Welcome to our lab group! We study the interplay between evolutionary and ecological processes in shaping biodiversity. Our current research focuses on freshwater fish and lake food webs in New Zealand including Rēkohu/ Chatham Island. Our interests include intraspecific niche variation, life history evolution, phylogenetic comparative methods, and the effects of salinisation and altered connectivity on populations and food webs.

Lab News

New publication in Ecology & Evolution from Motia Ara's PhD, looking at the genetics of landlocking in Rēkohu smelt

Congratulations to Tyler Kleyzen who submitted his MSc thesis on how marine nutrients from migratory smelt sustain eel and trout in the Ōreti River

New publication in the NZ Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research by PhD student Grace Fortune-Kelly studying smelt diet variation across a salinity gradient on Rēkohu

Congratulations to Amirah Norhayati who recently submitted her MSc thesis based on a pond mesocosm experiment investigating microplastic effects on food webs

Congratulations to Mitra Darestani for submitting her PhD thesis using NGS to investigate landlocking in New Zealand fish

We are located at the University of Otago (Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo), in Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand. Our home is the Department of Zoology (Te Tari Mātai Kararehe), and our field sites include lakes, streams and wetlands throughout the South Island.