Head of Group

Prof. Andy Wheeler

Prof. Wheeler is Professor of Geology, co-PI in the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG) and a member of the Royal Irish Academy Geosciences & Geographical Sciences Committee.

Research activities include marine geology with an emphasis on benthic boundary layer sedimentary processes, offshore Quaternary geology, seabed mapping (SSS, MBES, ROVs). and ocean exploration. Prof. Wheeler has a special focus on the geology of deep-water coral carbonate mounds, continental margins (canyons, contourites and slides) as well as shelf-sea sediment transport processes, especially in the Irish Sea. Prof. Wheeler has expertise in geophysical processing and core analysis and collaborates with biologists (habitat mapping), GIS experts, offshore renewable energy providers and marine spatial planners.

Prof. Wheeler has strong links to the ERI and MaREI in UCC.

Recent Publications

2024

McGeady, R., Runya, R.M, Dooley, J.S.G, Howe, J.A., Fox, C.J., Wheeler, A. J., Summers, G., Callaway, A., Beck, S., Brown, L.S, Dooley, G. & McGonigle, C., (in press) A review of new and existing non-extractive techniques for monitoring Marine Protected Areas. Frontiers in Marine Science, 10, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1126301

Recouvreur, A., Wheeler, A.J., Strachen, R., Meere, P.A., Unitt, R.P. & Lim, A. (2024). Large scale bedrock outcrop mapping on the NE Atlantic continental margin. Frontiers in Marine Science-Ocean Observation, 10, 2023. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1258070

2023

Summers, G, Lim, A. & Wheeler, A.J. (2023). Multi-resolution appraisal of Cork Harbour estuary: an object-based image analysis approach. Geomorphology, 439, 108851. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2023.108851

Arosio, R., Hobley, B., Wheeler, A.J., Sacchetti, F., Conti, L.A., Furey, T & Lim, A. (2023). Fully convoluted neutral networks applied to large-scale marine morphology mapping. Frontiers of Marine Science, 10, 1228867. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2023.1228867

Butschek, F., Peters, J., Remmers, T., Murphy, J, Cummins, V. & Wheeler, A.J. (2023). Geospatial dimensions of the Renewable Energy Transition — the importance of prioritisation. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 100713. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2023.100713

Coughlan, M., Trafford, A., Corrales, S., Donohue, S., Wheeler, A.J. & Long, M. (2023) Geological and geotechnical characterisation of soft Holocene marine sediments: a case study from the north Irish Sea. Engineering Geology, 313, 106980 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2022.106980

Michel, G., Coughlan, M., Arosio, R., Emery, A.R., Wheeler, A.J. (2023). Stratigraphic and palaeo-geomorphological evidence for the glacial-deglacial history of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet in the north-western Irish Sea, Quaternary Science Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107909.

Morrissey, D., Lim, A., Howell, K., White, M., Wheeler. A.J. & Allcock, L. (2023). The North-East Atlantic Margin: a review of geology, geography, oceanography, and vulnerable megabenthic ecosystems of Ireland and the United Kingdom’s continental slope. Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review, 61, 219-292. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003363873

2022

Appah, J.K.M., Killeen, O., Lim, A., O'Riordan, R., O'Reilly, L., Wheeler, A.J. (2022). Accumulation of marine litter in cold-water coral habitats: A comparative study of two Irish Special Areas of Conservation, NE Atlantic. Marine Pollution Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113764

de Oliviera, L.M.C., de Oliveira, P.A.., Lim, A., Wheeler, A.J. & Conti, L. (2022). Developing mobile applications with augmented reality and 3D photogrammetry for visualisation of cold-water coral reefs. Geosciences 12, 356. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12100356

Hogan, R.I., Hopkins, K, Yessop, C. Wheeler, A.J., Allcock, A.L. (2022). Homoplasy and incongruence in Pennatulacea phylogenies highlight a need for systematic revision. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 178, 107630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107630

O'Reilly, L., Fentimen, R., Butschek, F., Titschack, J., Lim A., Moore, N., O'Connor, O.J., Appah, J., H arris, K., Vennemann, T., W heeler, A.J. (2022). Environmental forcing by submarine canyons: Evidence between two closely situated cold-water coral mounds (Porcupine Bank Canyon and Western Porcupine Bank, NE Atlantic), Marine Geology, 454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2022.106930.

O'Reilly, L., Lim A., Titschack, J., Moore, N., O'Connor, O.J., Appah, J., Fentimen, R., Butschek, F., Harris, K., Vennemann, T., Wheeler, A.J. (2022). Using novel methods to track British and Irish Ice Sheet dynamics since the Late Pleistocene, along the west Porcupine Bank, NE Atlantic. Quaternary Science Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107463

Summers, G. , Lim, A., & Wheeler, A.J. (2022). A characterization of benthic curents from seabed bathymetry : an object-based image analysis of cold-water coral mounds, Remote Sensing, 14, 4731. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14194731

2021

de Oliveira, L.M., Lim, A., Conti, L.A. & Wheeler, A.J. (2021). 3D classification of cold-water coral reefs: A comparison of classification techniques for 3D reconstructions of cold-water coral reefs and seabed. Frontiers in Marine Science. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.640713

Devoy, R., Wheeler, A.J., Brunt, B. & Hickey, K. (2021). The coastal environment: physical systems, processes and patterns. In: (eds R. Devoy, V. Cummins, B. Brunt, D. Bartlett & S. Kandrot) The Coastal Atlas of Ireland, Cork University Press. p. 12-44.

Lim, A., Wheeler, A.J., Conti, L.A. (2021). Cold-water coral habitat mapping: trends and developments in acquisition and processing methods. Geosciences. doi: 10.3390/ geosciences 11010009

Price, D.M., Lim, A., Callaway, A., Wheeler, A.J., Lo Iacono, C., Jensen, A. & Huvenne, V.A.I. (2021). Fine-scale heterogeneity of a cold-water coral reef structure and its influence on the distribution of associated taxa. Frontiers in Marine Science . doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.556313

Summers, G.; Lim, A.; Wheeler, A.J. A Scalable, Supervised Classification of Seabed Sediment Waves Using an Object-Based Image Analysis Approach. Remote Sens. (2021) , 13 , 2317. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13122317

Wheeler, A.J. (2021). Sea levels and Ireland’s ancient seabeds. In: (eds R. Devoy, V. Cummins, B. Brunt, D. Bartlett & S. Kandrot) The Coastal Atlas of Ireland, Cork University Press. p.135-136

Wheeler, A.J. & Lim, A. (2021). Cold-water corals, reefs and carbonate mounds. In: (eds R. Devoy, V. Cummins, B. Brunt, D. Bartlett & S. Kandrot) The Coastal Atlas of Ireland, Cork University Press. p.18-20.

Wheeler, A.J., Lim, A., Butschek, F., O’Reilly, L. & O’Driscoll, P. (2021). The “Little MonSta” deep-sea benthic, precision deployable, multi-sensor and sampling lander array. Sensors, 21 , 3355. doi: 10.3390/s21103355

2020

Appah, J.K.M., Lim, A., Harris, K., O’Riordan, R., O’Reilly, L. and Wheeler, A.J., (2020). Are non-reef habitats as important to benthic diversity and composition as coral reef and rubble habitats in submarine canyons? Analysis of controls on benthic megafauna distribution in the Porcupine Bank Canyon, NE Atlantic. Frontiers in Marine Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.571820

Barrett, N.J., Hogan, R.I., Allcock, A.L., Molodtsova, T., Hopkins, K., Wheeler, A.J. & Yesson, C. (2020). Phylogenetics and mitogenome organisation in black corals (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia: Antipatharia): An order wide survey inferred from complete antipatharian mitochondrial genomes. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7:440 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00440

Coughlan, M., Tóth, Z. Van Landeghem, K., McCarron, S. & Wheeler, A.J. (2020). Formational history of the Wicklow Trough: a marine transgressed tunnel valley revealing ice flow velocity and retreat rates for the largest ice stream draining the late-Devensian British-Irish Ice Sheet.Journal of Quaternary Science, 35,907-919. ISSN 0267 – 8179. DOI: 10.1002/jqs.3234

Fentimen, R, Lim, A., Foubert, A, Ruggesberg, A., Wheeler, A.J., Van Rooij, D. & Foubert, A. (2020). Impact of bottom currents on benthic foraminiferal assemblages in a cold-water coral environment: the Moira Mounds (NE Atlantic). Marine Micropalaeontology, 154, 101799. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marmicro.2019.101799 .

