"Throw up a handful of feathers, and all must fall to the ground according to definite laws; but how simple is this problem compared to the action and reaction of the innumerable plants and animals which have determined, in the course of centuries, the proportional numbers and kinds".

Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

IMOS Slocum glider 3D image of chlorophyll in a warm-core eddy off southeast Australia

Recent CSIRO satellite images of the southeast Australia

Research Interests
 

All my research has a common theme: the use of biomechanical studies of aquatic organisms to explain emergent ecosystem scale behaviour. I have applied this approach to:

Developing configurations of coupled physical-biological ocean models for the waters off south east Australia, and central Chile. Also undertaken cruises aboard the R/V Southern Surveyor off the southeast Australian coast. The links go to animations of model output for the waters off south east Australia  and central Chile (under a summertime wind stress).

Size-resolved pelagic ecosystem model. A novel ecological model of open ocean plankton ecosystems has been developed and its predictive properties investigated.  The essence of the model is to consider size as a part of the model grid, not the model equations. Size-resolution can therefore be varied without changing model equations or parameters. A 2D configuration of the model for a seamount for a 20 member ensemble demonstrates that small pertubations in initial conditions can lead to significantly different model outcomes. The animations shows total phytoplankton biomass for all ensemble members every 5 model days for 420 days.

Estuarine systems - Coupled transport-ecological model of seagrass in Smiths Lake, southeast Australia. Also part of the 2001 National Land and Water Resources Audit.

Coral reefs - Undertaken nutrient uptake experiments in Warraber Island, Torres Strait and Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

In particular, I use numerical models to assess my ideas with the eventual aim of building predictive models of aquatic ecosystems. My motivation is to understand why natural aquatic systems function as they do, and what effects man is having on the natural environment.

There are loads of scientists studying the biomechanics of aquatic organisms. To get started searching, try looking for the many articles published in Limnology and Oceanography.

Present students

Liz Heagney, PhD candidate, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science (BEES superviser: Iain Suthers)

Tom Mullaney, PhD candidate, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science (BEES supervisor: Iain Suthers)

Mehera Kidston, PhD candidate, School of Mathematics and Statistics.

Past students

Helen Macdonald, First Class Honours, School of Mathematics and Statistics

Thesis: Carbon fluxes on the continental shelf off southeast Australia.

Jason Everett, PhD., School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science

Thesis: Biogeochemical dynamics of an intermittently open estuary: a field and modelling study

Jason Everett, First Class Honours, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science

Thesis: A numerical model of autotrophic growth in seagrass communities

Lujia Wu, B.Sc (Hons), School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science

Thesis: Modelling spectrally-resolved light attenuation in a coupled physical-biological ocean model