Research Unit

• Sea Around Us Project (SAUP)

Biography

Colette's main interests lie in marine conservation planning. Specifically, her research aims to: (i) improve methods for gathering spatially explicit information on coastal habitats (e.g., coral reefs and seagrass). This includes the use of remote sensing; (ii) understand ecological processes that occur within coastal ecosystems using models (e.g. Ecopath with Ecosim); (iii) develop appropriate tools for the monitoring and planning of MPAs at multiple scales; and (iv) inform marine conservation policy development and assessment.

Her PhD project seeks to derive an estimate of seagrass coverage at the scale of the wider Caribbean region and to understand the role of green sea turtles within these ecosystems. Her thesis focuses on: (i) mapping seagrass habitats using remote sensing; (ii) establishing a database of MPAs throughout the Caribbean and analyzing how well the current MPA networks protect seagrasses and corals; (iii) developing a model (using Ecopath with Ecosim) of green sea turtles'(Chelonia mydas) ecological role in Caribbean seagrass ecosystems and deriving a carrying capacity estimate for the region ; and (iv) comparing that model to one derived for the role of green sea turtles in Hawai'i.

Colette Wabnitz, born to a French mother and a German father, grew up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Dakar, Senegal and Washington DC, USA. She received her BSc in Biology and Environmental Sciences from McGill University, Montreal, in 1998. Her undergraduate research thesis on the nesting behaviour of Microspathodon chrysurus took her to Barbados where she also had the chance to work on Diadema populations, reef surveys, and a seagrass population dynamics study. Upon completion of her BSc and having discovered the realm of marine biology she returned to the Caribbean as a Research Assistant for Dr Wayne Hunte. In Barbados, she followed up her study on Diadema, worked on a government based water quality assessment study as well as a relocalisation scheme for a rum refinery outfall and volunteered for the sea turtle conservation project. In Soufriere, St Lucia, she assisted on a tagging and tracking project of different reef fish species, testing their homing behaviour and mobility range.

In 1999, she was a volunteer on the Red Sea Program (co-ordinated by the Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology in Bremen, Germany). Her work in Israel, based at the Inter University Institute in Eilat, consisted mainly of looking at fish density and species abundance as well as the distribution of vermitid reefs and species along the Mediterranean coastline. In Jordan, under the supervision of Dr Claudio Richter, she looked at the role of fauna - in particular sponges - inhabiting cryptic spaces, with respect to nutrient uptake from the water column. She also investigated density - current patterns in the Gulf of Aqaba and how they relate to phytoplankton and zooplankton transport.

At the end of the summer 2000 she graduated from an MSc in Tropical Coastal Management at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. For her thesis, under Dr. Peter Mumby's supervision, she looked at the benthic composition and territory size of 5 species of parrotfishes in Belize. As a research associate for Dr Nicholas Polunin at the University she then helped organise the 5th International Conference on the Environmental Future of aquatic ecosystems held in Zürich, Switzerland in April 2003 and produced a review of marine protected areas in the North Sea for The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.

Missing the tropics and the sea, she returned with Dr Callum Roberts' team to the Caribbean to survey coral recruitment in order to determine the effects of sedimentation on coral reefs in the Soufrière Marine Management Area (SMMA), St Lucia. In Barbados she participated in habitat surveys, water sampling and analysis, in order to establish a set of baseline data for the Bridgetown port expansion project, monitored coral disease, and acted as teaching assistant on several modules for the Natural Resources Management Masters course.

From April 2002 to September 2003 she worked as Marine Programme Officer for the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) based in Cambridge, UK where she mainly led the Global Marine Aquarium Database project. The latter provides a quantitative basis and an overview of the wholesale industry within Europe (and to a lesser extent globally) through the collection of sales record. She also worked as the implementation officer for the development of an online marine mammal atlas.

Whilst enrolled in her PhD Colette has continued to work as a consultant for a number of organizations, including the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), the UNEP Caribbean Environment Programme, the French department for international development (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)) and International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN).

When not at her desk working Colette can be found hiking, playing capoeira (a brasilian martial art), reading, dancing, climbing, cooking, or enjoying the sea side with friends and taking pleasure in all the other great outdoor activities BC has to offer!

For full CV please contact by email.