Kate Chadwick, postgraduate researcher, CDT SuMMeR: Cohort 2

Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Management of UK Marine Resources (CDT SuMMeR)

Postgraduate researcher: Kate Chadwick

Project: CDTS215: Developing a novel system to monitor the status of coastal ecosystems in South West England using a complementary approach: from remote sensing to marine top predators

Hosting Institute: University of Exeter
Associate Partners: Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Zoological Society of London
Contact:
Kate Chadwick

Background

I completed my undergrad and Masters at the University of Southampton as a mature student. I have since spent 3.5 yrs working for governments in UKOTs dealing with fisheries management and monitoring and contributing to the designation of the MPA around Ascension Island. For the last two years I have been in Canada working with the North Atlantic right whale looking at the epigenetic effects of entanglement and vessel strike in association with stress.

Research interests

I am particularly interested in the ecology of marine mammals – how they interact with their environment and what drives behavioural change and population dynamics. I also enjoy working out in the field, conducting dive surveys, tagging, and collecting morphometric data to aid with species and fisheries management and conservation.

PhD research: Developing a novel system to monitor the status of coastal ecosystems in South West England using a complementary approach: from remote sensing to marine top predators

This project hopes to develop an ecological monitoring system of the coastal marine ecosystem in Southwest England by combining approaches: bottom-up (remote sensing) and top-down (biogeochemical markers in marine top predators). In using these two ecosystem monitoring applications, we should gain a better understanding of how changes at the base of the ecosystem are distributed through the trophic web. We will gain a better understanding of how carbon supports populations of pelagic fish and marine predators and potentially link particular oceanographic perturbations in an area with components of the ecosystem that might be affected (e.g. the affects of temperature anomalies or harmful algal blooms on fish stocks and marine predators).
Research project aims:
  1. To develop a complementary ecological monitoring system that incorporates information at the base and top of the trophic web.
  2. To evaluate the use of top predator’s tissue samples to document variation at the base of the trophic web.
  3. To contrast and validate the changes detected in marine predators with information on the base of trophic web obtained from remote sensing.

Why I applied for the CDT SuMMeR

Having spent the last few years working overseas and being fortunate enough to be part of some really exciting projects I wanted to take my career to the next level and believed that obtaining my PhD would allow be to do so.
In being part of such a great variety of projects I knew how important transdisciplinary working is and so I wanted to be part of a project where I would get the opportunity to learn new skills not only in association with specific methods and protocols but also develop the ability to work successfully in a transdisciplinary environment.