Martin Ryan Institute
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The Martin Ryan Institute (MRI) is a marine research and teaching facility on the campus of NUI Galway near the centre of Galway City and at Carna, Co. Galway. This site contains information on the research carried out at the institute's two facilities, and on the Institute's undergraduate degree in Marine Science.
The MRI was funded by means of a donation from the late Dr Tony Ryan in 1993, which was used to build a state-of-the-art Marine Science building in a prominent location on the NUI Galway campus. Matching funding from the European Union's STRIDE Regional Development programme was obtained to fit out the building and to purchase equipment. Marine Science was also funded under the Irish Higher Education Authority's Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions ( PRTLI) in 2001-2004 (Cycle 2) and 2002-2006 (Cycle 3). Cycle 3 funding amounted to ¿19.3 million and was used partly to fund a much-needed Annexe (pictured above) which includes a larger Seminar Room and a larger Teaching Laboratory and additional laboratories and offices.
The priority areas targeted for development by the MRI are:
- Aquaculture, including fish and shellfish broodstock development, seaweed cultivation
- Biodiscovery: marine sponge and algal taxonomy (funded by a Beaufort Award) Biodiscovery: marine adhesives and biomaterials
- Functional foods from the sea (NutraMara) Gene regulation
- Invasive species
- Molecular biology and invertebrate stem-cell research
- Marine environment, including climate and environment change
- Marine microbiology, including marine toxic and non-toxic blooms
- Physical and Chemical Oceanography
- Sensors and SmartBay technology
Collections in this community
Recent Submissions
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Magnetotelluric tensors, electromagnetic field scattering and distortion in three-dimensional environments
(American Geophysical Union, 2016-10-28)This paper describes how subsurface resistivity distributions can be estimated directly from the magnetotelluric (MT) tensor relationship between electric and magnetic fields observed on a three-dimensional (3-D) half-space. ... -
Is there confusion over what is meant by 'open population'?
(Springer Verlag, 2005)Marine species possessing widely dispersing larvae are often considered to have open populations. However, two concepts are covered by the phrase 'open population'. One concept stresses the supply of recruits from outside ... -
Characterising the marine Natura 2000 network for the Atlantic region
(John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2008)1. One of the goals for Natura 2000, a key European Community programme of nature conservation, is to produce a network of protected areas. An analysis of the Natura 2000 marine sites proposed in the most recently agreed ... -
Coastline configuration disrupts the effects of large-scale climatic forcing, leading to divergent temporal trends in wave exposure
(Elsevier, 2006)Both climate change and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) may influence coastal systems by altering wave exposure. The effects of such climatic forcing are often coherent over relatively large geographic areas. Temporal ... -
The persistent spatial patchiness of limpet grazing
(Elsevier, 2008)The characteristic variability of grazing has potential consequences for intertidal productivity and community structure, particularly as many of the underlying functional relationships are thought to be non linear. As a ... -
What is the future for marine protected areas in Irish waters?
(Royal Irish Academy, 2008)The UK and Ireland, in common with most other European states, are in the middle of a period of rapid expansion in the number of marine protected areas (generally as Special Areas of Conservation, SACs, to meet the EU ... -
Like a rolling stone: the mobility of maerl (corallinaceae) and the neutrality of the associated assemblages.
(Ecological Society of America, 2008)Beds of non-attached coralline algae (maerl or rhodoliths) are widespread and considered relatively species rich. This habitat is generally found in areas where there is chronic physical disturbance such that maerl thalli ... -
Dispersal mode and assessments of recovery on the shores of Gruinard, the 'anthrax island'.
(Springer Verlag, 2008)Formaldehyde run-off was an unintended impact of the anthrax decontamination procedure on the island of Gruinard. The death of intertidal organisms was observed where formaldehyde reached the shore during 1986. The extent ... -
Algal epiphytes of Zostera marina: variation in assemblage structure from individual leaves to regional scale
(Elsevier, 2005)Algal epiphytes can be an important component of seagrass ecosystems, but spatial variability in epiphyte assemblages has not often been characterised. Data from a hierarchical study of four Zostera marina beds in Wales ...