Below the Waves

Welcome to my little shop of horrors! Using fish eyes, ears and other body parts we reconstruct their lifetime movements and health histories to improve fisheries management and conservation.

We often think of land and ocean habitats as separate, but on tropical islands, their close proximity challenges this perception. Seabirds commonly roost in large numbers on tropical islands, where their guano (poo!) can enter coastal habitats. In this talk, I will walk you through our research on a remote pacific atoll where we attempt to measure the ecosystem-wide impact of guano on coral reefs, from nutrients and microbes to fish and coral communities. Together, we will discuss what happens when seabirds disappear and explore whether seabird poo holds any answers to saving our coral reefs.

Seagrass meadows enhance the stability of the coastal zone, improve water quality, create habitat, and are a ‘Nature Based Solution’ for the nature crisis. Essex, however, has lost a staggering amount of its seagrass meadows from its coastline and estuaries. Over the last year, I have been exploring how best to restore the small leaved ‘dwarf eelgrass’ (Zostera noltei), adapting simple gardening techniques for the sea. Due to minuscule seeds, I’ve steered away from traditional methods and am trialling a novel approach: transplants.