Research interests:
Tropical peatlands, palaeoecology, palynology, social science, South America
Career history:
I received my undergraduate degree BSc (Hons) Geography from the University of Liverpool in 2011. My dissertation research involved taking and analysing sediment cores to investigate post-glacial vegetation change in Llanberis Pass in Wales. After graduating, I worked in the International Programmes team at WWF-UK, and subsequently spent a few months living with an indigenous community in a remote part of the Ecuadorian Amazon, before commencing my master’s degree.
I received my MSc Conservation Science from Imperial College London in 2016. My thesis research involved social science methods as I interviewed local people living around Lake Titicaca in Bolivia to investigate the factors driving the consumption of the critically endangered Titicaca water frog Telmatobius culeus.
Subsequently I worked in the Species team at UNEP-WCMC, assessing species subject to international trade to support the European Commission and EU Member States to implement the EU Wildlife Trade Regulations, and to assist the CITES Secretariat and CITES Animals and Plants Committees with the Review of Significant Trade (the Convention’s key compliance process), prior to commencing my PhD studies at the University of St Andrews.
Active research projects:
Human impacts on Amazonian peatlands
My project aims to investigate the human uses of Amazonian tropical peatlands and identify their consequences for peatland ecosystem properties, focusing on vegetation composition and carbon storage.
Recent publications:
N/A