Stefan Andrews (Honours 2012)

Stefan graduated to a prestigeous Rolex Scholarship and spent the next year traveling the globe, scuba diving and filming the underwater world.

Reproductive seasonality and early life temperature sensitivity of the seaweed Scytothalia dorycarpa (Phaeophyceae, Fucales)

My Honours research focused on the endemic habitat forming seaweed Scytothalia dorycarpa which retracted over 100 km from its northern distributional limits following a  recent marine heat wave in the waters off south-western Australia.

Through field and laboratory experiments, I characterised the reproductive timing of adults, explored the thermal sensitivity of sensitive microscopic early post settlement stages and quantified recruitment densities along the unique latitudinal temperature gradient of the Western Australian coastline. Results from my research confirmed suggestions that the early life history stages of this seaweed were particularly sensitive to temperature and the species may act as a valuable indicator for climate related ecosystem stress in temperate Australian waters. You can read the abstract for my Honours thesis here [pdf].

Supervisors: Thomas Wernberg, Scott Bennett

Qualifications

• 2012: Hons. (Marine Science), University of Western Australia, Australia
• 2011: B.Sc. (Marine Biology), University of Adelaide, Australia

Awards and Recognition

• 2013: Our World-Underwater Australasian Rolex Scholar, you can follow my new adventures on http://owussaustralasia.org/
• 2012: Andrews S, Bennett S, Wernberg T. $7000 – National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Marine Adaptation Network Honours and Masters Research Support Grant. “Temperature tolerances and assisted rehabilitation of temperate seaweed populations”
• 2012: Ray Hart Memorial Scholarship – The University of Western Australia “Demonstrating a commitment to developing skills in field ecological research and a commitment to apply field research to achieve a broad and pragmatic insight into interdisciplinary ecological studies”

Peer reviewed papers

1. Andrews, S., Bennett, S., Wernberg, T. (2014) Reproductive seasonality and early life temperature sensitivity reflect vulnerability of a range-contracting seaweed. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 495: 119-129.