Karen Diele
Karen Diele

Prof Karen Diele

Professor

 0131 455 3353

  K.Diele@napier.ac.uk

  

Biography

I am a Professor of Marine Ecology at Edinburgh Napier University (ENU). I am heading our Centre for Conservation and Restoration Science (CCRS; webpage coming soon) and am ENU lead for Research Structures, working with ENU's new Research Centres. I am member of the steering committees of the Fisheries Science and Aquatic Stressor Fora of the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS; www.masts.ac.uk) and was Co-Director of St Abbs Marine Station, 2015-2020. Before moving to Scotland, I was researcher at the Leibniz Centre of Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT) in Bremen, Germany, with projects in Brazil and Vietnam (2011-2006). Between 2000 and 2005 I was based in Northern Brazil as a postdoctoral fellow where I also coordinated a 10 yrs bilateral research project on Mangrove Dynamics and Management. In 2000 I gained my PhD degree in Biology at the University Bremen / ZMT, Germany. I am currently teaching in the programmes MSc - Wildlife Biology and Conservation, and BSc (Hon) Marine Freshwater Biology. Prior to ENU I lectured Marine Biology at the University of Bremen and within the programme 'International Studies in Aquatic Tropical Ecology (ISATEC)'.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research focuses on the dynamics, management and restoration of coastal ecosystems, on the life cycles and functional ecology of associated benthic marine invertebrates and their behavioural and physiological responses to environmental change (e.g. underwater noise, climatic stressors). I have been working in mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, rocky shores and biogenic reefs. My approach involves descriptive and experimental field and laboratory studies to answer fundamental biological and ecological questions and to deliver conservation, management and livelihood solutions.

RECENT GRANT SUCCESSES
- 'The West of Scotland Herring Hunt' (WOSHH) - William Grant Foundation - 2021-2024. See https://scottishherring.org (Research tab)
- 'Marine Soundscapes and eDNA for Assessing Biodiversity and Functioning of Re-establishing European Flat Oyster Reefs, Ostrea edulis' - NERC - SUPER DTP 2021 - 2025
- 'As Good as (G)Old? Comparing Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of Restored and Natural Mangrove Forests in the Wallacea Region (CoReNat) - NERC 2018-2022
- Wester Ross Herring Spawning Ecology - Skye and Lochalsh Rivers Trust / William Grant Foundation - 2020-2021
- 'The Role of the Gill Microbiome in the Evolution of Terrestrialness in Brachyuran Crabs (Microlanding)' - CRG KAUST 2019 -2022
- 'Quantifying and Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Processing of the Meat of the Brazilian Mangrove Crab Ucides cordatus and Scoping for Bioactive Compounds. Newton-Confap - 2018-2019

RECENT MEDIA OUTPUT
---- The Scotsman (04/08/22), and The Times (06/08/22), featuring the WOSHH project and launch of a new website dedicated to Scottish Herring
---- AgroMas - Tech and Startup (31/01/22; 30 min life interview); TV Brazil, featuring the launch of the new IoS version of a citizen-science mobile app for monitoring mass-mating of Brazilian mangrove crabs
---- BBC Blue Planet UK Episode 2, featuring our underwater noise research) and Episode 5, featuring our animal 'personality' research).

PLACEMENT STUDENTS
In addition to enjoying my work with Postdoctoral Fellows, PhD, MSc and UG students, I am welcoming UK and international placement students to gain experience in our labs. For example, between 2017 and 2019 I have been accepting three students from the School of Engineering, University of Lyon, France (5 months PROMO-placements), and between 2014 and 2016 IAESTE students from ETH Zuerich, Switzerland, TU Aachen, Germany and University of Bogotá, Colombia.

School

Research Groups

Themes

Research Areas

Events

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Executive Committee Member of £5mil NERC Doctoral Training Partnership SUPER (Scottish Universities Partnership for Environmental Research
  • Steering Group Member/ Deputy Lead MASTS Marine Stressor Forum - Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland
  • Scientific Advisor for Mangrove Crab Conservation and Fisheries Management; Conservation International- Brazil
  • Member of the MASTS Executive Committee- The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland
  • Steering Group Member MASTS Fisheries Science Forum - The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland
  • Advisor for Brazilian Environmental Government Organization CEPENE-ICMBio

 

Editorial Activity

  • Guest-Editor Special Issue - Global and Planetary Change
  • Advisory Committee Member - Pan-American Journal of Aquatic Science
  • Editorial Board Member - Revista Cepsul: Biodiversity and Marine Conservation

 

External Examining/Validations

  • External PhD thesis examiner at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology, Bremen, Germany.

