Marine Vertebrate Ecology Lab
Nina Rothe
Nina is a PhD candidate at the MAVE Lab, University of Wollongong, and a member of the Biogeography, Ecology, & Modelling (BEAM) Lab and Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF).
She completed her Master of Science in Marine Biology at the University of Algarve in 2015, focusing on coral biogeochemistry. She has experience in various areas of research and conservation, including coral reefs, sea turtles, manta rays and cetaceans.
Nina is passionate about contributing to the protection and conservation of the natural balance of our environment, through high quality research, to ensure wild places can continue to thrive.
Research
Nina’s PhD research focuses on the health of the Tonga (breeding sub-stock E3) humpback whale population, using health indicators such as body condition index, respiratory microbiome diversity and scarring rates. Humpback whales are a sentinel species and provide critical insights into ocean health, climate change impacts, and ecosystem productivity. Nina aims to assess whether the health of the population can be linked to environmental conditions (e.g., sea ice concentration, chlorophyll and krill abundance, fishing pressure) in their primary feeding grounds in Antarctica where compounding effects of climate change and anthropogenic impacts are poorly understood
Supervisors: Dr Katharina J Peters, Prof Barbara Bollard, and Dr Frédérik Saltré