My research takes place along intertidal sand and mud flats of Auckland, New Zealand. I study microplastic pollution impacts to seafloor ecosystem function, specifically the exchange of dissolved gases and nutrients across the sediment-water interface. I specialize in ecological field experimentation where I can investigate real-world effects of microplastic pollution through environmental and ecological contexts. My PhD thesis at the University of Auckland showed that microplastic fibres and the diversity of microplastics (i.e., colour-type) can influence seafloor ecosystem functionality. Seafloor ecosystem functions fuel services that the seafloor provides to humans such as carbon sequestration, climate regulation, decomposition, and nutrient recycling. I will expand upon my PhD findings under a new research fellowship that focuses on the marine ecological implications of vehicle tyre wear particles in collaboration with other scientists and Auckland business, industry, community, and government stakeholders. The work is funded from Jan 2024 - Jan 2026 by the George Mason Centre for the Environment and the details are below: Marine ecosystems, crucial for global ecological balance, face increasing anthropogenic pollution, including microplastics. A sizable yet overlooked source of microplastics are particles from vehicle tyre wear. As vehicles traverse roads, friction generates particulate matter containing microplastics, heavy metals, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, benzothiazoles, and isoprene, positioning tyre wear particles to pose up to four orders of magnitude higher environmental risks than other microplastics. These harmful compounds are ultimately washed from roads into water bodies, posing potential threats to marine ecosystems. While vehicle tyre compounds can be toxic at the organism-level, the ecosystem-level effects have largely not been explored. Understanding the marine ecosystem-level impacts of vehicle tyre wear pollution can provide valuable information that will enhance mitigation approaches. For example, detecting meaningful shifts in ecosystem functionality is a necessary step for obtaining a monetised cost for discharging untreated road runoff to marine ecosystems (i.e., TFND framework). Please get in touch if you wish to collaborate!

I am a seascape ecologist and I am interested in the relationships between ecological scales and ecosystem functions and services in benthic habitats and coastal soft-sediment ecosystems. Specifically, my goal is to fill the lack of biophysical realism in large scale ecological research by integrating the role of the underlying biodiversity.

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My current research focuses on understanding the link between surface biogenic features and ecological functions, to support ecosystem assessment and conservation. Seafloor ecosystems are often monitored by measuring species composition which is both expensive and limited, especially in deeper waters. Broader scale monitoring therefore relies on measures that are less ecologically relevant and overlook the role of biodiversity. My aim is to develop methods to characterise sediment topography and biogenic feature-forming organisms from seabed photogrammetry, and use these to predict and map ecosystem functions that underpin critical ecosystem services.

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In my previous work, I demonstrated that biogenic habitat forming species can be successfully used to predict and map ecosystem functions of intertidal sandflats. It is now time to extend this approach and knowledge to the vast and less accessible depths of the underwater realm.

As a marine biogeochemist my current research focuses on coastal nitrogen cycling and its regulation and functioning in coastal ecosystems. Marine nitrogen cycling is a broad and intensively studied field, but we lack holistic knowledge of the linkage of nitrogen processes with physical and ecological components of coastal ecosystems, for example with biodiversity, the flow regime, or the behaviour of key species. My aim for the next few years is to study such linkages and how these are affected by
the ongoing human induced impacts such as land-derived nutrient and sediment loads, climate change, or resuspension.

I am a field ecologist and I am interested in biodiversity and ecosystem function in coastal soft-sediment, seagrass, and mangrove ecosystems. My current research focus is on the traits that make seafloor ecosystems resilient to human disturbances. Coastal marine ecosystems are some of the most impacted by multiple human activities, and my research aims to understand how different elements of biodiversity protect against the loss of ecosystem function under human disturbances in the coastal environment. Specifically, I am interested in teasing apart the elements of biodiversity that make seafloor macrofaunal communities resilient to human disturbances that occur at different spatial and temporal scales. My research aims to find practical ways to assess vulnerability of coastal marine ecosystems to future Anthropogenic pressures and disturbances.

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Current projects:

• Assessing the role of biodiversity in maintaining coastal ecosystem health in the Anthropocene (Funded by: Rutherford Foundation, and Walter and Andrée de Nottbeck Foundation)

On-going projects involved:

• Tipping points in coastal marine ecosystems (Funded by: New Zealand National Science Challenge, Sustainable Seas Tipping Points project; Project leader: Prof Simon Thrush)

• Biophysical interactions in soft-sediments: effects of sediment nutrient enrichment on sediment stability