Lim, A., Wheeler, A.J., Price, D., O’Reilly, L., Harris, K. & Conti, C. (2020). Influence of benthic currents on cold-water coral habitats in the upper Porcupine Bank Canyon, NE Atlantic: a combined benthic monitoring and 3D photogrammetric investigation.NatureScience Reports(2020) 10:19433. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76446-y

Peters, J.L., Benetti, S., Dunlop, P. & Wheeler, A.J. (2020). Sedimentary and foraminiferal records of Late Quaternary environmental change west of Ireland and implications for the last British-Irish Ice Sheet . Journal of Quaternary Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3208

Peters, J.J., Butschek, F., O’Connell, R., Cummins, V., Murphy, J. & Wheeler, A.J. (2020). Geological seabed stability model for informing Irish offshore renewable energy opportunities. Advances in Geosciences, 54 , 55-56 . ISSN 1680-7340

Peters, J.L., Remmers, T., Wheeler, A.J., Murphy, J. & Cummins, V. (2020 ). A systematic review and meta-analysis of GIS use to reveal trends in offshore wind energy research and offer insights on best practices. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2020.109916

Tóth, Z., McCarron, S., Wheeler, A.J., Wenau, S., Davis, S., Lim, A. & Spiess, V. (2020). Geomorphological and seismostratigraphic evidence for multidirectional polyphase glaciation of the northern Celtic Sea. Journal of Quaternary Science. ISSN 0267 – 8179. DOI: 10.1002/jqs.3189

2019

Boolukos, C., Lim, A., Wheeler, A. & Ramsay, R. (2019). Cold-water corals in decline – a temporal (4 year) species abundance and biodiversity appraisal of complete photomosaiced cold-water coral reef on the Irish Margin . Deep-Sea Research Part I,146, 44-54. ISSN:09670637

Conti, L.A, Lim., A. & Wheeler, A.J. (2019). High-resolution mapping of a cold-water coral mound. Nature Scientific Reports , 9, 1016 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-37725-x

Coughlan, M, Wheeler, A.J., Dorschel, B., Long, M., Doherty, P. & Mörz, T. (2019). Stratigraphic model of the Quaternary sediments of the Western Irish Sea Mud Belt from core, geotechnical and acoustic data. Geomarine Letters https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-019-00569-z

Hogan, R.I., Hopkins, K., Wheeler, A.J., Allcock, A.L. & Yesson, C. (2019). Novel diversity in mitochondrial genomes of deep-sea Pennatulacea (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Octocorallia). Mitochondrial DNA Part A . doi10.1080/24701394.2019.1634699.

Active Research Grants

Bedrock Target analysis for ROV Rockdrill sampling and existing sample stratigraphic and mineralogical verification 2 (BeTar_Drill2), Petroleum Infrastructure Programme

Informing and Mapping the Offshore Renewable Environment (I-MORE). Sustainable Energy Ireland Research, Development and Demonstration Funding Programme 2019

Irish Centre for Research into Applied Geosciences Phase 2 (iCRAG2) – SFI Research Centres

Monitoring Microplastics and their AssociatedChemicals and their effects in Irish Deep Water Coral Habitats(Plast_Chem_Dora), Marine Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme

Novel Mapping of the Shallow Water INFOMAR Data Set: Towards Ireland’s First Shallow Water Atlas (NoMANS_TIF), Marine Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme

Integrated Assessment of Atlantic Marine Ecosystems in Space and Time (iAtlantic) – H2020 programme BG08

Contact Details

Contact Details:

Position:

Professor of Geology

Marine Geosciences Research Group University College Cork