BIOSKETCH

I am a postdoctoral researcher with broad interests in conservation and human impacts on the distribution of individual species and biodiversity as a whole. I currently work with Boris Worm at at the Department of Biology, Dalhousie University and with Axel Moehrenschlager at the Centre For Conservation Research, Calgary Zoological Society. My research at Dalhousie is supported by a Lenfest Oceans Program grant and focuses on the impact humanity is having on ocean life: How have human pressures such as fishing, pollution and sedimentation altered the distributions of individual species? To what extend have they altered patterns in diversity and community composition? What changes can we expect under future increases in human population size and resource use? How do we recognise species in peril when long-term, historic records of distribution and abundance are lacking? Addresssing these questions requires high quality data on the distribution of numerous taxa over large spatial and/or temporal scales. I have therefore been working in collaboration with PaReFiCo to compile an extensive database on the distribution and abundance of reef fish species and benthic organisms in the Pacific. Pacific reef communities are taxonomically diverse and subject to a variable degree of human pressure, both historically and today. They thus represent an exciting system for study. My work with the Calgary Zoo's Centre for Conservation Research, which began in early 2009, has to date focused more directly on the interaction betwen humans and biodiversity by examining the ecological and socioeconomic outcomes of a community-run hippo sanctuary in Ghana, West Africa.

My interest in investigating human impacts on the distribution of individual species and diversity began early in my academic career. As an undergraduate at the University of Leeds, I examined the ties between a Pacific island fig tree, Ficus prolixa, and the birds and fruitbats dispersing its seeds, many of whom had suffered local declines or extinctions. As a research assistant at McGill University, I helped conduct baseline surveys of an endangered South African seahorse and examined the distribution and exploitation of seahorses along the east African coast through extensive interviews with fishers, divers, traders and government officials. Before joining Dalhousie in May 2005, I completed a D.Phil. at the University of Oxford that examined the utility of satellite-derived environmental indices in predicting and monitoring the distributions of southern African birds. A list of my publications is available below.

Links

• PaReFiCo (The Pacific Reef Fish Collaboration)
• CoML (The Census of Marine Life)
• FMAP (The Future of Marine Animal Populations)
• The Calgary Zoological Society