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 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.
Dr Melissa Ward (2022-2024)
Melissa Ward was a postdoctoral researcher who studied nature and community-based solutions to climate change. She has been 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.
PhD Students
Betina Frinault (2019-2024)
Betina recently completed her DPhil in the Seascape Ecology Lab. Her funding was from the UKRI through the Oxford NERC Doctoral Training Partnership (Environmental Research DTP) and her research looked 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.
Ramesh Wilson
Ramesh is a Doctoral Candidate in the Seascape Ecology Lab. His research investigates the cumulative impacts of anthropogenic stressors on global rocky shore ecosystems, using both in situ, passive experimental methods, and synthesis of national and sub-national policy frameworks for coastal management.
Leah Tavasi
Leah is a PhD student in the NERC DTP program in Environmental Research, between Archaeology and Geography. Her focus is an interdisciplinary mesh between maritime archaeology and marine ecology and biology.
MSc Students
Anja Rossmanith
Anja is studying for an MPhil in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance. Interested in seaweed as a solution to climate change, her research investigates the resurgence of seaweed in the UK while focusing on a case study in Cornwall.
Sasha Hill (2023-2024)
Sasha has just finished the MSc Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at the University of Oxford. She joined the Seascape Ecology Lab to complete her dissertation on biophysical drivers of coral community trait composition and will now continue working with the Lab as a Research Assistant.
Hanzhu Chen (2023-2024)
Hanzhu Chen was a MSc student in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management program. Her research focused on NGO’s role in mangrove conservation and restoration in the South China Sea through a combined approach of organizational ecology framework, habitat suitability models and conservation priority mapping.
Joe Boyle (2022-2023)
Joe Boyle completed his MSc in biodiversity, conservation & management. His work focused 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
Kaya Malhi
Kaya began working as a research assistant in 2022, helping conduct fieldwork in French Polynesia. She has since been involved in processing the benthic data on coralnet, along with various other jobs around the lab. She is taking a year to travel before starting her undergraduate degree in Arts and Sciences at UCL in 2025.
Rosalie Wright (2020 - 2023)
Rosalie was a Research Assistant in the Seascape Ecology Lab and a graduate in Biological Sciences from Oxford. She spent 3 years working on multi-habitat seascape restoration and is particularly interested in science communication for impactful research. Rosalie is now working at Blue Marine Foundation as the Solent Seascape Project co-ordinator.
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
Hannah Taylor
Hannah's undergraduate dissertation utilises existing field-based observation data and environmental predictors to map the relative probability of occurence of two species of wrasses, Halichoeres trimaculatus and Thalassoma hardwicke. This work is situated within Teti'aroa, French Polynesia, and can be interpreted as an index of habitat suitability to support future restoration projects. Her work builds upon previous research conducted by the seascape lab, shifting the focus onto secondary consumers within the atoll.
Joash Cheong
Joash conducted a two-phased habitat analysis of the Palenose Parrotfish (Scarus psittacus) in Teti'aroa, French Polynesia for his dissertation. He created a habitat suitability model by combining species occurrence with bathymetric and benthic habitat data. Secondly, he used a patch-corridor-matrix model to undestand seascape connectivity. Joash’s dream is to join a science-based and ecosystem-focused marine consultancy team and possibly pursue a master’s in Applied Marine Science at the University of Plymouth!
Ben Yuen
Ben’s undergraduate dissertation focused on spatially predictive mapping of suitable habitat for a threatened reef-building coral species, Acropora palmata. He received a distinction and was nominated for the Digital Geographies Research Group prize. Ben's dissertation was published in Restoration Ecology, and he presented his work at the Reef Conservation UK conference. Following his time at Oxford, Ben completed an MSc at UCL in Aquatic Conservation, Ecology and Restoration, and he is now working as a coral restoration intern at Soneva Fushi in the Maldives.
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.
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.
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.
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.