2024 - Rats to Reefs Fieldwork - Lord Howe Island   

In May, I undertook my third fieldwork campaign at Lord Howe Island, along with other colleagues from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Southern Cross University, and the University of NSW. 

Last year, I was contacted by Lord Howe Island Marine Parks who wanted to expand on some of the previous research I did there about five years ago. My research, along with other historical studies, indicated some nutrient pollution in the coral reef. They wanted to understand where the nutrients were coming from, the types of nutrients delivered, and how these nutrients impact the reef. We designed a monitoring program, brought in other experts, and went to the Island to implement the program and collect other samples and tissues to answer these questions. 

In the years since my last work here, there have been a few changes on the Island. LHI successfully implemented the largest pest eradication program ever attempted. The removal of the rats from the island will help bird populations flourish again on the Island, which is a really important nesting and resting space for seabirds. Less uplifting, the reef at LHI has experienced negative impacts from climate change, like coral bleaching, which can be devastating to reefs and will continue to worsen as climate change progresses. These may seem like two entirely different spheres: birds on land and coral reef bleaching, but as is typical in nature, everything is connected. 

Interestingly, islands that have higher seabird populations can result in faster and more complete coral ecosystem recovery from bleaching episodes because of the “good” nutrients that birds deliver to the reef. Our monitoring program and research will hopefully provide authorities with information on how to better manage this, and other coral reefs. 

Working here has been an incredible experience, and I hope to be able to continue to do good research in this space to give our marine communities a fighting chance.

AIMS Webstory: Diving deeper into nutrient pathways to help protect Lord Howe Island’s marine haven 

2022 - CLASS Early Career Researcher Fellowship

I was awarded the Climate-Linked Atlantic Sector Science Fellowship for ECRs to collaborate with colleagues at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton UK. During this fellowship I worked to further develop autonomous chemistry sensors methodologies for future coastal biogeochemistry studies. 

You can read the full description and blog here. 

2022 - Wadden Sea Fieldwork - SGD 

In April 2022, the ZMT-SGD workgroup was part of a large collaborative effort called the KISNET Project to quantify groundwater flow into the Wadden Sea from Sylt, Germany. Experts in the entire breadth of groundwater methodologies are working together here to assess the comparability of techniques. Our group focused on Radium isotopes to trace groundwater discharge to Königshafen Bay. 

2021 - PhD Graduation

2020 - Named in ASLO News 'Outstanding L&O Reviewer'