People

Sherece Kesner

Postgraduate Research Student
School of Life Sciences
 Sherece Kesner

Profile

Ask me about
  • salt marsh
  • habitat connectivity
  • temperate estuaries
  • seals

Biography

I am an early careers coastal and marine ecologist with a deep interest in ecosystem functioning and connectivity. I work part time for an ecological consultancy, and I study a masters by research part time with the University of Essex. I would classify my coastal ecological knowledge as generalist, and I have skills coding in R and mapping in QGIS. I am a trained drone pilot and I have experience surveying salt marshes. Throughout my undergraduate and taught masters I focused on harbour seal movements around the UK. In line with the current projection of marine conservation in the UK, I have moved away from the species focused approach and moved towards a holistic ecosystem approach, as can be seen with my thesis.

Qualifications

  • BSc Animal Conservation and Biodiversity University of Greenwich (2018)

  • MSc Marine Conservation University of Aberdeen (2019)

Research and professional activities

Thesis

Habitat Connectivity and Coastal Natural Capital in the Blackwater and Colne Estuaries

Habitat connectivity can be measured by the physical structure of the habitats and by the functional linkage the habitats provide. These two measures of connectivity are important when considering a seascape approach to regulatory management and natural capital accounting. It is currently unknown how coastal connectivity could influence measures of ecosystem services across a seascape.

Supervisor: Professor Graham Underwood , Dr Nicola Slee , Dr Stephen Watson

Contact

sk24587@essex.ac.uk

Location:

Colchester Campus

Working pattern:

Monday and Friday