KIRSTY L. NASH
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Research interests


My research is increasingly interdisciplinary, exploring sustainability challenges facing the world's oceans by bringing together collaborators working in marine science, food systems, public health, psychology, and governance. Key research interests are:


Interplay between ocean & human health

Understanding the trade-offs and synergies between ocean health (particularly ecosystem function) and human health (including nutrition security and human well-being).
Example publications:
  • Nash KL, et al. 2021 Oceans and society: feedbacks between ocean and human health. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries. DOI: 10.1007/s11160-021-09669-5. *Graphical Abstract
  • Nash KL, Blythe JL, Cvitanovic C, Fulton EA, Halpern BS, Milner-Gulland EJ, Addison PFE, Pecl GT, Watson RA, Blanchard JL. (2020).  To achieve a sustainable blue future, progress assessments must include interdependencies between the sustainable development goals. One Earth. 2(2): 161-173.
  • Hicks CC, Cohen PJ, Graham NAJ, Nash KL, Allison EH, D'Lima C, Mills DJ, Roscher M, Thilstead SH, Thorne-Lynam AL, MacNeil MA. 2019. Harnessing global fisheries to tackle micronutrient deficiencies. Nature. 574: 95-98.​

Resilience of marine social-ecological systems

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Exploring factors that contribute to the resilience of social-ecological systems and managing for resilience.
Example publications:
  • ​Nash KL, Watson RA, Halpern BS, Fulton EA, Blanchard JL. 2017. Improving understanding of the functional diversity of fisheries by exploring the influence of global catch reconstruction. Scientific Reports 7: 10746.
  • Nash KL, Allen CR, Angeler DG, Barichievy C, Eason T, Garmestani AS, Graham NAJ, Granholm D, Knutson M, Nelson RJ, Nystrom M, Stow CA, Sundstrom SM. 2014. Discontinuities, cross-scale patterns and the organisation of ecosystems. Ecology 95(3): 654-667.
  • Nash KL, Graham NAJ, Jennings S, Wilson SK, Bellwood DR. 2015. Herbivore cross-scale redundancy supports response diversity and promotes coral reef resilience.  Journal of Applied Ecology 53: 646-655. *Blog

Fisheries indicators & Small-scale fisheries

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Exploring ecologically focused fisheries indicators, particularly in the context of small-scale and coral reef fisheries.
​Example publications:
  • Nash KL. Bijoux J. Robinson J. Wilson S.K. Graham NAJ 2016. Harnessing fishery-independent indicators to aid management of data poor fisheries: weighing habitat and fishing effects.  Ecosphere DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.1362.
  • Nash KL. Graham NAJ 2016. Ecological indicators for coral reef fisheries management. ​Fish and Fisheries 17(4): 1029-1054. *Video Abstract

Habitat complexity

Understanding the effect of habitat complexity on associated fish communities.
Example publications:
  • Nash KL, Allen CR, Barichievy C, Nystrom M, Sundstrom SM, Graham NAJ. 2014. Habitat structure and body size distributions: cross-ecosystem comparison for taxa with determinate and indeterminate growth. Oikos 123:971-983. ​*Blog
  • Nash KL, Graham NAJ, Wilson SK, Bellwood DR. 2013.  Cross-scale habitat structure drives fish body size distributions on coral reefs.  Ecosystems 16: 478-490.

Linking food production across land & sea

Understanding the links and trade-offs between terrestrial, freshwater and marine food production systems with respect to sustainability and food security.
Example publications:
  • Cottrell R, Nash KL, Halpern BS, Remenyi TA, Corney SP, Fleming A, Fulton EA, Hornborg S, Johne A, Watson RA, Blanchard JL. 2019. Food production shocks across land and sea. Nature Sustainability 2: 130-137.
  • Cottrell R, Flemming A, Fulton EA, Nash KL, Watson R, Blanchard JL. 2017. Considering land-sea interactions and trade-offs for food and biodiversity. Global Change Biology DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13873.
  • Blanchard et al. 2017. Linked sustainability challenges and trade-offs among fisheries, aquaculture and agriculture. Nature Ecology & Evolution 1: 1240-1249.

The future or our oceans

Approaches to creating shared visions of the future for the world's oceans to provide a 'mobilising narrative' of the "ocean we need for the future we want".
Example publications:​
  • Blythe J, Baird J, Bennett N, Dale G, Nash KL, Pickering G, Wabnitz CCC. 2021. Fostering ocean empathy through future scenarios. People and Nature. 3: 1284-1296. *Conversation Article and Graphical Abstract
  • Nash KL, Alexander K, Melbourne-Thomas J, Novaglio C, Sbrocchi C, Villaneuva C, Pecl GT. 2021.  Developing achievable alternate futures for key challenges during the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Reviews in Fish Biology & Fisheries. DOI: 10.1007/s11160-020-09629-5.

Interdisciplinary research

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Exploring ways to support interdisciplinary research.
Example publications:
  • Blythe J, Nash KL, Yates J, Cumming G. 2017. Feedbacks as a bridging concept for advancing transdisciplinary sustainability research. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 26-27: 114-119.

Fish functional ecology

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Understanding the functional ecology of fish, in particular their spatial ecology and movements related to foraging.
​Example publications:
  • Nash KL. Abesamis R, Graham NAJ. McClure E. Moland E. 2016. Drivers of herbivory on coral reefs: species, habitat and management effects. Marine Ecology Progress Series 554: 129-140.
  • Nash KL, Graham NAJ, Bellwood DR. 2013. Fish foraging patterns, vulnerability to fishing and implications for the management of ecosystem function across scales.  Ecological Applications 23: 1632-1644.

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Important themes underpinning my work are:
  • Resilience of marine social-ecological systems
  • Nutrient content of fish
  • Body size distributions and body size as a proxy for fish behaviour
  • Cross-scale and spatial resilience
  • Development of novel analytical techniques & approaches

My PhD research explored scale dependent function in reef fish, and its application to the evaluation of coral reef resilience, by (1) Characterising the spatially explicit functional role of reef fish; (2) Evaluating the interaction of fish with coral reef structure across spatial scales; and (3) Using this information to evaluate the effectiveness of cross-scale redundancy of function in fish as an indicator of resilience in coral reef ecosystems.  The distribution of body sizes of both individuals and species within fish communities was a central theme underlying the different aspects of my project.  The research outcomes provided fundamental understanding of the spatial scales at which fish interact with their environment and perform functions critical to coral reef condition.

Past projects include: (1) exploring methods for setting fishery targets for data poor fisheries using fisheries-independent data; and (2) understanding how the functional impact of fishes change on reefs of different condition through the interaction between variation in the foraging movements of fishes and their grazing rates.

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Artwork © Judy Nash
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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  • Home
  • About
  • Research
  • Publications
  • @aKIDemicLife
  • #SciComm
  • Conferences
    • ASFB2016 Talk
    • ASFB2016 Summary
    • ICRS2016 Talk
    • ICRS2016 Summary