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Strangford Lough
Strangford Lough () is a large sea lough or inlet in County Down, in the east of Northern Ireland. It is the largest inlet in Ireland and the wider British Isles, covering . The lough is almost fully enclosed by the Ards Peninsula and is linked to the Irish Sea by a long narrow channel at its southeastern edge. The main body of the lough has at least seventy islands along with many islets (pladdies), bays, coves, headlands and mudflats. It is part of the Strangford and Lecale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Strangford Lough was designated as Northern Ireland's first Marine Conservation Zone in 2013, and has been designated a Special Area of Conservation for its important wildlife. Strangford Lough is a popular tourist destination noted for its fishing and scenery. Towns and villages around the lough include Killyleagh, Comber, Newtownards, Portaferry and Strangford. The latter two straddle either shore of the narrow Strangford channel, and are connected by a car ferry. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is one of 46 areas of countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Since 2023, the areas in England and Wales have also adopted the name National Landscape (). Areas are designated in recognition of their national importance by the relevant public body: Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency respectively. On 22 November 2023, following a review, the AONBs in England and Wales adopted the National Landscapes name, and are in the process of rebranding. AONBs in Northern Ireland did not rename. The name "area of outstanding natural beauty" is still the designated legal term. In place of the term AONB, Scotland uses the similar national scenic area (NSA) designation. Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty enjoy levels of protection from development similar to those of UK national parks, but unli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strangford Lough By Sentinel-2
Strangford (from Old Norse ''Strangr fjörðr'', meaning "strong sea-inlet") is a small village at the mouth of Strangford Lough, on the Lecale peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 475 at the 2001 census. On the other side of the lough is Portaferry on the Ards Peninsula, and there is a ferry service between the two villages. The village has a small harbour, which is overlooked by rows of 19th-century cottages and a fine Georgian terrace. History In 432, St Patrick is said to have sailed through the Strangford Narrows and up the Quoile Estuary, bringing Christianity with him. By the mid 6th century many monastic centres had been founded near Strangford and Strangford Lough including; Nendrum, Downpatrick, Comber and Kilclief. The Norse Vikings had been raiding villages, islands and monasteries in the British Isles since the late 8th century and founded many settlements. The first viking raid in Ireland was the burning of a monastery in 795 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portaferry
Portaferry () is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland, at the southern end of the Ards Peninsula, near the Narrows at the entrance to Strangford Lough. It is home to the Exploris aquarium and is well known for the annual Gala Week Float Parade. It hosts its own small Marina, the Portaferry Marina. The Portaferry – Strangford Ferry service operates daily at 30-minute intervals (7.45 am to 10.45 pm) between the villages of Portaferry and Strangford, less than 1500 metres apart, conveying about 500,000 passengers per annum. It had a population of 2,514 people in the 2011 Census. The town is located within the Barony (Ireland), Barony of Ards Upper. Pot fishing, mainly for prawns and crabs and licensed shellfish farming takes place within Strangford Lough. Queen's University of Belfast have a Marine Research Laboratory on the shorefront. The town is also home to a research centre for Swedish tidal-kite developer Minesto. The lough is one of the world's most important ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pelvetia Canaliculata
''Pelvetia canaliculata'', the channelled wrack, is a very common brown alga (Phaeophyceae) found on the rocks of the upper shores of Europe. It is the only species remaining in the monotypic genus ''Pelvetia''. In 1999, the other members of this genus were reclassified as '' Silvetia'' due to differences of oogonium structure and of nucleic acid sequences of the rDNA. Description ''Pelvetia'' grows to a maximum length of in dense tufts, the fronds being deeply channeled on one side: the channels and a mucus layer help prevent the seaweed drying (desiccation) when the tide is out. It is irregularly dichotomously branched with terminal receptacles, and is dark brown in color. Each branch is of uniform width and without a midrib. The receptacles are forked at the tips. It is distinguished from other large brown algae by the channels along the frond. It has no mid-rib, no air-vesicles and no cryptostomata. It forms the uppermost zone of algae on the shore growing at or above hig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ascophyllum Nodosum
''Ascophyllum nodosum'' is a large, common cold water seaweed or brown alga ( Phaeophyceae) in the family Fucaceae. Its common names include knotted wrack, egg wrack, feamainn bhuí, rockweed, knotted kelp and Norwegian kelp. It grows only in the northern Atlantic Ocean, along the north-western coast of Europe (from the White Sea to Portugal) including east Greenland and the north-eastern coast of North America. Its range further south of these latitudes is limited by warmer ocean waters. It dominates the intertidal zone. ''Ascophyllum nodosum'' has been used numerous times in scientific research and has even been found to benefit humans through consumption. Scientific name history ''Ascophyllum nodosum'' is the only species in the genus ''Ascophyllum''. The original name (basionym) was ''Fucus nodosus'' Linnaeus 1753. The species was transferred to the genus ''Ascophyllum'' (as ''Ascophylla'') by Stackhouse (Papenfuss 1950), under the name ''Ascophyllum laevigata'' (Guiry and G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel. It is the second-largest city in Ireland (after Dublin), with an estimated population of in , and a Belfast metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of 671,559. First chartered as an English settlement in 1613, the town's early growth was driven by an influx of Scottish people, Scottish Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Presbyterians. Their descendants' disaffection with Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland's Protestant Ascendancy, Anglican establishment contributed to the Irish Rebellion of 1798, rebellion of 1798, and to the Acts of Union 1800, union with Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain in 1800—later regarded as a key to the town's industrial transformation. When granted City status in the United Kingdom#Northern Ireland, city s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ulster Museum
