Current Role
Temperature-size responses in fifteen-spined sticklebacks
This project based at SAMS is investigating the growth and metabolism of the marine stickleback Spinachia spinachia under different temperature regimes (note this is a different species than the 'model organism' three-spined stickleback). Recent debate in the literature predicts ectotherms, including fish, will 'shrink' under climate warming, but the magnitude of this is a matter of great debate. We are rearing this species, which has never before been bred in the lab, under different temperatures to examine this theory, and also the effects of acclimation temperature on routine and active metabolic rates.
This is a NERC funded project in collaboration with David Pond (University of Stirling), Mike Burrows (SAMS), and Andrew Hirst and David Atkinson at the University of Liverpool.


Ongoing Research
Swimming kinematics in filter-feeding fish


Metabolic Scaling
Effects of abiotic stressors on energetics, particularly scaling of metabolic rate with body-size

