CURRENT PROJECT
Effects of multiple stressors on marine mammals
I am working on developing quantitative methods to help understand the cumulative effect of multiple stressors on marine mammals. I am part of an analytical team developing conceptual statistical models and applying them to case studies.
Animal movement modelling
​Movement is a fundamental aspect of animal ecology and technological advances make it possible to collect large volumes of data using animal-attached tracking devices. These can be used to make inferences about the patterns and mechanisms underlying animal movement. My research into animal movement modelling has focused on hidden Markov models and other state space models.
Trends in ecology
​I work on a variety of non-movement ecology projects. Past projects include looking at trends in bitemarks on large whales made by cookie-cutter sharks, the haul-out pattern in Weddell seals during the Antarctic winter and testing for postreproductive lifespan in false killer whales.
Research
visits
In December 2019 I visited Prof Roland Langrock at Bielefeld University, Germany to collaborate with him and his research group on (surprise!) hidden Markov models!
​
In June 2019 I visited Dr Karine Heerah at Aarhus University, Denmark. I gave a talk about my work on HMMs for diving and we worked on a joint project.
​
In May 2019 I visited Prof Jason Matthiopoulos at Glasgow University, UK to worked on a joint project on Bayesian hierarchical models for diving behaviour.
​
In September 2018 I contributed to a workshop teaching Field Lab and Modelling (FILAMO) techniques to PhD students and early career researchers. The workshop took place in Cape Town, South Africa but the participants were from all over the world. My contribution was a lecture and practical about hidden Markov models.
​
I spent August and September 2017 working with David Borchers at CREEM, University of St Andrews on inferring movement from acoustic telemetry data.
​
In January 2017 eight of us took part in a two-day workshop (16-18th) on Density Estimation from Acoustic Data.
​
I spent two weeks at CREEM at the University of St Andrews (22 Oct - 4 Nov 2016) to visit David Borchers and Esther Jones.
In May 2016 I was in Hobart for a special workshop on modelling movement in marine central-place foragers.
​
During the summer of 2015 (June-August) I visited the Universities of St Andrews and Glasgow through the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland PECRE scheme for postdoctoral researchers. I spent time working with Roland Langrock, Jason Matthiopoulos and Len Thomas.