I am a marine ecologist. I've worked at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science www.cefas.co.uk/ since 2008, where I lead the Coastal Ecosystems and Aquatic Food Systems science themes and lead the projects One Food onefoodcommunity.org/ and MARBEFES marbefes.eu/. I am an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA, where I lead the Biodiversity and Ecosystems science theme at the Cefas-UEA Collaborative Centre for Sustainable Use of the Seas and am a member of the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development nisd.ac.uk/.

My research spans two different scales: at the large scale it encompasses systems thinking, social-ecological systems and ecosystems, and at the local scale I work on understanding of marine and coastal ecological pattens and processes.

I work with colleagues across natural and social sciences and humanities to understand how our uses of the sea can strike a balance between societal need, economic priorities, social benefit and nature conservation. I am particularly interested in aquatic food systems (fisheries and aquaculture) and how these are linked to land-based food production. I work with One Health and sustainability approaches on collaborative research to transform food systems.

As a benthic ecologist, I'm interested in species' biological traits, using them to examine links between species and ecosystem function, to establish how these links might vary across environments and to investigate how human pressures such as fishing, marine energy, pollution or climate change impact on ecological function. One of my other research interests is in developing new approaches for surveying and assessing coastal ecosystems and I am particularly interested in the application of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) and other remote sensing tools for mapping and assessing vegetation and fauna from coastal and shallow subtidal habitats.

I have a research network in more than 20 countries globally and collaborate with colleagues across Europe, Southern Africa and the South Pacific. I'm a PhD and MSc supervisor and I contribute to undergraduate training.

Sustainable management of marine environments, food system sustainability, co-use of marine spaces, the societal benefits of marine biodiversity, ecosystem function, coastal ecosystem ecology, benthic ecology, remote monitoring (remotely piloted aircraft, satellite, shallow-water imaging), machine learning for marine imagery, biological traits.

I studied for a BSc(hons) in environmental biology at Edinburgh Napier University, then went on to take an MRes in ecology and environmental management at the University of York and a PhD in benthic ecosystem functioning at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in 2005. I worked as a post-doc at the University of Liverpool and then at the Univeristy of Oslo. I've worked at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science since 2008 and am an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA.