Our Postgraduate Researchers

Cameron Trotter, PhD

Supervisors: Prof. Per Berggren, Prof. Nick Wright, Dr Stephen McGough

Project title: Towards automatic photo-identification of Cetaceans: A fine-grained, few-shot problem in marine ecology.

I focus on the application of computer vision to marine ecology, developing a framework for automatic individual-level cetacean identification utilising a pipeline of computer vision models and post-processing techniques. The developed system is capable of fine-grained, few-shot classification, generating top-n lists of most likely catalogue matches as well as being capable of detecting potentially previously uncatalogued individuals. This framework has been shown to be invariant to changes in species of interest, geography, and time.

Eveline van der Steeg, PhD

Supervisors: Dr James Guest, Dr Adriana Humanes and Dr Margaret Miller

Project title: Optimizing reef restoration through sexual coral propagation.

Worldwide coral reef decline has led to the development of active coral reef restoration initiatives. Our research group, the Coralassist Lab, studies the feasibility of selectively breeding corals with higher tolerance to increased ocean temperatures, aiming to produce corals which can survive bleaching events. However, high mortality rates and costs prevent the implementation of sexual coral propagation techniques for coral reef restoration efforts at meaningful ecological scales.

Hannah Scarlett Earp, PhD

Supervisors: Prof. Pippa Moore, Prof. Paul Shaw, Dr Dan Smale, Dr Alejandro Pérez-Matus

Project title: The structure, resilience and restoration of kelp forests and their associated understorey assemblages.

Kelp are ecosystem engineers that form forests along one quarter of the world’s temperate rocky coastlines. The three-dimensional structure of the forest modifies local environmental conditions, allowing understorey assemblages to develop. However, information on the structure and functioning of these understorey assemblages is limited. The first aim of my research is to understand spatial and seasonal variation, and the resilience to storm disturbance, of understorey macrofloral and macrofaunal assemblages within Laminaria hyperborea forests in the UK.

Matt Sharpe, PhD

Supervisors: Prof. Per Berggren and Prof. Nick Wright

Project title: Advancing the application of passive acoustic monitoring for investigating odontocete ecology.

Effective conservation requires data on species occurrence, abundance, and area usage. Providing this information is difficult for odontocetes (i.e., toothed whales) due to the challenges of collecting data at sea. Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM; the method of detecting animals remotely using hydrophones) has proven a viable approach to studying odontocetes as all species produce sounds such as echolocation clicks.

Maxine Canvin, PhD

Supervisors: Prof. Pippa Moore, Dr Will Reid, Dr Dan Smale, Dr Nathan King

Project title: Quantifying the contribution of kelp farming to Blue Carbon ecosystem services.

Seaweed farming is a global, rapidly expanding industry. It has been recently suggested that the transfer of organic matter from seaweed farms to the surrounding environment is significant, and that a fraction of this seaweed-derived carbon may be retained in long-term carbon sinks (e.g. deep water, shelf sediments, coastal vegetated habitats), thereby contributing to natural carbon sequestration (i.e. Blue Carbon). However, the evidence base for this is currently weak and derived from a handful of empirical studies.

Ni Wayan Purnama Sari, PhD

Supervisors: Dr James Guest

Project title: Indonesia’s Ornamental Coral: Advancing, techniques, development, and adaptation to climate change.

The trade for live coral for commercial and personal aquarium purposes has increased in the last two decades in response to increasing consumer demand for aquarium ornamental corals and advances in coral cultivation techniques. Indonesia became the largest live coral exporter and in early 2000 as supplied 70-80% of the global live coral trade. This includes the ten key species: Acropora spp., Montipora spp., Goniopora spp., Trachyphllia geoffroyi, Heliofungia actiniformis, Plerogyra sinuosa, Euphyllia cristata, Fungia spp., Caulastrea spp. and Euphyllia ancora. Some of these species have succeeded in mariculture but some are dependent on harvesting directly from the wild. Continuous uptake from the wild might cause coral to be threatened with extinction, especially when the species are rare with limited distribution area. Therefore, my study will focus on these species' potential stock and biology.

Peter Almond, PhD and RA

Supervisors: Prof. Clare Fitzsimmons and Dr. William Reid

Project title: A resilient ecological network of shipwreck-associated communities in the North Sea.

Shipwrecks, as artificial structures, form unique benthic habitats, providing hard, complex substrate to communities unable to settle in an otherwise soft sediment-dominated habitat. This is particularly true in a North Sea context, where manmade structures provide the only refugia in an area subjected to centuries of disease and overfishing. My research focuses on investigating to what extent shipwrecks in the North Sea form a resilient ecological network for marine communities, promoting connectivity and resilience in the face of environmental and anthropogenic pressures.

Rubén de la Torre Cerro, PhD

Supervisors: Dr James Guest, Dr Aileen Mill, Dr Holly East, Dr Jamie Craggs

Project title: Unravelling the drivers of coral reproductive phenology and synchrony.

Coral reefs are declining worldwide due to ocean warming and other global change drivers. Although many initiatives currently aim to withstand the damage of marine heat waves, such as coral bleaching and mortality in adult stages, the effect of global change in coral spawning phenology and synchrony can also have a major impact on the persistence of coral reefs.

Sol Lucas, PhD

Supervisors: Prof. Per Berggren, Dr Isabel Smallegange

Project title: Bycatch reduction and resilience of elasmobranch populations in response to fishing pressure and environmental change.

Marine megafauna are vital for ecosystem and fishery health. My research aims to identify threats, status and bycatch reduction techniques to promote the conservation of marine megafauna, with a focus on elasmobranchs (sharks and rays).

I investigate the use of sensory deterrents to reduce bycatch of marine megafauna. This involves filming the behavioural responses of blue sharks (Prionace glauca) to ferrite magnets, using pelagic baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVS).