Peter Betts
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Email
peter.betts@essex.ac.uk -
Location
Colchester Campus
Profile
- Ecophysiology
- Stable Isotope Analysis
Biography
My primary interests include metabolic rate and how this interacts with external factors such as temperature to influence fish biology and ecology. I am also fascinated by stable isotope analysis and how these natural tracers can be used to infer an organisms ecology. My master's project investigated Spatial Changes in Field Metabolic Rate and Thermal Sensitivity across the Barents Sea, using stable isotope analysis of teleost otoliths. I found metabolism and the techniques used to infer it particularly intriguing and built on these skills more recently as a research assistant at the University of Southampton using stable isotope analysis of Porbeagle and Spurdog eye lenses to infer ontogenic movement patterns. I am currently building on and applying these skills investigating the metabolic drivers of growth and survival in salmonids.
Qualifications
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MSci Marine Biology University of Southampton (2021)
Research and professional activities
Thesis
Metabolic Drivers of Growth and Survival in Salmonids
Metabolism is a fundamental driver of ecology and life history decisions in all organisms, I aim to see how metabolic rate and its drivers affect growth and survival in salmonids with the goal of identifying the key drivers of success and passing this on to management to improve current conservation efforts for this threatened and charismatic species.
Supervisor: Eoin O'Gorman
Research interests
Metabolic Ecology
Metabolism is a fundamental driver and indicator of fish performance in the wild, understanding how environmental factors affect experienced metabolic rate in the field is key to understanding performance and success. Understanding these interactions is critical especially when faced with rising global temperatures which are predicted to affect metabolic rate in a variety of ways.
