Background
After graduating from Stirling University in 1989 with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Biology and following up with an M.Sc. in Aquatic Resource Management from Kings College, University of London (1990) my first job was with the National Rivers Authority (NRA). For the 25 years plus since then I have worked across a broad range of sectors including government, oil and gas, renewables and aggregates.
Survey and lab-work formed the foundation of my early years as a working biologist with a focus on sublittoral soft sediment communities. The years spent behind the microscope provided me with an in-depth knowledge of macrofauna identification and ecology. Extensive exposure to those higher level areas which were to form the core of the business model for Sea-nature Studies in it's present incarnation followed quickly. During these formative years this work included baseline, monitoring and impact assessment in estuaries, near-shore and offshore areas, as well as deep-water studies west of Shetland. The majority of this work has been in UK coastal waters but I have also worked further afield (e.g. Caspian Sea). Organisations I have worked for include the Oil Pollution Research Unit, BMT Cordah Ltd and EMU Ltd which later became part of Fugro.
I am a member of the Royal Society of Biology (CBiol MRSB), the British Ecological Society, the Porcupine Marine Natural History Society and most recently the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
After graduating from Stirling University in 1989 with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Biology and following up with an M.Sc. in Aquatic Resource Management from Kings College, University of London (1990) my first job was with the National Rivers Authority (NRA). For the 25 years plus since then I have worked across a broad range of sectors including government, oil and gas, renewables and aggregates.
Survey and lab-work formed the foundation of my early years as a working biologist with a focus on sublittoral soft sediment communities. The years spent behind the microscope provided me with an in-depth knowledge of macrofauna identification and ecology. Extensive exposure to those higher level areas which were to form the core of the business model for Sea-nature Studies in it's present incarnation followed quickly. During these formative years this work included baseline, monitoring and impact assessment in estuaries, near-shore and offshore areas, as well as deep-water studies west of Shetland. The majority of this work has been in UK coastal waters but I have also worked further afield (e.g. Caspian Sea). Organisations I have worked for include the Oil Pollution Research Unit, BMT Cordah Ltd and EMU Ltd which later became part of Fugro.
I am a member of the Royal Society of Biology (CBiol MRSB), the British Ecological Society, the Porcupine Marine Natural History Society and most recently the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
Marine Ecological Assessment Services
Sea-nature Studies is an independent, sole-trader, marine environmental consultancy based in Hampshire with specialist expertise in marine benthic ecology.
The business is primarily focused on all aspects of data analysis, interpretation and reporting. Please request a quote for any and all marine ecological work in these headline categories for both subtidal and intertidal work. Sea-nature Studies also specialises in offering a service to any projects particularly concerned with marine non-native species (see below for more on this topic).
Sea-nature Studies also offers specialist small-scale fieldwork services covering intertidal, saltmarsh, lagoon and sublittoral habitats. This includes Phase I and II, snorkel and near-shore, small boat survey work. Recent examples include mapping seagrass in Langstone, Chichester and Pagham Harbours (Hampshire, UK).
Habitat Regulations Assessment can also be provided should you require.
Those areas in which we do not currently offer a direct service can be included as Sea-nature has a history of working with a wide range of collaborators e.g. molecular work with eDNA data, fish studies, sea-bird assessments, marine mammal monitoring, plankton and so on.
Sea-nature Studies is an independent, sole-trader, marine environmental consultancy based in Hampshire with specialist expertise in marine benthic ecology.
The business is primarily focused on all aspects of data analysis, interpretation and reporting. Please request a quote for any and all marine ecological work in these headline categories for both subtidal and intertidal work. Sea-nature Studies also specialises in offering a service to any projects particularly concerned with marine non-native species (see below for more on this topic).
Sea-nature Studies also offers specialist small-scale fieldwork services covering intertidal, saltmarsh, lagoon and sublittoral habitats. This includes Phase I and II, snorkel and near-shore, small boat survey work. Recent examples include mapping seagrass in Langstone, Chichester and Pagham Harbours (Hampshire, UK).
Habitat Regulations Assessment can also be provided should you require.
Those areas in which we do not currently offer a direct service can be included as Sea-nature has a history of working with a wide range of collaborators e.g. molecular work with eDNA data, fish studies, sea-bird assessments, marine mammal monitoring, plankton and so on.
GIS Mapping Services
Like high quality, well designed maps to help report your project data but just don't have the time to pull them together?
