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Dr Barbara Cheney

Dr Barbara Cheney
Dr Barbara Cheney
Dr Barbara Cheney

Advanced Research Fellow

About
Email Address
b.cheney@abdn.ac.uk
Office Address

The Lighthouse Field Station

University of Aberdeen

George Street

Cromarty

Ross-shire IV11 8YL

School/Department
School of Biological Sciences
Pure
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Biography

I am a research fellow in the School of Biological Sciences, based at the University's Lighthouse Field Station, where I manage our long-term bottlenose dolphin individual based study.

My current research interest centres on the use and development of techniques, including photo-ID, photogrammetry and acoustics, to study aspects of individual marine mammals to inform ecology and conservation.

Spy in the sky

Long-term individual-based studies provide a unique opportunity to apply unoccupied aerial system (UAS) photogrammetry to non-invasively measure body morphometrics of individuals with known life history information. Our latest study demonstrates that UAS measurements of body width can accurately assign pregnancy status in bottlenose dolphins.

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Qualifications

  • PhD Ecology 
    2017 - University of Aberdeen 

    Temporal variation in the demographics and dynamics of a bottlenose dolphin population.

  • BSc Marine Biology 
    2004 - University of Aberdeen 
  • BA Business Studies 
    1992 - Glasgow Caledonian University 

Latest Publications

  • Optimizing automated photo identification for population assessments

    Patton, P. T., Pacifici, K., Baird, R. W., Oleson, E. M., Allen, J. B., Ashe, E., Athayde, A., Basran, C. J., Cabrera, E., Calambokidis, J., Cardoso, J., Carroll, E. L., Cesario, A., Cheney, B. J., Cheeseman, T., Corsi, E., Currie, J. J., Durban, J. W., Falcone, E. A., Fearnbach, H., Flynn, K., Franklin, T., Franklin, W., Vernazzani, B. G., Genova, T., Hill, M., Johnston, D. R., Keene, E. L., Lacey, C., Mahaffy, S. D., McGuire, T. L., McPherson, L., Meyer, C., Michaud, R., Miliou, A., Olson, G. L., Orbach, D. N., Pearson, H. C., Rasmussen, M. H., Rayment, W. J., Rinaldi, C., Rinaldi, R., Siciliano, S., Stack, S. H., Tintore, B., Torres, L. G., Towers, J. R., Moore, R. B., Weir, C. R., Wellard, R., Wells, R. S., Yano, K. M., Zaeschmar, J. R., Bejder, L.
    Conservation Biology, e14436
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Site Condition Monitoring of bottlenose dolphins within the Moray Firth Special Area of Conservation 2017-2022: NatureScot Research Report 1360

    Cheney, B., Arso Civil, M., Hammond, P. S., Thompson, P.
    NatureScot: Scotland's Nature Agency. 39 pages
    Books and Reports: Commissioned Reports

  • Dolphin social phenotypes vary in response to food availability but not the North Atlantic Oscillation index

    Fisher, D., Cheney, B.
    Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 290, no. 2008, 20231187
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • A deep learning approach to photo–identification demonstrates high performance on two dozen cetacean species

    Patton, P. T., Cheeseman, T., Abe, K., Yamaguchi, T., Reade, W., Southerland, K., Howard, A., Oleson, E. M., Allen, J. B., Ashe, E., Athayde, A., Baird, R. W., Basran, C., Cabrera, E., Calambokidis, J., Cardoso, J., Carroll, E. L., Cesario, A., Cheney, B. J., Corsi, E., Currie, J., Durban, J. W., Falcone, E. A., Fearnbach, H., Flynn, K., Franklin, T., Franklin, W., Galletti Vernazzani, B., Genov, T., Hill, M., Johnston, D. R., Keene, E. L., Mahaffy, S. D., McGuire, T. L., McPherson, L., Meyer, C., Michaud, R., Miliou, A., Orbach, D. N., Pearson, H. C., Rasmussen, M. H., Rayment, W. J., Rinaldi, C., