The RummerLab

Welcome to the RummerLab, where we conduct cutting-edge research in marine biology and conservation.

Potential students, a little advice…

Prof. Scott Keogh has compiled an excellent list of resources and advice for students and postdoctoral fellows here.

And if you're about to contact me to inquire about graduate school (MSc, PhD), check this out!

Principal Investigator

Dr. Jodie Rummer, Chief Investigator of the Physioshark Project

Dr. Jodie Rummer

Professor

Dr Jodie Rummer is an Professor of Marine Biology in the College of Science and Engineering at James Cook University and formally a researcher in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. She was the 2015-2016 recipient of the highly prestigious UNESCO-L'Oréal Women in Science Fellowship for Australia and New Zealand, an Australian Research Council (ARC) Super Scientist (2011-2014), an ARC Early Career Discovery Fellow (2015-2017), named one of Australia's top five scientists under 40 (2016), and Queensland's (Australia) Tall Poppy Scientist of the Year (2019). Dr Rummer is a leading authority on the evolution of oxygen transport in fish and how fish maintain performance during stress. Her research, combines ecology, evolution, and physiology to address issues important to conservation, such as the effects of climate change and other human-caused problems on coral reef fishes, sharks, and rays and their potential for adaptation. Dr Rummer founded the Physioshark Project and has been leading this research programme and the students, staff, and volunteers involved since 2013.

[email protected]

Partner Researchers

Dr. Johann Mourier, Partner Researcher

Dr. Johann Mourier

Researcher

In the past 10 years, Dr Mourier has become one of France's leading shark scientists. His research has focused on the ecology and conservation of marine predators, primarily sharks. He has been studying the behavioural, trophic, and movement ecology as well as and conservation biology of sharks using multiple advanced and non-invasive approaches including underwater observations, biologging, genetics, stable isotope analyses, and network theory. Most of his first studies, including his PhD research, were conducted in the remote and healthy coral reefs of French Polynesia (Pacific Ocean) on blacktip reef sharks. His research on juvenile reef sharks in Moorea served as a baseline for project PhysioShark. He is also involved in a citizen science program on elasmobranch (Shark Observatory of French Polynesia; ORP) since 2011. Dr Mourier has now published over 40 research papers in the field of behavioural ecology and shark science. These have generated nearly 1,000 citations (Google Scholar), and he has an overall H-Index of 18. This has established him as one of the leading early-career scientists in his field.

Dr. Serge Planes, Partner Researcher

Dr. Serge Planes

Research Director

Dr. Serge Planes, Research Director at the CNRS, has been involved in the study of population genetics of marine fish in the Pacific since the beginning of his career that started with his PhD in 1989. Over the past 30 years, he has published about 250 papers in international journals addressing population genetics of coral reefs, ecology, marine protected areas, and recruitment of marine fishes. With about 14,000 citations, his work has been highly recognized while demonstrating that coral reef fish populations are much more limited in space than was generally believed and that self-recruitment is significant drive. This view has major implications for conservation planning. Such international recognition led Dr Planes to being invited to participate as a member of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and he was recently appointed as adjunct professor at Australian Institute or Marine Science. After having coordinated several European projects, numerous national projects, and the last Tara Pacific expedition, Dr Planes is presently directing the LABEX "CORAIL" awarded in 2011 for 10 years and renewed in 2019 for another 5 years, this being the major structural framework for research on coral reef ecology in France.

Dr. Bridie Allan, Partner Researcher

Dr. Bridie Allan

Researcher

Dr Bridie Allan is a researcher at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Her research explores how environmental changes can alter the mechanisms underlying population processes and how these changes scale to community dynamics. To do this, she uses field collections, observations and experiments in conjunction with laboratory experiments to investigate a wide range of environmental impacts that influence the physiology, behaviour and survival of fish. Dr Allan's field sites span both tropical, temperate and polar regions.

PhD Candidates

Carolyn Wheeler, PhD Candidate

Carolyn Wheeler

Carolyn Wheeler is a co-tutelle PhD student at the School for the Environment at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University (JCU). Carolyn spent the first half of her PhD working with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium in Boston studying the effects of temperature on development and physiological performance of epaulette shark embryos and hatchlings. She was recently awarded a graduate research fellowship through the American Australian Association to continue her research at JCU assessing the impacts of thermal stress on reproductive success in adult epaulette sharks.

José E. Trujillo, PhD Candidate

José E. Trujillo

José is a PhD student investigating the ecological importance of nursery grounds to shark populations. His research is focused in the interplay between the habitat configuration and the mechanisms newborn sharks employ to deal with predation. His research tries to understand how the structural complexity of habitats and the environmental conditions are related to sharks' refuge availability, and how the anti-predator strategies of newborn sharks are affected by the habitat they inhabit. His previous study related to the ecology of shark nursery grounds investigated the effect of kelp forest complexity in nursery habitat selection in egg laying sharks.

Sybille Hess

Originally from Switzerland, Sybille completed her MSc at JCU with Drs Jodie Rummer & Amelia Wenger. Her PhD research at JCU, supervised by Dr Rummer and co-supervised by Drs Andy Hoey & Amelia Wenger, investigates how poor water quality (e.g., increasing levels of suspended sediments) affects fish metabolic performance, the consequences for activities such as swimming, and potential impacts on fish community structure. Her work primarily focuses on fish larvae and juveniles, combining lab-based and field experiments.

[email protected]

Tiffany Nay

Tiffany earned her BSc in Marine Biology from the University of West Florida, spending summers in Wakatobi, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia studying crab-eating frogs, mudskipper fishes, and sea snakes. After completing her MSc at JCU researching fish microhabitat use in coral reefs and mangrove ecosystems, she began her PhD under the supervision of Drs. Rummer, Hoey, and Johansen, expanding upon her interests in microhabitat use.

[email protected]

The Physioshark Project

The Physioshark Project is a long-term research initiative studying how sharks respond to environmental change. Based in French Polynesia, we focus on understanding shark physiology and behavior in the face of climate change.