Dr Aaron Lim

Dr Aaron Lim

Position: Post-doctoral Researcher

Contact: aaron.lim@ucc.ie | +353 21 490 4581 | https://twitter.com/dr_aaron_lim

Biography

Dr Lim is a Marine Geoscientist with interests in habitat mapping, sedimentary processes and geomatics/GIS. Dr Lim received his PhD in 2017 from University College Cork, where he utilised multiscale multibeam mapping coupled with ROV-video mosaics to understand the processes affecting a chain of cold-water coral reefs in the NE Atlantic. During his PhD, he was awarded several research grants, scholarships and awards which has now continued into his post-doctoral career. Dr Lim has participated in over 15 research cruises (chief scientist on five) and is a member of the EuroFleets + Scientific Advisory Committee. Dr Lim is a participant on the H2020 project “Integrated Assessment of Atlantic Marine Ecosystems in Space and Time” and is a researcher on the Science Foundation of Ireland-funded project MMMonkey_Pro.

Honors and Awards

• 2017: Gold Medal Delap Prize: best peer-reviewed publication (BEES, UCC)
• 2014: President’s Award for Research into Innovative Forms of Teaching & Learning
• 2012: Devoy Prize: Best Earth Science Research Project (UCC)

Research Grants

• Bedrock Target analysis for ROV Rockdrill sampling 2 (BeTar_Drill2), Petroleum Infrastructure Programme €156,143.00 (Principal Investigator)
• Novel Mapping of The Shallow Water INFOMAR Data Set: Towards Irelands First Shallow Water Atlas (NoManS_Tif), Marine Institute Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program 2020 – 2024, €349,109.00 (Principal Investigator)
• Monitoring Microplastics and their Associated Chemicals and their effects in Irish Deep Water Coral Habitats, Marine Institute Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program 2020 – 2023, €284,397.00 (Principal Investigator)
• Bedrock Target analysis for ROV Rockdrill sampling (BeTar_Drill), Petroleum Infrastructure Programme €38,478.00 (Principal Investigator)
• Integrated Assessment of Atlantic Marine Ecosystems in Space and Time (iAtlantic), Horizon 2020 Blue Growth programme (participant)
• MOnitoring CHAnge in Submarine CANyon Coral Habitats (MoCha_SCan), Marine Institute Grant-aided Ship-Time Programme 2019-2020 (lead applicant)
• Mapping, Modelling and Monitoring Key Processes and Controls on Cold-water Coral Habitats in Submarine Canyons, SFI Investigator Grant, Nov 2017 – Nov 2021,  (co-applicant)
• Flexible environment monitoring platforms (FlexiMon), Marine Institute Infrastructure Grant, 2017-2018,  (co-applicant)
• Irish Research Council – Graduate of Ireland Scholarship, 2015, (applicant)
• 1st International Conference on Carbonate Mounds (European Science Foundation), Young Researcher Award, 2015
• Marine Institute Travel Award, 2015
• CoCARDE (European Science Foundation) Young Researchers Award (2014)
• Ron McDowell Student Award, GeoHab (Melbourne, Australia, 2014)
• Irish Geological Association, Postgraduate Research Award (2013)
• CoCARDE (European Science Foundation) Young Researchers Award (2013)

