Lauren Stoot
ILWS scholarship recipient.
Topic
Predicting the impacts of river development on fish movement and population connectivity: A case study on the Clarence River system.
Supervisors
Principal Supervisor: Professor Lee Baumgartner
Co-Supervisors: Dr Jason Thiem and Dr Gavin Butler (both NSW DPI-Fisheries) and Dr Julia Howitt.
Description
Lauren Stoot commenced her PhD studies in February 2020 after working with CSU's Industry and Engagement office on the Carnegie Project for six months.
In 2016 Lauren moved to Australia and worked for a Melbourne-based ecological consulting firm doing surveys of frogs, moths and lizards as well as aquatic monitoring which included invertebrate monitoring.
Canadian-born Lauren Stoot puts her interest in “frogs and fish” to spending her summer holidays as a child at her family’s lake house on Hawkeye Lake, Ontario. Pursuing that interest, Lauren went to Lakehead University in her home town of Thunder Bay where she did an Honours Bachelor of Science in Biology. Her Honours, done as part of her final year, was a data manipulation project for which she analysed a data set looking at the occupancy structure, the presence or absence, of amphibians over their geographic range.
Lauren then did her Masters (two years) at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, based at the university’s Cooke Lab, a Fish Ecology and Conservation Physiology Laboratory. Her thesis looked at the bycatch consequences on endangered turtle species in a small scale fishery (Lake Opinicon) in eastern Ontario - specifically the physiological impacts on Northern Map turtle, the Eastern Musk turtle, Snapping turtles and Painted turtle (which while not endangered, was used as a proxy.)
Since completing her Masters about five years ago Lauren has gained experience working in academia, private industry and for a NGO. This included a stint with Pacific National North West Laboratories in Richland, Washington State; two years with the Canadian Wildlife Federation as a research biologist managing the American Eel project; and a research contract with the University of Waterloo in Ontario looking at the potential to use electric current to deter sturgeon around hydro stations.
Her PhD study is supported by the project Drivers of fisheries recruitment in semi-arid river systems. Baumgartner, L. (2020 – 2022) NSW DPI, $26,500 Project details
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Science (Hons) - Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
- Master of Science (Biology) - Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Research Theme
Biodiversity Conservation
March 2020