 

Grant Funding Panel Member

  • NERC Grant Panel Member- UK-Latin America Biodiversity call - LATAM

 

Grant Reviewer

  • NERC Large Grant Peer Reviewer - Mangrove Ecology

 

Invited Speaker

  • King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST): Research conference speaker (invited) 'Securing a future for the Red Sea ecosystems'.
  • Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) Annual Meeting -Scotland speaker (invited), Aberdeen, UK.
  • NERC- Ristekdikti Wallacea- Researcher Networking Workshop speaker (invited), Makassar, Indonesia.
  • State University of Paraiba, Brazil: Research seminar speaker (invited), School of Biological Sciences. Campina Grande, Brazil.
  • Federal University of Southern Bahia: International Seminar Series speaker (invited). Texeiras de Freitas, Brazil.
  • National Centre of Research and Marine Biodiversity Conservation in North-East Brazil (CEPENE), Community Seminar speaker (invited). Caravelas, Brazil.
  • North-East UK Seabird Research Group Meeting speaker (invited). Berwick-Upon-Tweed, UK.
  • British Council - Connected Scotland: Researcher Networking workshop speaker (invited), Sao Paulo & Recife, Brazil.
  • Newton-Fund Researcher Links networking workshop speaker (invited). Santa Marta, Colombia.

 

Media Activity

  • BBC One- Blue Planet UK - Episode 5 (interviewed on animal 'personality' research; St Abbs Marine Station
  • BBC One- Blue Planet UK - Episode 2 (Interview of two of my PhD students on their underwater noise research); St Abbs Marine Station
  • Brazilian TV G1 Globo. Interviewed for mangrove crab research (citizen-science app)
  • Featured on webpage of the Brazilian Ministry for the Environment (MMA - ICMBio): Research activities of REMAR project featured three times on webpage between 2017 and 2018
  • Youtube MASTS vidcast 2017. Interviewed by MASTS for Brazilian mangrove crab research
  • NEN - North Edinburgh News - featuring mangrove crab research in Brazil
  • Youtube Edinburgh Napier University vidcast to promote MSc programme Wildlife Biology and Conservation; interview of MSc student on her seabird research at St Abbs and later career
  • BBC Radio 4 - Shared Planet - BBC Radio 4 - Community Protection (contribution at 10’41’’)
  • BBC Radio 4 - Shared Planet - BBC Radio 4 - Mangroves: Putting nature back? (contribution at 8’53’’)
  • TV Brazil – Mangroves of Southern Bahia TV Brazil - Mangroves of Southern Bahia (contribution at 8’45’’ and 22’56’’)

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Member of the Scottish Blue Carbon Forum
  • Member of the British Ecological Society
  • Founding member and representative of the research network REMAR (Brazil)
  • Member of MASTS- the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland

 

Non-executive Directorship

  • Co-Director of Research, St Abbs Marine Station (25% secondment)

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • STEM - Collaboration with Minerva Scientifica - The Voice Theatre (Scottish Super Women in Science), collaboration with Sighthill and Eyemouth Primary Schools with joint public performances on three occasions. Production of two soundclouds putting my research into tunes.

 

Reviewing

  • Peer reviewer for > 25 scientific journals since 2005. Acta Zoologica; Animal Biology; Aquatic Biology; Behavioural Biology and Sociobiology; Brazilian Journal for Biology; Ecotropica; Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Estuarine Coastal Shelf Science; Ethnobiology and Conservation; Fisheries Research; Helgoland Marine Research; Hydrobiologia; Ihringia Zoologica; Journal of Crustacean Biology; Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom; Journal of Plankton Research; Journal for Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology; Journal of Tropical Ecology; Latin American Journal of Aquatic Research; Marine Biology; Ocean and Coastal Management; PlosOne; Science of the Total Environment; Restoration Ecology; Tropical Oceanography; Wetlands Ecology and Management, Zoology.

 

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76 results

Assessing mangrove restoration practices using species‐interaction networks

Journal Article
O'Connell, D. P., Fusi, M., Djamaluddin, R., Rajagukguk, B. B., Bachmid, F., Kitson, J. J. N., …Evans, D. M. (2022)
Assessing mangrove restoration practices using species‐interaction networks. Restoration Ecology, 30(4), Article e13546. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13546
Mangroves are uniquely important ecosystems, for preserving biodiversity, sustaining livelihoods and mitigating against climate change. However they are degraded globally and ...