Research Cruises

• CE20011 – Systematic Monitoring Survey of the Moira Mound Chain (SyMons_MoM)
• CE19014 – Monitoring Changes in Submarine Canyon Coral Habitats II (MoCha_SCan II) – Chief scientist
• CE19008 – Monitoring Changes in Submarine Canyon Coral Habitats I (MoCha_SCan I) – Chief scientist
• CE18011 – Cold Water Coral Habitats in Submarine Canyons 2 (CoCoHaCa II) – Chief Scientist
• CV17020 – Quantifying Irish Marine Placer Resources – Scientist
• CE16015 – Quantifying EnviRonmental Controls on Cold-water coral Reef Growth: Part 2 (QuERCi  II) – Day shift leader
• CE15016 – Irish Ground Fish Survey – Geophysicist
• CE15009 – Quantifying EnviRonmental Controls on Cold-water coral Reef Growth: Part 1 (QuERCi  I) – Day shift leader
• Sea Acceptance Trials (SAT), Feb. ’15; Multibeam and Sub bottom profiler SAT
• SMART Atlantic Summer School, Sep. ‘14, marine geology instructor; drop camera, gravity core, box core, day grab, MBES, GIS
• WICPro (West of Ireland Coring Programme), Mar., ’14 Day shift leader; coring and SBP
• Geotechnical Survey, Jan., ‘14 RV Celtic Explorer: CPT and sparker seismic survey
• CTD Survey, Dec., ‘13 Chief Scientist, RV Celtic Voyager
• SMART SEA Marine Geoscience Demonstrator (Oct. ‘13, Nov, ‘14/‘15/‘16, Mar./Sep.‘16) Demonstrate marine geoscience techniques to BSc/MSc Geology and Engineering students
• MDACS & Geotechnical survey, Feb. ‘13 drop camera, seismic, MBES, vibrocore
• VENTuRE survey, June/August ‘11 ROV-MBES, ROV video, CTD, grabs

Publications

Lim, A., Wheeler, A.J., Price, D., O’Reilly, L., Harris, K., and Conti, L. (2020) Influence of benthic currents on cold-water coral habitats: a combined benthic monitoring and 3D photogrammetric investigation, Scientific Reports

J. K. M. Appah, A. Lim, K. Harris, R. O’Riordan, L. O’Reilly and A. J. Wheeler (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

Tóth, Z., McCarron, S., Wheeler A.J., Wenau, S., Lim, A., Spiess, W., (2020) Geomorphological and seismostratigraphic evidence for multiple phases of ice cover in the northern Celtic Sea offshore southeast Ireland, Journal of Quaternary Science DOI: 10.1002/jqs.3189 

Fentimen, R., Lim, A., Rüggeberg, A., Wheeler, A., 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 Micropaleontology

Conti, L., Lim, A., Wheeler, A.J., (2019) Object Based Image Analysis for Cold Water Coral Mound Classification, Nature Scientific Reports

Boolukos, C.M., Lim, A., O’Riordan, R.M., Wheeler, A.J. (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 II

Lim, A., Huvenne, V.A.I., Vertino, A., Spezzaferri, S., Wheeler, A.J. (2018) New insights on coral mound development from groundtruthed high-resolution ROV-mounted multibeam imaging, Marine Geology https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2018.06.006.

Lim, A., Kane, A., Arnaubec, A., Wheeler, A.J., (2018) Seabed image acquisition and survey design for coral mound characterisation. Marine Geology 395, 22-32, doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2017.09.008

Fentimen, R., Rüggeberg, A., Lim, A., El Kateb, A., Foubert, A., Wheeler, A.J., Spezzaferri, S. (2018) Benthic foraminifera in a deep-sea high-energy environment: the Moira Mounds (Porcupine Seabight, SW of Ireland) Swiss Journal of Geosciences, doi.org/10.1007/s0001

Lim, A., A.J. Wheeler A. Arnaubec, (2017) High-resolution facies zonation within a cold-water coral mound: the case of the Piddington Mound, Porcupine Seabight, NE Atlantic, Marine Geology, doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2017.06.009

Lim, A., (2017) Spatio-temporal patterns and controls on cold-water coral reef development: the Moira Mounds, Porcupine Seabight, NE Atlantic, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences. University College Cork, Cork Open Research Archive, p. 221, http://hdl.handle.net/10468/4031.

A.J. Wheeler, B. Murton, J. Copley, A. Lim, J. Carlsson, P. Collins, B. Dorschel, D. Green, M. Judge, V. Nye, J. Benzie, A. Antoniacomi, M. Coughlan, K. Morris, (2013), Moytirra: Discovery of the first known deep-sea hydrothermal vent field on the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge north of the Azores, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 14(10): 4170-4183.

Lim, A., (2012) A Geological and Geomorphological characterisation of 45°N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Unpublished undergraduate thesis. Supervisors: Prof. Andy Wheeler and Dr. Fiona Calkwell.

In Review

Lim, A., Wheeler, A.J, Conti, L (in review) Cold-water coral habitat mapping: trends and developments in acquisition and processing methods

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