Lucy and Hannah presented their PhD Completion Seminars!

25-January-2022 (written by Lucy Arrowsmith and Hannah Calich)

The SequeiraLab is kicking off the New Year with some exciting news! At the end of 2021 Lucy Arrowsmith and Hannah Calich presented their PhD completion seminars at the UWA Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre and are now preparing their thesis submission.

Lucy's PhD, titled "Key drivers of migrations in ectothermic sharks", investigates whale shark and blue shark movement and behavioural patterns to identify the key drivers of movement and what the energetic costs associated with these activities are. Supervised by Dr Mark Meekan, Dr Ana Sequeira and Prof. Charitha Pattiaratchi, Lucy's thesis provides insights into how these marine ectotherms migrate, increasing our understanding of their movements and energetic demands. Two chapters of Lucy's thesis are currently published in Frontiers in Marine Science and MEPS. Stay tuned for more to come!

Hannah's PhD, titled "Using statistical physics methods to explore the drivers of shark movement", focuses on developing tools to facilitate the use of statistical physics-based methods by ecologists and she demonstrates their value by identifying search strategies and physiological drivers of migratory sharks. Supervised by Dr Ana Sequeira and Prof. Charitha Pattiaratchi, and in collaboration with Dr Neil Hammerschlag, Dr Jorge P. Rodríguez, and Dr Víctor M. Eguíluz, Hannah's PhD helps to facilitate the use of statistical physics methods by ecologists and provides key insights into the drivers of shark movement. Hannah's research investigating the movement strategies of co-occurring shark species is available open-access in Ecography and she has two more chapters about to be submitted for publication! 

Both Lucy and Hannah are part of the Oceans Graduate School at The University of Western Australia.

Well done to the both of them and good luck with submitting!

Left: Lucy Arrowsmith Right: Hannah Calich