Sea-nature Studies is here to help. Here are some of the more common GIS services I have provided outputs for:
Like high quality, well designed maps to help report your project data but just don't have the time to pull them together?
Sea-nature Studies is here to help. Here are some of the more common GIS services I have provided outputs for:
- Always a favourite, Dots-on-Maps - sample locations / species / waypoints / photos etc.
- Require graduated symbology to reflect abundances, or categorized outputs based on other fields within your data set?
- Need your photo points mapped but don't have a location-tag in the jpeg? If you have a track your photo timestamp can be used to map the location (batch processing to save time where numbers of photos are high).
- Would you like to incorporate a selection of representative photos into the plot?
- Want to turn those tracks into polygons?
- Need a Phase 1 habitat map using the appropriate alphanumeric reference and colour coding?
- Protected marine areas to be mapped using the latest up-to-date files for your project specific geographic locations?
- Need your sidescan sonar or multibeam geo-referenced files incorporated?
- Want data from old maps digitised?
- Have some drone imagery and would like that included, or perhaps you have aerial photos you'd like geo-referenced?
- Does your project require randomised points to be generated within a particular area?
Multivariate Statistical Analysis
I first attended a PRIMER course in Plymouth in 1994 and have had many opportunities since then to apply and grow my understanding of multivariate statistical analysis. More recently (2010) I also attended the course on Permanova subsequently added to the suite of routines on offer as part of PRIMER. In addition to PRIMER Sea-nature can now also offer processing and analyses of your data using R and / or python (again, accessing the necessary tools through Anaconda).
I first attended a PRIMER course in Plymouth in 1994 and have had many opportunities since then to apply and grow my understanding of multivariate statistical analysis. More recently (2010) I also attended the course on Permanova subsequently added to the suite of routines on offer as part of PRIMER. In addition to PRIMER Sea-nature can now also offer processing and analyses of your data using R and / or python (again, accessing the necessary tools through Anaconda).
Non-native species
#Don'tJudgeSpeciesOnTheirOrigins*
Given the research interest of the business, where fieldwork or reporting is wholly or partly linked to the monitoring and / or assessment of non-native species our experience and expertise offers an informed and alternative perspective.
You will have seen the hysteria surrounding this topic in media headlines, the grey literature, as well as many scientific publications. The rhetoric and heat in this subject can cascade dogmatic, reactionary, ill-conceived, impractical and ineffective costly 'solutions'. There are issues with a small minority of non-native species but to allow an accepted orthodoxy free and unfettered reign in this area is unbalanced, irrational and deeply questionable in scientific and societal terms. The dichotomy of 'native good, non-native bad' is unsurprisingly, false and, can only lead to poor outcomes.
In 2019 the Environmental Audit Committee of the UK Parliament launched an inquiry on the impacts of invasive species and their management. It is worth reading the published oral and written evidence. Here is a link to the written evidence provided by Professor Chris D. Thomas (University of York) author of the book, 'Inheritors of the Earth'.
#Don'tJudgeSpeciesOnTheirOrigins*
Given the research interest of the business, where fieldwork or reporting is wholly or partly linked to the monitoring and / or assessment of non-native species our experience and expertise offers an informed and alternative perspective.
You will have seen the hysteria surrounding this topic in media headlines, the grey literature, as well as many scientific publications. The rhetoric and heat in this subject can cascade dogmatic, reactionary, ill-conceived, impractical and ineffective costly 'solutions'. There are issues with a small minority of non-native species but to allow an accepted orthodoxy free and unfettered reign in this area is unbalanced, irrational and deeply questionable in scientific and societal terms. The dichotomy of 'native good, non-native bad' is unsurprisingly, false and, can only lead to poor outcomes.
In 2019 the Environmental Audit Committee of the UK Parliament launched an inquiry on the impacts of invasive species and their management. It is worth reading the published oral and written evidence. Here is a link to the written evidence provided by Professor Chris D. Thomas (University of York) author of the book, 'Inheritors of the Earth'.
*Davis, M.A., Chew, M.K., Hobbs, R.J., Lugo, A.E., Ewel, J.J., Vermeij, G.J., Brown, J.H., Rosenzweig, M.L., Gardener, M.R., Carroll, S.P., Thompson, K., Pickett, S.T., Stromberg, J.C., Del Tredici, P., Suding, K.N., Ehrenfeld, J.G., Grime, J.P., Mascaro, J. and Briggs, J.C. (2011). Don't judge species on their origins. Nature, 474, 153–154. doi: 10.1038/474153a.
