It all started when…

I grew up in the United Kingdom where I spent most of my time either outside exploring the countryside, or watching Attenborough documentaries when the rain put an end to outdoor activities. My love of the ocean began during a trip to visit family in Australia, where I was lucky enough to visit the Ningaloo Reef and swim with many sharks. I studied Biology at the University of York and later moved to Australia to complete my Masters degree at the University of Western Australia. My Masters thesis focused on the threats facing whale shark aggregations at the Ningaloo Reef. I then completed my PhD at the University of Western Australia, where I investigated how the presence of reef sharks alters important behaviours of fishes and used novel methods to quantify the ecological impacts of these behavioural shifts. Recently, I have worked at the Australian Institute of Marine Science to investigate the patterns and drivers of the demographics of reef fish populations across the Indian Ocean.

My research...

My research focuses on some of the major issues facing predator populations and coral reef conservation. Specifically, I am interested in the ecological role of predators in coral reefs and the impact of human activities in marine ecosystems. My research focuses on three main questions:

1. To what extent do predators structure coral reef ecosystems?

2. Can human activities interfere with the important ecological roles of predators?

3. What tools can we develop to quantify the strength of trophic interactions and assist coral reef management and conservation?

Much of my work uses small-scale experimental approaches to identify specific ecological mechanisms, which we can then test over larger spatial scales using natural experiments. Combining these approaches allows us to form hypotheses and observe how these predictions unfold in complex systems over large spatial scales. Increasingly, my work is making use of emerging technology to quantify ecological processes that are difficult to observe in the wild.

What I've written...

My peer-reviewed publications are listed here. Feel free to email me for copies of any of them. 

What I’ve presented

My TEDx talk is here.

Contact me…

Email:

emilykatelester@gmail.com

Website:

(under construction…)

Address:

Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology
University of Hawaii at Manoa
PO Box 1346 (for US Postal Service)
46-007 Lilipuna Road (For all other carriers)
Kaneohe, HI 96744 USA

Office:

New Pauly Building, Room 105