Research Interests
Links between seabirds and coral reef ecology
I am working alongside Nick Graham and Casey Benkwitt at LEC-REEFS to investigate the influence of rat eradications and habitat restoration on tropical seabird populations. We are interested in the impacts of seabird-derived nutrients on coral reef ecology.
The movement ecology of tropical seabirds
I am working with Steve Votier, Alice Trevail, Robin Freeman and Malcolm Nicol as part of the Bertarelli Foundation's marine science programme. I am investigating the movement ecology of tropical seabirds within the Indian Ocean.
The drivers of seabird energy expenditure
I identified the drivers of seabird energy expenditure and created a Shiny app, ‘The Seabird FMR Calculator’, to generate estimates of energy expenditure for any population of any species of breeding seabird: www.ruthedunn.shinyapps.io/seabird_fmr_calculator/.
The ecological importance of elasmobranchs
I worked alongside Mike Heithaus and Yannis Papastamatiou at Florida International University to investigate the ecological importance of sharks and their relatives across the world's marine ecosystems, with a focus on coral reefs.
Seabird behaviour throughout the annual cycle
Using data collected from a variety of biologging devices, I investigated year-round patterns in seabird activity, movement and energetics. This project was a collaboration between the University of Liverpool and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
Citizen science within intertidal ecosystems
I am skilled in the identification of rocky shore organisms and previously worked on the Capturing Our Coast project. Together the CoCoast team trained almost 3,000 rocky shore citizen scientists to collect data on marine biodiversity around the coasts of the UK.