FERG Alumni - Gone but not Forgotten

Dr Tanya Blakely

Tanya completed her PhD on the drivers of aquatic and terrestrial community composition in tree holes in New Zealand temperate rainforest in 2008. In 2010, she completed a two-year post-doc with Jon Harding, where she developed the SingScore, a macroinvertebrate biotic index for stream communities in Singapore. Tanya currently works as an Ecologist at Boffa Miskell Limited in Christchurch.
Email: tanya.blakely@gmail.com

Dr Phil Jellyman

Phil Jellyman completed his PhD in 2010 which was focussed on understanding the effects of flow disturbance and habitat size on stream food webs. He has since completed a one-year post-doc investigating potential impacts to aquatic ecosystems of water storage options in the Hurunui River catchment (at UC) and Phil has now moved to NIWA to undertake a two-year post-doc position investigating the influence of hydrological regime on freshwater fish communities. His post-doc at NIWA allows him to continue his close collaborations with FERG researchers and maintain teaching ties through involvement in both the 3rd and 4th year freshwater courses.
Email: Phillip.Jellyman@niwa.co.nz

Dr Michelle Greenwood

Michelle completed her PhD on cross-ecosystem prey subsidies and fishing spiders in 2007. She returned in 2009 as a post-doc working on a project funded by the Mackenzie Charitable trust with the aim to improve the effectiveness of riparian plantings on the Canterbury Plains. Currently she is extending her PhD research through a Rutherford Foundation post-doc with  NIWA in Christchurch.
Email: m.greenwood@niwa.co.nz

Dr Darragh Woodford

Darragh completed his PhD on the landscape-scale impacts of introduced trout on native galaxiid fish in 2009. His research demonstrated how trout predation can cause source-sink dynamics in prey populations, which in turn has spatially-explicit effects on the distributions of those prey species across river networks. Darragh is currently in South Africa, where he is a researcher at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity. He is working on a pilot rehabilitation project that will remove invasive predatory fish from a stream using piscicides, to allow the native fish fauna to recover.
Email: darraghwoodford@hotmail.com

Dr Amy Whitehead

Amy finished her PhD in 2009. Her research looked at ways to improve the conservation management of whio (blue ducks) through a combination of population monitoring and modelling, using population viability analysis, species distribution modelling and fitness-habitat relationships.  She is currently a postdoc at Landcare Research, using analytical tools to address conservation questions about tenure review, tasmanian devils and rabbits.
Email: amylouisewhitehead@gmail.com

Dr Duncan Gray

Duncan completed his PhD on ecological connectivity in braided river landscapes in 2010.  He subsequently worked with Assoc. Prof. Jon Harding to develop a macroinvertebrate biotic index for Acid Mine Drainage impacted streams, and is currently employed by Golder Associates working on environmental flows for Canterbury rivers.  Duncan's research has highlighted the value of lateral habitats in braided rivers for the conservation of biodiversity, and the importance of hydrological connectivity in floodplains for energy flow.  More info at https://sites.google.com/site/duncanpgray/.
Email: duncan.p.gray@gmail.com