Professor Miles Lamare

Head of Department

Kaiawhina – Māori Student Support Liaison

Contact details

Office 310 Castle Street, room 103
Tel +64 3 479 7463
Mob +64 21 279 7463
Email miles.lamare@otago.ac.nz

Academic qualifications

BSc(Hons), PhD(Otago)

Research interests

I have research interests in marine ecology, population biology, marine invertebrate biology, and the ecology and physiology of marine invertebrate larval stages. My expertise is in marine ecology, ecophysiology and population biology of marine taxa. I apply this knowledge in extensive research on the response of marine species to climate change, with international collaborations addressing important issues such polar species responses to warming, coral reef decline, species range shifts and adaptative potential in marine species.

Courses

• MARI 112 Marine Biology: The Living Ocean
• MARI 202 Ecology and Biology of Marine Invertebrates
• MARI 301 Marine Ecology and Ecosystems
• MARI 401 Advanced Methods in Marine Science
• MARI 431 Antarctic and Southern Ocean Science

Current and recent research projects

• 2019–2026
  Principle Investigator – Antarctic Science Platform: Ross Sea Ecosystem Dynamics (2019-2025): Responses of the Ross Sea Region ecosystem to 2°C of warming. (MBIE funded)
• 2021–2022
  Associate Investigator – How vulnerable are Antarctica's coasts to colonisation (Marsden funded)
• 2018–2022
  Associate Investigator – Understanding the cellular and molecular drivers governing a unique whole body regeneration phenomenon in a chordate model (Marsden funded)
• 2021–2022
  Principle Investigator – University of Otago Research Grant: Sentinels of change: biodiversity and biosecurity monitoring using environmental DNA from natural samplers (University of Otago funded)
• 2016–2018
  Transgenerational plasticity (TGP) in polar marine invertebrates as a mechanism of adapting to a warmer more acidic coastal Antarctic (New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute funded)
• 2018
  International collaborator – Effects of ocean acidification and warming on sea urchin development. In collaboration with Associate Professor Sam Dupont, University of Gothenburg. Funded by the Royal Society of Sweden

Postgraduate students

Current students

• Scott Roche-Dick, MSc: Transgenerational adaptation to ocean warming and marine heat waves in the Antarctic Sea Star, Odontaster validus.
• Frances Perry, MSc: Will New Zealand kelp associated invertebrates survive in a warmer Antarctica.
• Georgia Taylor, MSc: Arm generation in the brittle star under changing temperatures.
• Roberta Noon, MSc: Physiological acclimation of the Antarctica sea star to climate change.
• Jessica Moffitt, PhD: Temperate and polar marine communities' responses to ocean warming: An assessment using in situ environmental manipulations.
• Pamelo Olmedo Rojas, PhD: Environmental drivers of evolution for Antarctic terrestrial organisms.
• Scott Lockwood, PhD: Modelling the marine methane paradox under phytoplankton bloom conditions.

Completed students

• Paulo F Lagos, PhD: Investigating the response of the krill Nyctiphanes australis (Euphausiacea) to stress caused by environmental change: a dynamic energy budget approach.
• Uru-Manuka Williams, MSc: The effects of sedimentation on the physiology of NZ living Brachiopods.
• Tom Massué, MSc: Effect of temperature rise (+2°C and +4°C) on a benthic assemblage community in New Zealand marine shallows: an in-situ approach.
• Rebecca Clarke, PhD: A whole new body in only 8 days.