A functional analysis reveals extremely low redundancy in global mangrove invertebrate fauna

Journal Article
Cannicci, S., Lee, S. Y., Bravo, H., Cantera-Kintz, J. R., Dahdouh-Guebas, F., Fratini, S., …Diele, K. (2021)
A functional analysis reveals extremely low redundancy in global mangrove invertebrate fauna. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(32), Article e2016913118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2016913118
Deforestation results in habitat fragmentation, decreasing diversity, and functional degradation. For mangroves, no data are available on the impact of deforestation on the di...

Diel oxygen fluctuation drives the thermal response and metabolic performance of coastal marine ectotherms

Journal Article
Booth, J., Fusi, M., Giomi, F., Chapman, E., Diele, K., & McQuaid, C. (2021)
Diel oxygen fluctuation drives the thermal response and metabolic performance of coastal marine ectotherms. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 288(1953), https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1141
Coastal marine systems are characterized by high levels of primary production that result in diel oxygen fluctuations from undersaturation to supersaturation. Constant normoxi...

Optimising recruitment in habitat creation for the native European oyster

Journal Article
Chapman, E. C., Rodriguez-Perez, A., Hugh-Jones, T., Bromley, C., James, M. A., Diele, K., & Sanderson, W. G. (2021)
Optimising recruitment in habitat creation for the native European oyster. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 170, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112579
European oyster (Ostrea edulis) restoration often requires the timely deployment of shell habitat for larval settlement. To inform this increasingly popular process, the prese...

The sediment carbon stocks of intertidal seagrass meadows in Scotland

Journal Article
Potouroglou, M., Whitlock, D., Milatovic, L., MacKinnon, G., Kennedy, H., Diele, K., & Huxham, M. (2021)
The sediment carbon stocks of intertidal seagrass meadows in Scotland. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 258, Article 107442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2021.107442
Seagrasses are highly productive ecosystems and hotspots for biodiversity, providing a plethora of benefits to the environment and to people. Their value in sequestering and s...

Investing in Blue Natural Capital to Secure a Future for the Red Sea Ecosystems

Journal Article
Cziesielski, M. J., Duarte, C. M., Aalismail, N., Al-Hafedh, Y., Anton, A., Baalkhuyur, F., …Aranda, M. (2021)
Investing in Blue Natural Capital to Secure a Future for the Red Sea Ecosystems. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, Article 603722. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.603722
For millennia, coastal and marine ecosystems have adapted and flourished in the Red Sea’s unique environment. Surrounded by deserts on all sides, the Red Sea is subjected to h...

Missing the full story: First estimates of carbon deposition rates for the European flat oyster, Ostrea edulis

Journal Article
Lee, H. Z. L., Davies, I. M., Baxter, J. M., Diele, K., & Sanderson, W. G. (2020)
Missing the full story: First estimates of carbon deposition rates for the European flat oyster, Ostrea edulis. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 30(11), 2076-2086. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3402
Globally, momentum to restore damaged habitats has been increasing. For example, the number of European shellfish restoration projects has quadrupled in the past 3 years. In l...

Fishers who rely on mangroves: Modelling and mapping the global intensity of mangrove-associated fisheries

Journal Article
zu Ermgassen, P. S., Mukherjee, N., Worthington, T. A., Acosta, A., Rocha Araujo, A. R. D., Beitl, C. M., …Spalding, M. (2020)
Fishers who rely on mangroves: Modelling and mapping the global intensity of mangrove-associated fisheries. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 247, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2020.106975
Mangroves are critical nursery habitats for fish and invertebrates, providing livelihoods for many coastal communities. Despite their importance, there is currently no estimat...

Mangroves give cause for conservation optimism, for now

Journal Article
Friess, D. A., Yando, E. S., Abuchahla, G. M., Adams, J. B., Cannicci, S., Canty, S. W., …Wee, A. K. (2020)
Mangroves give cause for conservation optimism, for now. Current Biology, 30(4), 153-154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.12.054
No abstract available.

Increasing intensities of Anisakis simplex third-stage larvae (L3) in Atlantic salmon of coastal waters of Scotland

Journal Article
Kent, A. J., Pert, C. C., Briers, R. A., Diele, K., & Rueckert, S. (2020)
Increasing intensities of Anisakis simplex third-stage larvae (L3) in Atlantic salmon of coastal waters of Scotland. Parasites & vectors, 13, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-020-3942-5
Background: Red Vent Syndrome (RVS), a haemorrhagic inflammation of the vent region in Atlantic salmon, is associated with high abundance of Anisakis simplex (s.s.) third-stag...

