I was trained initially as a Marine Ecologist at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, where I did a BSc in Marine Biology and also in Ecology, Conservation and Biodiversity, and a MSc in Marine Biology in 2006. Since then I have gone on to work as a research assistant and subsequently completed my Ph.D. at the Department of Botany at University of Otago, New Zealand. My dissertation found that the ability of macroalgae to act as ecosystem engineers could reduce the negative effects of ocean acidification on coralline algae, via reductions in flow and alteration of pH within macroalgal canopies. I then went on to work as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania where I examined how ocean acidification would affect macroalgal-based ecosystems in southern Australia. I then completed a second post-doc at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at the University of Western Australia, Perth. I now have obtained a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship to renew work in kelp forest systems in New Zealand, forming my onw research group here. My research generally uses combined field and laboratory methods to determine how the physiology of macroalgae and other autotrophs can be used to make context and species-specific predictions of their responses to ocean acidification. My research also examines how changes in the mean and variability of environmental factors (light, pH, water flow) interact with climate change to influence the ecology and physiology of marine species, particularly macroalgae.
New Zealand