About me

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Liverpool, United Kingdom
I am interested in how we can use DNA sequences to understand biodiversity – how do we recognise species, and how are species related at taxonomic, ecological and geographic levels? My passion for biodiversity research has led me from the world’s largest natural history collection - Natural History Museum, London, where I completed my MSc, to the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario - global centre for the international Barcode of Life, as a PhD student, and to the hyper-diverse tropics of Southeast Asia. The tropics will be the first regions to experience historically unprecedented climates and this will happen within the next decade. Consequently my recent research has focussed on understanding the effects of urbanisation and climate change on tropical and subtropical biodiversity - encompassing both species richness and ecological integrity across a diversity of taxonomic groups.

Feb 16, 2010

Barcoding squid stomach contents


Over the Christmas holidays, another barcoding student (Heather Braid) and I traveled to Vancouver Island to collect some squids which had stranded on the beach near Torfino in September 2009. Once the squids were safely in the lab in Guelph, we dissected out the stomachs and other tissues needed for toxin testing. Results from the barcoding of the stomach contents should be coming soon...