Biography

My research interests lie at the intersection of community and population ecology, with a strong focus on aquatic biodiversity. Over the past eight years, I have contributed to a range of projects employing molecular approaches to understand, monitor, and safeguard aquatic ecosystems. My work has included investigating hybridization events between invasive and endemic species, developing SNP markers to study speciation processes in fish, and reconstructing historical planktonic communities using sedimentary DNA.

I have specialised in marine plankton ecology, particularly within coastal temperate environments. My expertise includes integrative taxonomy (combining DNA-based and morphological methods), High Throughput Sequencing metabarcoding, DNA barcoding, and microsatellite analyses. I also bring field experience from diverse and ecologically significant regions, including Tanzania, the Galapagos Islands, the Mediterranean Sea and South Georgia.

Most recently, I held a postdoctoral position at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) under the Darwin Plus project Fish Bycatch in the Antarctic Krill Fishery. In this role, I investigated taxonomic uncertainties in bycaught fish species, with the goal of improving identification tools for non-target species in the krill fishery. I am now continuing my involvement with BAS as an honorary researcher.

Research interests

Collaborations