Editorial

Abstract

i DOI: https://doi.org/10.3318/BIOE.2021.05 Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy,Vol. 121, No. 1, i–ii (2021). © Royal Irish Academy Cite as follows: Osborne, B. 2021 Editorial / In this issue. Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 2021. DOI: 10.3318/ BIOE.2021.05 EDITORIAL Bruce Osborne Over one year ago the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in Ireland, but I wonder who remembers the actual date?* Also, does anyone remember all the things we thought we knew about COVID19 and how it should be tackled that turned out, in the end, to be either false or at best equivocal? It will only affect the vulnerable; travel is not important for the transmission of the disease; masks do not work; children can act as vectors, etc. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.To the non-cognoscenti this may seem very strange, but scientific opinions can often differ dramatically, even amongst the so-called experts, only reaching some consensus when there is strong supporting evidence for a particular viewpoint. Unfortunately, this is the way that science works.Of course,several (arguably avoidable) mistakes were made but even now, more than one year after the first recorded case, there are still differing views about how we should proceed or should have proceeded.Thankfully , there now seems to be light at the end of the tunnel, but if you asked me one year ago whether we would still be impacted by this virus in 2021 to the extent that we are I, like many other people, I think, would have answered with a resounding ‘no’! During this last year we have experienced several false dawns and, borrowing another, slightly modified and well-worn cliché, we should not be over-confident that we are out of the woods yet! Despite the impacts of COVID-19 I can report another successful year for Biology and Environment, with the publication of three issues, including a special issue based on a selection of papers presented at Ireland’s first National Biodiversity Conference in 2019.We received approximately one hundred submissions in the last year (with a rejection rate >40%), and many of the papers that were finally accepted underwent significant revisions before they were deemed ready for publication. Encouragingly submissions were received from fourteen countries and covered a diverse range of biological and environmental topics;we hope to build on this and to further internationalise the journal. I can also report that we already have a significant portfolio of papers that are being processed for the next two issues of 2021. Finally, I would like to give my annual thanks to both Jonathan Dykes andTrevor Mullins for their invaluable contributions to the production of Biology and Environment in what has turned out to be very challenging times. *29 February 2020 Lake-dwelling brown trout Lake trout populations support an important recreational fishing industry in Ireland, but information on their behaviour and conservation status—including the extent to which they are exploited by anglers—is lacking. Kennedy et al., in this issue, used acoustic telemetry to track several tagged adult brown trout in Lough Erne, Co. Fermanagh. Although the study was complicated by the shedding of tags and the reduced survival of tagged fish, the authors estimated survival rates of 40–70%. Survival was greatest with the larger adults and most of those were found in the northern deeper part of the lake where there was a higher rate of zooplankton productivity. Rather surprisingly, given the size of Lough Erne and the small number of tagged fish used, a significant proportion were captured by anglers, giving a high (>11%) exploitation rate.Whilst several fish entered feeder tributaries to spawn before returning to the lake, this was often short lived, probably due to the high risk of predation in these relatively narrow and shallow streams. Unusually, several tagged fish overwintered in the lake and spawning was presumably associated with suitable gavel habitats where they could lay their eggs. Importantly >40% of the fish that spawned outside the lake did so in one single tributary probably because it contains habitats that are...