Personal Statement
My work focuses on the link between stress physiology and behaviour, often termed stress coping styles, particularly among marine animals. How organisms respond to their environment is critical, yet not all individuals respond to the same challenge in the same way and many will respond inappropriately. The sea shore is a great place to explore these questions because, in just a short spatial and temporal scale, there are numerous natural challenges that organisms are exposed to and we can quite easily test how they cope with both biotic and abiotic stressors. At the moment I'm focusing on sea anemones which, given their simplicity and the time they've been around, may provide interesting insights into the evolution of coping styles.

Whilst I'm interested in these questions broadly, I'm also exploring more specific questions such as the impact of pollutants (mainly metal and pharmaceutical) on organisms and how they're responding to a changing climate: two of the many anthropogenic stressors the natural world is currently facing.