Profile

Career

Research

Overview

Description of PhD

Title:  Resetting environmental baselines for the United Kingdom’s marine environment: what have we really lost?

Supervisors:  Prof. Callum Roberts and Dr. Julie Hawkins

TAC:  Prof. Callum Roberts, Dr. Julie Hawkins and Dr. Bryce Beukers-Stewart

Funded by:  Mia J. Tegner Memorial Research Grant, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Description of Thesis

I am in my final year of working towards a PhD which focuses on changes to UK marine ecosystems over the last two hundred years as a result of fishing activities. Through my research I hope to reveal the large scale of change to ocean habitats thus providing marine managers with appropriate baselines by which to set their restoration and recovery targets.

My PhD research has included investigations in historical changes to fisheries catches around the UK, using Government fisheries statistics and a large range of anecdotal evidence over the last 150 years. This work went towards providing Natural England with critical information on historical baselines in the marine environment and has been published by the journal Nature Communications. Current work involves examination of historical records from the 1860s onwards to assess changes to inshore marine ecosystems as more destructive fishing technologies expanded around Britain. For the next stage of my research I will focus on alterations to seabed habitats due to trawling and other coastal activities, and the declines in biodiversity associated with these impacts.

Publications

Full publications list

Publications

Thurstan, R.H., Brockington, S. and Roberts, C.M (2010). The effects of 118 years of industrial fishing on UK bottom trawl fisheries. Nature Communications. DOI 10.1038/ncomms1013.

The effects of 118 years of industrial fishing on UK bottom trawl fisheries (PDF , 687kb)

Policy Reports

Thurstan, R.H., Roberts, C.M., Hawkins, J.P. and Neves, L (2009). Highly protected Marine Conservation Zones: defining damaging and disturbing activities. CCW Policy Research Report No. 09/01.

Thurstan, R.H., Roberts, C.M., Hawkins, J.P. and McAuslan, L.A.B (2008). Marine reserves in Northern Ireland: the way forward. WWF Northern Ireland and Ulster Wildlife Trust, UK.

Roberts, C.M., Brown, R.L., Thurstan, R.H. and Hawkins, J.P (2008). Selecting and implementing Highly Protected Marine Reserves in Wales. CCW Policy Research Report No. 08/17.

Publications in preparation

Thurstan, R.H. and Roberts, C.M. Ecological meltdown in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland: 120 years of change in a coastal marine ecosystem. In Press for the journal PLOS One.

Ecological Meltdown in the Firth of Clyde (PDF , 879kb)

Thurstan, R.H. and Roberts, C.M. Inconsistencies between Government health recommendations and global fish availability: are there enough fish to go around? In prep.

Thurstan, R.H., Hawkins, J.P.H., Neves, L. and Roberts, C.M. The impact of non-consumptive activities upon highly protected marine reserves. In prep.