The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures from the Spanish Armada, local history, numismatics, industrial archaeology, botany, zoology and geology. It is the largest museum in Northern Ireland, and one of the components of National Museums Northern Ireland. History The Ulster Museum was founded as the Belfast Natural History Society in 1821 and began exhibiting in 1833. It has included an art gallery since 1890. Originally called the Belfast Municipal Museum and Art Gallery, in 1929, it moved to its present location in Stranmillis. The new building was designed by James Cumming Wynne. In 1962, courtesy of the Museum Act (Northern Ireland) 1961, it was renamed as the Ulster Museum and was formally recognised as a national museum. A major extension constructed by McLaughlin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coralline Algae
Coralline algae are red algae in the order Corallinales. They are characterized by a thallus that is hard because of calcareous deposits contained within the cell walls. The colors of these algae are most typically pink, or some other shade of red, but some species can be purple, yellow, blue, white, or gray-green. Coralline algae play an important role in the ecology of coral reefs. Sea urchins, parrot fish, and limpets and chitons (both mollusks) feed on coralline algae. In the temperate Mediterranean Sea, coralline algae are the main builders of a typical algal reef, the ''Coralligène'' ("coralligenous"). Many are typically encrusting and rock-like, found in marine waters all over the world. Only one species lives in freshwater. Unattached specimens (maerl, rhodoliths) may form relatively smooth compact balls to warty or fruticose thalli. A close look at almost any intertidal rocky shore or coral reef will reveal an abundance of pink to pinkish-grey patches, distributed throug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algae
Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular microalgae, such as cyanobacteria, ''Chlorella'', and diatoms, to multicellular macroalgae such as kelp or brown algae which may grow up to in length. Most algae are aquatic organisms and lack many of the distinct cell and tissue types, such as stomata, xylem, and phloem that are found in embryophyte, land plants. The largest and most complex marine algae are called seaweeds. In contrast, the most complex freshwater forms are the Charophyta, a Division (taxonomy), division of green algae which includes, for example, ''Spirogyra'' and stoneworts. Algae that are carried passively by water are plankton, specifically phytoplankton. Algae constitute a Polyphyly, polyphyletic group because they do not include a common ancestor, and although Eu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calcareous
Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime (mineral), lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of Science, scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcareous'' is used as an adjectival term applied to anatomical structures which are made primarily of calcium carbonate, in animals such as gastropods, i.e., snails, specifically in relation to such structures as the operculum (gastropod), operculum, the clausilium, and the love dart. The term also applies to the calcium carbonate Test (biology), tests of, often, more-or-less microscopic Foraminifera. Not all tests are calcareous; diatoms and radiolaria have siliceous tests. The molluscs are calcareous organisms, as are the Calcarea, calcareous sponges (Calcarea), that have spicules which are made of calcium carbonate. Additionally, reef-building corals, or Scleractinia, are calcareous organisms that form their rigid skeletal structure th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maerl
Maerl (also rhodolith) is a collective name for non- geniculate coralline red algae with a certain growth habit. Maerl grows at a rate of c. 1 mm per year. It accumulates as unattached particles and forms extensive beds in suitable sublittoral sites.Vize, S.; Blake, C.; Hinojosa, G. and Maggs, C.A. 2003. The distribution and composition of maerl beds in Northern Ireland. ''PMNHS Newsletter'' No.13 p.26 The term maerl originally refers to the branched growth form of Lemoine (1910) and ''rhodolith'' is a sedimentological or genetic term for both the nodular and branched growth forms (Basso et al., 2015). The terms rhodolith and maerl are used in very similar ways. A study in 2023 clarifies that maerl refers to only living, branched coralline thalli, while rhodolith includes unattached coralline red algae, both dead and alive. Description In Europe maerl beds occur throughout the Mediterranean, along most of the Atlantic coast from Portugal to Norway, and in the English Cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spartina Anglica
''Sporobolus anglicus'' (common cordgrass) is a hybrid-derived species of cordgrass that originated in southern England in about 1870 and is a neonative species in Britain. It was reclassified as ''Sporobolus anglicus'' after a taxonomic revision in 2014, but but its previous name, ''Spartina anglica'' is still in common usage. It is an allotetraploid species derived from the hybrid ''Sporobolus × townsendii'', which arose when the European native cordgrass '' Sporobolus maritimus'' (small cordgrass) hybridized with the introduced American '' Sporobolus alterniflorus'' (smooth cordgrass). Common cordgrass is a herbaceous perennial plant growing tall. Its foliage consists of round stems that are yellowish green in spring and summer, and turns light brown in autumn and winter. The leaves are long, and broad at the base, tapering to a point. It produces flowers and seeds on only one side of the stem. The flowers are a yellowish-green, turning brown by the winter. Invasive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
