AUT - Postgraduate
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Postgraduate
EOS and postgraduate research focuses on the marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments around Auckland, New Zealand's most densely populated city, and throughout Hauraki Gulf, but is not limited to these areas.
The Institute is currently seeking postgraduates to continue established research programmes in:
- Marine invertebrate taxonomy
- The role of biodiversity databases in coastal conservation and resource management
- Marine invertebrate life histories
- Identification of, and determination of any effects of invasive species on the receiving environment (marine, terrestrial)
- Effects of marine-based aquaculture (mariculture) on sea-bed communities
- The influence of sea-bed structure and composition on benthic-invertebrate assemblages of species
- Patterns in the distribution, abundance and diversity of marine invertebrates
- Processes that affect the distribution, abundance and diversity of marine invertebrates
- Plant/algal-animal interactions
- Whale, seal and fish diet and ecology
- Cephalopod (octopus and squid) systematics, ecology
Please contact us if your research interest falls outside of the list above and we will do our best to accommodate your interests within our rapidly expanding research programmes and expertise base.
Current PhD students
Deep-sea fisheries and trophic ecology in central and southern New Zealand waters
Very little research had been undertaken on the biology and diet of deep-sea fish species in New Zealand waters, and almost nothing on deep-sea food-web structure. An appreciation of such relationships is necessary to better manage the marine environment and fisheries in a more sustainable manners.
Matt's research has seen him dissect tons of deep-sea fisheries bycatch, determine basic biological information from the fish (such as diet, sex, weight, and length), compare these data with the composition of the fish's gut (stomach and intestine) contents — a task that saw him spend countless hours beneath microscopes, reconstructing fragmented prey items, identifying them, and both weighing and counting each, from several areas throughout the New Zealand EEZ — and then make sense out of these enormous data sets, rendering them of value to fisheries managers. Matt's has published a number of papers reporting his results; for the first time he demonstrated a strong link between the deep-sea fish assemblages and the sea bed; believe it or not this had not been demonstrated for New Zealand deep-sea fish assemblages before!
Population dynamics, and anthropogenic threats to mysid shrimp around Auckland, New Zealand
Despite the potential importance of mysid shrimp in aquatic food webs, limited study on these small-bodied shrimp-like crustaceans has been conducted in New Zealand. Neetha's research has mapped the spatial distribution of mysids throughout the greater Auckland region, monitored changes in their abundance and diversity over the course of three years, related these fluctuations in population dynamics to a suite of environmental variables through field- and laboratory-based study, and reconstructed food webs for several taxa through a combination of gut-content analyses of predators and prey and isotopic signatures.
Epibenthic mysid shrimp are a major constituent of local (Waitemata and Manukau) estuarine macro-zooplanktonic communities, typically retaining their place in estuaries when other zooplankton is transported by tidal cycles. However, mysid populations manifest extreme seasonal fluctuations in abundance in these estuarine environments.
As mysids are important components in the diet of many fish, and form important links in aquatic food chains, fluctuations in their abundance are likely to have cascading effects through brackish and freshwater food chains.
Prediction of coastal benthic-invertebrate species assemblages using environmental data
The sea bed throughout Hauraki Gulf is extremely variable in its structure and sediment grain-size composition, ranging from substrata superficially characterised as muds, to those that could be classified as sands, shell gravels or cobbles, but with any number of combinations of these sediment grades. Species assemblages throughout this region are also extremely variable.
The primary objectives of Clara's research programme are to determine the extent to which aspects of sea-bed structure (such as sediment grain-size composition, carbonate and organic content, and metrics of structure) affect species composition, and to use these relationships to predict (model) species assemblage composition based on more limited sets of data.
Clara's research builds on her MAppSc with EOS, completed in 2009, wherein she evaluated the biological footprint of mussel farming activities on sea-bed communities off eastern Waiheke Island, Hauraki Gulf. Clara is also a Research Assistant for EOS.
A review of the squid family Octopoteuthidae: taxonomy, phylogeny and predator/prey relationships
Octopoteuthid squids constitute a major component of the diets of toothed whales, and are also frequently taken by other marine predators including pinnipeds, seabirds and fishes. These squids are also active predators themselves, and link lower trophic levels with the apex predators in ocean food webs, Despite their importance, several large, likely undescribed species of octopoteuthids are thought to exist in New Zealand waters, and the systematics of the group internationally is in disarray. Very few species can be reliably identified at present.
The primary objectives of Jesse's research are to resolve the confused taxonomy of octopoteuthids in all oceans, and critically evaluate the relationships between these squids and others in supposedly related families Pholidoteuthidae and Lepidoteuthidae, describing as much ontogenetic and sexual variation in these squid taxa as collections of specimens permit.
Jesse's research on the octopoteuthids builds on that of other EOS postgraduates in the EOS marine invertebrate taxonomy programme — a programme that has seen the systematics of squids in the families Onychoteuthidae, Histioteuthidae and Chiroteuthidae, and the entire order Octopoda resolved. Jesse was awarded a prestigious New Zealand International Doctoral Research Scholarship (NZIDRS) from Education New Zealand in order to undertake this systematic revision.
Effects of mussel farming on benthic macrofaunal species assemblages: Firth of Thames, Hauraki Gulf
Despite the actual and forecast value of mussel farming to the New Zealand economy, the environmental effects of mussel farming activities on sea-bed communities have been reported on very few ocassions. Peter's research will attempt to describe the relationship between sea-bed assemblages of species and a suite of environmental variables, appraise whether recurring assemblages of species actually exist (and those processes that affect them), and map the distributions of aspects of sea-bed assemblage and substratum structure (e.g., assemblages composition, species richness, diversity, evenness, biomass, indices of taxon rarity, opportunistic or sensitive taxa; and grain size, organic, biogenic composition) throughout Firth of Thames, Hauraki Gulf. Models then will be developed to predict the effects of mussel farming activities on the receiving biological and sedimentary environments.
