Courtney Stuart
Hello, I’m Courtney! I joined the University of Oxford in 2022 as a DPhil student funded by the UKRI Oxford-NERC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP).
I’m interested in marine spatial ecology, focusing on ecological connectivity in heterogeneous, nearshore seascapes. For my DPhil, I hope to combine traditional landscape ecology and marine community ecology theory with innovative field- and GIS-based approaches to enhance our understanding of nutrient cycling across the land-sea interface of remote islands in French Polynesia’s Tetiaroa Atoll.
Prior to joining the Seascape Ecology Lab and the Oxford-NERC DTP, I received my MSc in Ecology from the University of Alberta. As an MSc student advised by Dr. Stephanie Green, I constructed species- and life-stage-specific spatial models of habitat suitability and functional connectivity for reef fishes with complex life histories, particularly those that involve cross-shelf ontogenetic habitat shifts. I hold a BSc in Marine Vertebrate Biology from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, where I worked on various research projects related to the spatial ecology of tiger sharks, fishes, copepods, kelps, and seagrasses. I’ve also had several transformative experiences in the field, including extended research in the Gulf of Maine, Long Island Sound, and the Peruvian Amazon Basin.
In my free time, I enjoy hiking, swimming, kayaking, camping, and tide-pooling.
Selected publications
Stuart, C. E., Wedding, L. M., Pittman, S. J., Serafy, J. E., Moura, A., & Green, S. J. (In prep). Seascape connectivity modeling reveals potential hotspots of fish-derived nutrient provisioning to restored coral reefs. Marine Ecology Progress Series.
Stuart, C. E., Wedding, L. M., Pittman, S. J., & Green, S. J. (2021). Habitat Suitability Modeling to Inform Seascape Connectivity Conservation and Management. Diversity, 13(10), 465.
Stuart, C. E., Green, S. J., Vernygora, O., LeBlanc, A. R., Bertschi, M. H., & Brown, M. (2021). New insights into patterns and rates of tooth replacement in serrasalmid and characid fishes, with implications for the subsistence fishery of Peru's remote ribereños villages. Journal of Fish Biology, 98(4), 1196-1201.
Follow Courtney on Twitter: @c_stuart9