Meet the Lab
Dr Lisa Wedding
Dr Wedding is Principal Investigator of the Oxford Seascape Ecology Lab, an Associate Professor in Physical Geography and a Tutorial Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford University. Dr Wedding previously held a Research Associate position at the Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University, and was a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the University of California at Santa Cruz, USA.
Postdoctoral Scholars
Dr Melissa Ward
Melissa Ward is a Postdoctoral Researcher who studies nature and community-based solutions to climate change. She is currently investigating the ability of seagrass meadows and other blue carbon habitats to sequester carbon and determining how this ability can be used to reach national climate goals.
Dr Eleanor Thomson
Eleanor Thomson is a Postdoctoral Researcher in ecological remote sensing. She is currently working on a Bertarelli Marine Science Project that seeks to quantify the importance of seabird nutrient subsidies on tropical island terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Eleanor is also a Senior Researcher at Gentian Ltd.
PhD Students
Betina Frinault
Betina is currently studying towards a DPhil in the Seascape Ecology Lab. Her funding is from the UKRI through the Oxford NERC Doctoral Training Partnership (Environmental Research DTP) and her research looks at determining benthic community patterns, and drivers, of the seas of Antarctica, and the seamounts of the Southwest Indian Ridge (Indian Ocean region).
Pirta Palola
Pirta is a graduate from the University of Oxford Biodiversity, Conservation and Management MSc, and is now a PhD candidate in the lab. She studies land-sea connectivity and is working on the development of a remote sensing and modelling system for the three-dimensional land-sea continuum.
Courtney Stuart
Courtney is a recent graduate from the MSc in Ecology at the University of Alberta. She is now a doctoral candidate in the Seascape Ecology Lab researching marine spatial ecology, focusing on ecological connectivity in heterogeneous, nearshore seascapes.
MSc Students
Joe Boyle
Joe Boyle is studying for an MSc in biodiversity, conservation & management. He’s currently working on mapping seagrass in Sanday, Orkney, as a social-ecological system using remote sensing and local ecological knowledge.
Emily Peterson (2021-2022)
Emily conducted her Master’s dissertation on ‘Assessing ‘seascape-wide ecological connectivity in support of restoration efforts within Tetiaroa, French Polynesia’, supervised by Dr Lisa Wedding. Emily received a distinction for her Master’s research, and is now working towards publication and engagement with stakeholders to share findings. She will be starting a PhD research at Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research examining habitat building shellfish in the Wadden Sea.
Arzucan Askin (2020-2021)
Arzu joined the lab for her MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management. Her research examined pelagic predators in areas beyond national jurisdiction and the Arctic circle, as well as the risks posed by oil spills from potentially polluting shipwrecks on coral reef ecosystems.
Aadil Saddiqi (2020-2021)
Aadil was an MSc student reading Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at the School of Geography and the Environment. His dissertation was supervised by Dr Wedding and examined transboundary migratory species protection in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean.
Research Assistants
Rosalie Wright (2020 - 2023)
Rosalie is a Research Assistant in the Seascape Ecology Lab and a graduate in Biological Sciences from Oxford. She is currently working on multi-habitat seascape restoration and is particularly interested in science communication for impactful research.
Sophie Taylor (2020-2021)
Sophie completed her Geography undergraduate dissertation on ‘The use of Benthic Foraminifera as Bioindicators for Heavy Metal Pollution in Coastal Environments: A Case Study from the North-West Scottish Highlands', supervised by Dr Lisa Wedding. Sophie became a Research Assistant in the Oxford Seascape Ecology Lab and is now a sustainability consultant at ClimatePartner.
Undergraduate Students
Katie Long
Katie’s undergraduate dissertation incorporated remote-sensed temperature measurements to existing field-based data to evaluate three mass coral bleaching events in Kāne'ohe Bay, Hawai'i. Her study aimed to help understand how reef resilience can be increased in the face of rising temperatures and was supervised by Dr Lisa Wedding.
Ben Yuen
Ben’s undergraduate dissertation, supervised by Dr Lisa Wedding, "Spatially predictive mapping of suitable habitat for a threatened reef-building coral species, Acropora palmata, in the US Caribbean", received a mark of 73 and was nominated for Digital Geographies Research Group prize. Ben's dissertation was invited for submission to a special issue of Restoration Ecology and he recently presented his work at the Reef Conservation UK conference.
Alfie Smith
Alfie’s completed his undergraduate dissertation, “Selling Seychelles for the Seashore: the transition to the blue economy in the republic of Seychelles” with Dr Lisa Wedding. Alfie is now applying for graduate medicine.
Maryam Jamilah
Maryam was an intern within the Oxford Seascape Ecology Lab and completed her Biological Sciences Final Honours School research presentation, supervised by Dr Lisa Wedding. Maryam’s research considered Traditional Ecological Knowledge, conservation and marine ecology.
Rosalie Wright
Rosalie interned with the Oxford Seascape Ecology Lab in 2019 for her Biological Sciences Final Honours School research presentation. Supported by Dr Lisa Wedding and her associates at Stanford University’s Center for Ocean Solutions, Rosalie studied the sustainable expansion of domestic pelagic fisheries in the Republic of Palau. Rosalie is now a Research Assistant within the Oxford Seascape Ecology Lab.
Emily Thwaites
Emily’s undergraduate dissertation used seascape ecology theory and GIS (geographic information system) mapping to conduct a seascape analysis of several reef sites in the Florida Reef Tract. This work helped to indicate the most efficient sites in which to focus restorative planting efforts and was supervised by Dr Lisa Wedding.