The Heritage Council has appointed a new management board for a five-year period to oversee the work of the National Biodiversity Data Centre. The new chair of the Centre is Dr Mary Kelly-Quinn.

Mary is one of Ireland’s leading freshwater ecologists working as Senior Lecturer at the School of Biology & Life Science at

Dr Mary Kelly-Quinn

University College Dublin.  Her research interests include freshwater biodiversity and anthropogenic impacts on Ireland’s rivers. Mary is no stranger to the Data Centre as we have worked together on a number of initiatives in recent years, not least in re-establishing the Annual Freshwater Biologists’ Meeting.  Her academic background allied to her knowledge of the biological recording community in Ireland, makes her well placed to lead the National Biodiversity Data Centre into the next phase of its development.

The other members of the Board are:

Mr Paul Dillon (Principal Officer, Head 0f Sustainability, Department of Agriculture Fisheries & Food)

Dr Matthew Jebb (Director, National Botanic Gardens)

Ms Rachel Kenny (Senior Planner, Fingal County Council)

Mr Alan Lauder (Chief Executive, BirdWatch Ireland)

Dr Peter McLoughlin (Head of Department, Chemical and Life Sciences, Waterford Institute of Technology)

Dr Michael Meharg (Head of Biodiversity, Northern Ireland Environment Agency)

Mr Nigel Monaghan (Keeper, National Museum of Ireland, Natural History)

Dr Micheál O’Cinnéide (Director, Environmental Protection Agency)

Dr Ciaran O’Keeffe (Director, Species Protection Unit, National Parks & Wildlife Service)

Mr Michael Starrett (Chief Executive, The Heritage Council)

Atlas of Mammals in Ireland

The National Biodiversity Data Centre  launched a new Atlas of Irish Mammals survey which aims to map the distribution of all mammals found in Ireland and its territorial waters between now and 2015 http://mammals.biodiversityireland.ie/.   For the first time ever, Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, Bat Conservation Ireland, Irish Wildlife Federation, Biology.ie and some of Ireland’s leading mammal scientists have come together to  collaborate on documenting the distribution of all  64 species of mammals that are known to occur in the Irish territory. This includes 27 species of land mammal, 10 bat species, 3 marine mammals and probably 24 cetacean (whales and dolphins). The National Biodiversity Data Centre is coordinating this network and providing an online portal and mapping system where this information is collated and presented in up to date distribution maps. Also shown is the distribution of over 45,000 mammal sightings made prior to 2010.

‘This is an exciting initiative as it brings together the main mammal experts and organisations so that their knowledge can be pooled to gain a full understanding of the distribution of all mammals in Ireland’, said Dr. Liam Lysaght, Director of the National Biodiversity Data Centre. ‘Although a great deal is know about some mammal species, and there are  excellent schemes for collecting data on the bats and cetacean, information on other species, such as the Irish stoat and hedgehog is lacking. This initiative should fill the remaining gaps in our knowledge’, added Dr. Lysaght.

Member of the public are invited to submit online any sighting of mammals so that they can contribute to building up a comprehensive picture of where mammal species occur in Ireland.  The survey will run until the end of 2015, by which time a comprehensive picture of the distribution of all Ireland’s mammals will be produced.

Visit the Atlas of Mammals in Ireland website.