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • Leibniz-Association/ZMT: ' Physiological and ontogenetic responses of tropical benthic calcifiers towards combined high DIC and DOC'. I wrote 30% of the proposal. Euro 176,000.
  • Leibniz-Association/ZMT: 'Movement patterns and habitat use of the exploited crab Scylla serrata'. I wrote 50% of the proposal. Euro 125,000.
  • PhD proposal 'Linkage between biodiversity and mangrove ecosystem functioning'. Leibniz-Association /ZMT. I wrote 100% of the proposal. Euro 266,000
  • German Research Foundation (DFG): Land-ocean-atmospheric interactions in the coastal zone of S-Vietnam: dynamics of the green belt.' I wrote 40% of the research proposal, Euro 498,000. Work-package lead.
  • Brazilian Environmental Ministry (MMA): 'Mae d'agua do Caeté'. Community-based project written with scientifc advisors as myself. BRL 250,000.

Current Post Grad projects

Previous Post Grad projects

Non-Napier PhD or MSc by Research supervisions

  • Rodrigues, E. (2019): Optimisation of essential habitat in sustainable fishery management. PhD - Second supervisor with M. Bell (Heriot-Watt University, Director of Studies). NERC DTP Studentship (SUPER). Heriot-Watt University, UK.
  • Lee, H. (2018): “Unlocking the vaults of biogenic reefs: Blue carbon storage and nutrient burial by bivalve shellfish”. PhD - Second supervisor with W. Sanderson (Heriot-Watt University, Director of Studies); further supervisors I. Davies (Marine Scotland) and J. Baxter (SNH). Funded by Glenmorangie and Marine Scotland. Heriot-Watt University, UK.
  • Harsanyi, P. (2017) Effects of electromagnetic fields on diversity and functional role of epibiotic bacteria. PhD - team supervision with J. Farkas (Director of Studies, Eotovos Lorand Univerity, Hungary), A. Lyndon & W Sanderson (Heriot-Watt University). Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary / St Abbs Marine Station, UK.
  • Alberts-Hubatsch, H. (2015): Movement ecology and management of the mud crab Scylla serrata. PhD - University of Bremen, Germany. Team supervision with the Leibniz Center of Tropical Marine Ecology, Germany and Griffith University, Australia.
  • Kluger, L. (2012): Intraspecific facilitation? The effect of the mangrove crab Ucides cordatus on sympatric benthic fauna. MScR University of Bremen, Germany. Principle supervisor.
  • Korting, J. (2012): Bioturbation activities of the mangrove crab Ucides cordatus - Method development and fist quantification in the Caeté Estuary, North Brazil. MScR University of Bremen, Germany. Principle Supervisor.
  • Meyer, F. (2015): Combined effects of ocean acidification and elevated nutrient availability on coral reef calcifiers. PhD - University of Bremen, Germany. Team supervision with the Leibniz Center of Tropical Marine Ecology, Germany.
  • Pülmanns, N. (2014): Effects of macrobenthic exclusion on mangrove ecosystem functions. PhD - University of Bremen, Germany. Team supervision with the Leibniz Center of Tropical Marine Ecology, Germany and the Federal University of Pará, Brazil
  • Kassuga, A. (2014): Reproductive biology of marine ornamental shrimps in SE Brazil. PhD - second supervisor, Federal University of Espirito Santo, Brazil.
  • Meyer, F. (2010): Effects of ocean acidification on the development and survival of brachyuran crab larvae. MScR University of Bremen, Germany. Principle supervisor.
  • Jaenig, M. (2010): sharks (Selachii) in mangrove-fringed habitats of the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR), with implications for management and conservation. MScR University of Bremen, Germany. Principal supervisor.
  • Schmidt, A.J. (2012): Recruitment and spatial distribution of the harvested mangrove crab Ucides cordatus in mangroves of Caravelas, Bahia, Brazil. PhD - Federal University Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. First supervisor (de facto).
  • Simith, D.J.B. (2012): Larval ecology and metamorphosis of the harvested mangrove crab Ucides cordatus. PhD - Federal University of Pará, Brazil. First supervisor (de facto).
  • Simith, D.J.B. (2007): induction of settlement and metamorphosis in mangrove crab megalopae, Ucides cordatus. MScR Federal University of Para, Brazil. Principal supervisor.
  • D'Lima, C. (2005): Movement ecology of the mangrove crab Ucides cordatus cordatus in the Caeté Estuary, North Brazil. MScR University of Bremen, Germany. Second supervisor.
  • Araujo, A.R.R (2010): Fisheries statistics and commercialisation of the mangrove crab Ucides cordatus. PhD -University of Bremen, Germany. First supervisor (de facto).
  • De Vale, P. (2001): Reproductive biology of the mangrove crab Ucides cordatus in the mangroves of the Caeté Estuary, North Brazil. MScR Federal University of Pará, Brazil. Principle Supervisor.