Marine Vertebrate Ecology Lab
Benjamin Laforet
Benjamin is completing a MSc degree in Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution in Functioning and Management of Marine Ecosystems at the University of Lille, France. For his thesis research, he is an international exchange student at the University of Wollongong under the supervision of Dr Katharina J Peters and Dr Frédérik Saltré.
Research
Cetaceans are ideal indicator species of ecosystem change and ocean health given their extended life span and cosmopolitan distribution, but limited data availability prevents anticipating change in distribution under future climate changes. Benjamin's project will analyse the probability of occurrence and detection of selected whale and dolphin species to project how their distribution will change in the future with a warming climate.