Dr DAVID LUSSEAU

Senior Lecturer

Personal Details

Telephone:	+44 (0)1224 272843
E-mail:	d.lusseau@abdn.ac.uk
Personal website:
Address:	Zoology Building - Room 415 Tel.: +44 (0) 1224 27 2843

Web Links

CAStOR lab page

the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland
check out our MSc/MRes/PgDip in Applied Marine and Fisheries Ecology- Concepts and Practices for Ecosystem-based Management
The International Whaling Commission Large Scale Whalewatching Experiment (LaWE) project initiative
follow my rambling on twitter

« top

Biography

MASTS Senior Lecturer in Marine Top Predator Biology, University of Aberdeen, UK, 2011-

MASTS Lecturer in Marine Top Predator Biology, University of Aberdeen, UK, 2010-2011

Lecturer in marine populations, University of Aberdeen, UK, 2007-2010
Izaak Walton Killam Postdoctoral Fellow, Dalhousie University, Canada, 2006-2007
Research Fellow, University of Aberdeen, UK, 2003-2005
PhD in Zoology, University of Otago, New Zealand, 2003
Bsc in Marine Biology, Florida Institute of Technology, USA, 1996

« top

Research Interests

Developing the foundations of conservation behaviour
Population consequences of behavioural disturbances
Theoretical and conceptual development of socioecology
Understanding the principles influencing the evolution of complex adaptive systems
The mechanistic processes involved in the evolution of social role and social structure
Defining social complexity and its drivers

« top

Current Research

All things networked:

We are working on developing models of network evolution and network dynamics inspired from empirical studies.

The influence of sociality on decision-making processes:

We are investigating how variation in social structure influences the way in which groups of animals make decisions about their movement and their behavioural budget and how these decision-making processes influences the fitness of individuals.

Of social roles:

Emerging network analytical techniques allows us to understand the relative social position of individuals in their populations. We are using empirical studies to test whether these positions affect the influence individuals can have on the fitness of their conspecifics.

The population-level consequences of human disturbances:

A consensus is emerging that wildlife manages non-lethal interactions with humans in the same manner as these species manage predation risk. We study these management strategies and the consequences cumulative exposure to disturbance has on the fitness of individuals and the resulting viability of their populations.

SOCPROG (Programs for the analysis of animal social structure) is available here: SOCPROG 2.3

« top

Collaborations

Hal Whitehead (socioecology and network analyses); Lars Bejder (whalewatching disturbance); Rob Williams (whalewatching disturbance, killer whale socioecology); Louise Barrett and Peter Henzi (baboon socioecology); James Higham (tourism management); Paul Thompson, Steve Dawson and Liz Slooten (bottlenose dolphin socioecology and conservation ecology)

« top

Research Grants

Scottish Natural Heritage (2010-2011): Moray Firth Special Area of Conservation dolphins and development – data analysis and spatial model
Scottish Natural Heritage (2010-2012): The Provision of Specialist Advice on Marine Mammals (ad-hoc consultancy contract)
NOAA, WASC, Acquisition Management Division (2010-2011): Determine effects of vessel traffic on killer whales behaviour
Royal Society of London travel grant (2010)
College of Life Sciences and Medicine Equipment Grant 2008 (with B.E. Scott and P.M. Thompson)
Moray Firth Partnership: Economic Value of the Moray Firth Bottlenose Dolphins,2009, (PI: Ben Davies)

« top

Teaching Responsibilities

BI 20Z1 - Vertebrate Zoology
ZO 3507 - Animal Behaviour
ZO4535 - Behavioural Ecology

BI 5009 - Experimental Design and Analyses

BI 5010 - Statistics for complex designs

ZO 5903 - Network Science

« top

External Responsibilities

Editor for Animal Behaviour (2010-2013)
Member of the International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee (UK delegation)
Chair of the International Whaling Commission Intersessional Steering Group on the whalewatching large-scale study LaWE
Member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Cetacean Specialist Group
Member of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society
Member of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland

Member of the Scottish Primatological Research Group

Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability

Member of the Centre for Sustainable International Development

« top

Current students

Fredrik Christiansen, Whaling-whalewatching conflicts in the exploitation of minke whales in Iceland (PhD student co-supervised with Marianne Rasmussen, University of Iceland, 2009-2013)

Derek Murphy, The ecological drivers of social network dynamics (PhD student, co-supervised with Louise Barrett and Peter Henzi, University of Lethbridge, 2011-2014)

Enrico Pirotta, Assessing the population consequences of disturbances caused by human development on marine mammal populations (MASTS Prize PhD student, co-supervised with John Harwood, CREEM St Andrews, and Paul Thompson, UoA, 2011-2014)

Margarita Machairopoulou, The role of macro-zooplankton in the dynamics of commercially important fish stocks (PhD student, co-supervised with Steve Hay Marine Scotland Science, 2010-2012)

Barbara Cheney, The population ecology of bottlenose dolphins along the Northeast Scotland coast (co-supervised PhD student, Paul Thompson principal supervisor, 2010-2015)

Valeria Senigaglia, intra-population variability in whalewatching impact on killer whales (MRes student, 2011)

« top

Current Research Fellow

Dr. Marianne Marcoux, The evolution of social role on social networks (postdoctoral fellow funded by le Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies, 2011-2013)

« top