Use of biota as sentinels of aquatic ecosystem health and human health
Biological-effect based monitoring of anthropogenic pollutants and removal in aquatic vertebrate populations
Independent and interactive effects of multiple stressors on reproduction and development in aquatic vertebrate populations
Reproductive system function, disease and abnormalities
Comparative studies in life history strategies in marine mammals
Conservation management and population assessments of vertebrates
Predator-prey interactions
My research is focused on the impacts of anthropogenic activities on wildlife, primarily aquatic vertebrates. Above all, I am interested in the independent and interactive effects of stressors in the environment on wildlife populations and how to monitor and manage those adverse activities. Stressors such as pollutants (including legacy pollutants such as PCBs), incidental capture of marine mammals in fishing gear, prey depletion and environmental change. Additionally, my work has explored at what level marine mammal species should be conserved and assessed (i.e. population or management/assessment unit), and produced conservation priorities as well as management strategies (for human activities) for those conservation units. My research has thus taken a cross-disciplinary approach encompassing largescale population assessments and studies on detailed reproductive and developmental mechanisms, including pathological changes. I have worked with colleagues developing the use of wildlife as indicators of ecosystem health and the extrapolation of post-mortem data from aquatic mammals as a valuable tool for assessment of population status. All work that has been heavily informed by comparative studies in life history strategies.
Understanding an animal’s life history traits provides a basis for formulating predictive theories and for constructing and adapting models to predict the result of environmental change. Thus, life history studies can provide the lynchpin for conservation management. However, for aquatic mammals this is an area where data are typically sparse. As part of my Marie Curie Fellowship, I addressed an issue of major interest to contemporary ecology, the effects of individual and multiple stressors, such as pollutants, on reproduction and development in cetaceans. My research obtains a rare conservation physiology and ecophysiology perspective on cetacean reproduction and aims to strengthen cetacean conservation management strategies as understanding the cause and effect of change is essential for implementation of conservation and management measures. In more recent years, I have expanded my species of interest to include other aquatic biota, such as otters, seabirds, fish and macroinvertebrates, for assessing their use as sentinels for monitoring aquatic ecosystem health. In addition to investigating bioindicator species for emerging pollutants, such as microplastics.
Since 1999, I have worked on numerous marine mammal research projects in Ireland, the UK and New Zealand; including projects funded by the EC 5th, 6th and 7th Framework Programmes, various contracts to the UK government, the inter-governmental Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (ASCOBANS), as well as the Irish Environmental Protection Agency, Marine Institute, Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and National Parks and Wildlife Service.
My work has informed conservation management advice to government departments, intergovernmental organisations such as the ICES, ASCOBANS and OSPAR, as well as the European Commission, and contributed to the development of mammal indicators for Descriptors 1 (biodiversity), 4 (food web) and 8 (contaminant effects) within the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive.