Turlough variation

Here is a sample abstract of a paper that will appear shortly in Wetlands (Sept 2006).

Source: Visser Marjolein , Eugenie Regan, James Moran, Mike Gormally and Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, 2006. The rise and fall of turlough typologies: a call for a continuum concept. Wetlands, in press.

1. Turloughs are seasonal groundwater dependent wetlands that occur in the karst limestone landscape of the west of Ireland. They are highly variable both between and within sites. This variability has lead to various typologies with a focus on the variation between sites. However valid in understanding turlough functioning, these typologies are difficult to relate to one another, tend to overlook within-site variation, and do not address management issues affecting these EU priority habitats. Turlough typing furthermore suffers from a lack of sound data while existing data have not been fully exploited.

2. Using both unpublished and published data on a per-turlough basis, we explore the main variables affecting turlough ecology. Multivariate analysis shows that turloughs do not split into distinct types. Instead there is one continuum from dry to wet sites related to hydrological regime which affects all aspects of turlough ecology.

3. This dry-wet continuum arises from various degrees of karstification of the underlying and surrounding bedrock, which in turn leads to different water inputs and different deposits on the turlough floor. Few turloughs can be considered as truly dry or wet; most are intermediate or dry-wet mosaics.

4. Turloughs or parts of turloughs at extremes of the dry-wet continuum need different protection measures to prevent water pollution, manage summer grazing or maintain the hydrological regime.

5. Trying to fit turloughs within typologies that are weakly supported by the data they are based on is ecologically unsound and risky. Working with a dry-wet continuum concept that better fits these data gives scope for a more flexible approach to turlough variation that allows for fine-tuning conservation management to field-to-field ecological variation and farmers' practices.

6. Synthesis and applications. Although turlough typologies seem logical and straightforward in theory, in practice typing turloughs is not justified. For conservation purposes it seems more appropriate to work with a dry-wet continuum concept. This concept better fits the available data and allows to better appreciate the conservation consequences of the unique karst features of turloughs.