Marine Vertebrate Ecology Lab
Dr Katharina J Peters
Originally from Germany, Dr Peters moved to Adelaide, South Australia, in 2010 to obtain a BSc(Hons) at Flinders University, studying the impact of tourism on bottlenose dolphins in Adelaide's metropolitan waters, following on with a PhD investigating causes and consequences of hybridisation in Darwins tree finches on Galápagos. After postdoctoral positions at Massey University (New Zealand), Flinders University (Australia), the University of Zurich (Switzerland), and the University of Canterbury (New Zealand), Dr Peters started a faculty position as Lecturer in Biological Sciences at the University of Wollongong (Australia) in February 2023 where she established the MAVE Lab.
Research
Dr Peters' primary research interests lie at the interface of animal behaviour, population ecology and evolutionary biology and how to apply this information to better manage the conservation of wild populations and their associated environments. Addressing these questions requires quantitative and interdisciplinary approaches. Thus, she uses an integrative approach involving field-intensive ecological and behavioural work with ecological modelling and molecular analyses.