Atlantic salmon river in North East Iceland.
Many congratulations to Olivia Morris, who has passed her PhD viva with no corrections, marking the completion of her postgraduate research degree.
Olivia’s PhD was titled ‘Predicting the effects of environmental variation on Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) population dynamics. Her viva was examined by Dr Bonnie Waring and Professor Tim Coulson (Head of Department at the University of Oxford).
"Olivia’s combination of metabolic theory with integral projection models is a unique and exciting step forwards in the field. The methods have applications not only to Atlantic Salmon as in Olivia’s PhD project, but also to many other species of fish and even to insects." Professor James Rosindell
She developed a new mechanistic population model incorporating metabolic traits (the Metabolic Theory of Ecology) and structured population models (integral Projection Models). The metabolic theory part of this expands on how important life processes such as growing larger and reproducing will change depending on environmental temperature and the body size of an animal. The structured population models part captures how a population can grow (or shrink) and the proportions of large and small individuals change. Together, the approach allowed her to explore the effects of temperature and resource availability on populations, as well as make predictions under novel climatic conditions.
Olivia said: ‘I enjoyed the process and the chance to discuss my work with experts in the field! I am now currently working as a postdoc in Silwood Park with Dr Will Pearse, modelling biodiversity and ecosystem functioning relationships.’
Professor James Rosindell said: ‘Olivia’s combination of metabolic theory with integral projection models is a unique and exciting step forwards in the field. The methods have applications not only to Atlantic Salmon as in Olivia’s PhD project, but also to many other species of fish and even to insects.’
River Frome, Dorset.
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Reporter
Emily Govan
Department of Life Sciences