Peter's research on the effects of mussel farming on sea-bed communities of species builds on that of other EOS postgraduates in the EOS marine soft-sediment ecological programme - a programme that has seen the effects of this activity described already for sea-bed assemblages of species off eastern Waiheke Island, Hauraki Gulf.
Life cycles, ecology and threats to long-finned pilot whales, Globicephala melas, in New Zealand waters
Long-finned pilot whales, Globicephala melas, repeatedly strand on New Zealand beaches, frequently in large numbers, yet very little is known of their life history, ecology and basic biology. Emma's research will describe aspects of this species' age and growth, male and female reproductive cycles, diet, toxicology, stranding patterns, and population structure in New Zealand waters. This research will critique the most comprehensive data set on the biology and status of pilot whales in the Southern Hemisphere, based on amassed archives of biological samples recovered from both recent and historic stranding events.
Knowledge of cetacean diet and life history, past and present (through trend analysis) is critical to understanding, managing and remediating potential anthropogenic threats to this species. Emma's research on cetaceans in New Zealand waters builds on that of her earlier Honours thesis on the diets of stranded pygmy sperm whales, Kogia breviceps, other postgraduate research in the EOS Centre for Cetacean Research, and her own publication record. This Centre has seen Emma and the EOS team travel extensively throughout New Zealand to recover tissue and biological samples from numerous stranded cetacean taxa, and several publications reporting diets of these species and anthropogenic threats to same.
Current MAppSc students
Rosemary Phillips
The current status and population dynamics of freshwater mussels (Unionidae: Echyridella spp.) throughout the Auckland Region
Rosemary is assessing the distribution and abundance of freshwater mussels in the genus Echyridella (formerly Hyridella and Cucumerunio) throughout the greater Auckland region. Species in this genus once proved abundant in Auckland waterways, but siltation, loss of riparian vegetation and disposal of wastes into many of our streams and lakes are all likely to have contributed to their apparent demise. Few locations are known where these mussels occur, and where they do the stream environment appears to be quite degraded.
Rosemary's research will document the status of relict populations of species in this genus, their distribution (at various spatial and temporal scales), abundance, size-class structure (and recruitment), movement, habitat preference, life history, and anthropogenic threats to their continued viability. An important aspect of her research is to locate the host fish species, should it prove to be a fish, of the earliest stages in the bivalve's life, the bizarre glochidium larva.
Motutapu Island, Hauraki Gulf: protecting our heritage with biologically justified MPA placement.
Despite its proximity to the heart of Auckland, Motutapu Island hosts the highest species richness of any of approximately 400 intertidal shores surveyed between Tauranga Harbour and Whangarei, along the North Island east coast. Patterns in the present-day distribution of intertidal hard-shore species, species richness, diversity and assemblage structure around Motutapu Island are in the process of being described, with these patterns related to environmental variables, such as aspects of climate and exposure, and substratum type. Ultimately, intertidal species assemblage structure around Motutapu Island will be compared with similar information available for all other intertidal shores surveyed throughout northeastern New Zealand bioregion (Monalisa Biodiversity database).
The objectives of this research are to identify those sites around Motutapu Island that would be most appropriate for (hypothetical) marine protected area designation, based upon biological attributes, and at the same time contribute to our understanding of the present-day patterns in distribution of marine assemblages of species throughout Hauraki Gulf, and the processes that might affect same.
Shabana's research complements that of Jesse's, but whereas Jesse is looking at intertidal communities around Motutapu Island, Shabana is describing subtidal sea-bed communities around this island, then relating species assemblage structure to a suite of environmental variables, such as sediment grain-size, organic and carbonate composition, and the biological structure of the sediments themselves, such as the dead shell or skeletal composition of particular sediment fractions.
Physical (ascertained from video) and sedimentary (sediment grain size characteristics, carbonate and organic content) are then related to species assemblage structure to evaluate which environmental variable (surface appearance or sedimentary characteristics) best and most rapidly enables characterisation of species composition for (hypothetical) MPA placement.
The results of both Shabana's and Jesse's research will be of considerable benefit to organisations involved with sea-bed habitat mapping and marine protected area identification. Collectively these two will provide the most current and comprehensive data set of marine invertebrates around Motutapu Island.
Heather Braid
A systematic review of a squid family (TBD): taxonomy, phylogeny and predator/prey relationships
Heather joins us in early 2011 to start her MAppSc research on cephalopods. A number of squid families occur in New Zealand waters that have not been reviewed, despite the existence of considerable collections of specimens in national museums. Heather will review of one of these families, or representatives of select genera within one of them. Likely candidates are the Sepiolidae or a revision of select genera within the family Cranchiidae, both of which require immediate review; new species and/or new distribution records of species for the New Zealand EEZ known in each.
Aaron Evans
A systematic review of a squid family (TBD): taxonomy, phylogeny and predator/prey relationships
Like Heather, Aaron joins us in early 2011 to start his MAppSc research on cephalopods, likely researching one of several squid families that occur in New Zealand waters that have not been reviewed (such as the Sepiolidae or a revision of select genera within the family Cranchiidae).
Many families await review, so the research that Aaron will conduct will complement that of Heather and Jesse Kelly (doing his PhD on the systematics of the Octopoteuthidae). This research and that of EOS predecessors (Kat Bolstad, Jens Horstkotte, Alejandra Garcia and Rebecca Mensch) is slowly contributing to a monographic review of the New Zealand squid fauna in entirety.