to monitor MP pollution has been previously highlighted as a method of providing data. This review focuses on the current data available on the presence of microplastics in Nephrops norvegicus, a commercially important seafood species, highlighting the advan...

Microplastics are ubiquitous emerging contaminants found in every habitat surveyed, building upon international databases globally. Costs and accessibility often correlate to few deep sea sediment surveys, restricting the number of stations within a given sampling area. An extensive survey of the Porcupine Seabight, Porcupine Bank, the Goban Spur,...

Microplastics (MPs) are an extensive global contaminant in the marine environment, known to be ingested by marine organisms. The presence of MPs in the commercially important marine decapod crustacean Nephrops norvegicus (Dublin Bay Prawn) has been documented for the North-East Atlantic and the Mediterranean, however, uncertainties remain about ret...

The presence of microplastics (MPs), a contaminant of emerging concern, has attracted increasing attention in commercially important seafood species such as Nephrops norvegicus. This species lend themselves well as bioindicators of environmental contamination owing to their availability, spatial and depth distribution, interactions with seafloor se...

Marine anthropogenic litter is increasing in prevalence in both the marine environment and its inhabitants. This study assesses the levels of anthropogenic microplastics in benthic infauna from 20 subtidal stations in Galway Bay, Ireland. Microplastics were removed from the organisms using an alkaline digestion (KOH) and their synthetic origin was...

A new species of Ischnomesidae (Crustacea: Isopoda: Asellota), Ischnomesus harrietae sp. nov. is described from the southern Bay of Biscay. This new species is distinctive due to the presence of numerous pedestal setae arranged in longitudinal rows on pereonite 5. Because of this morphological peculiarity, it can be easily distinguished from the fo...

Summary This catalogue comprises a complete record of the deep-sea isopods collected off the west coast of Ireland and Britain to date. Benthic samples were taken over a two-year period by the zoobenthos group of the National University of Ireland, Galway, aboard the RV Celtic Explorer. Additional material collected as part of an environmental asse...

This paper presents a revision of Haplomesus Richardson, 1908 (Ischnomesidae). Poor character definition, ineffective diagnosis of the genus and inadequate or poor descriptions and illustrations have resulted in difficulties in identification of species and generic membership. This study is based on type material and descriptions in the literature...

A new species of Ischnomesidae (Crustacea: Isopoda: Asellota), Haplomesus longiramus sp. nov. is described from the Bay of Biscay. This species is unusual due to the presence of long, thin anterolateral projections supporting the antennae and an elongate pereonite 4. These features are also seen in Haplomesus biscayensis Chardy, 1975, and the two s...

Two new species of Ischnomesidae, Haplomesus celticensis sp. nov. and Haplomesus hanseni sp. nov. are described from the southwest of Ireland and the Argentine Basin respectively. Both species lack the expression of pereopod VII, a characteristic that we argue is produced by progenesis, not neoteny as suggested by Brökeland & Brandt (2004). Haplome...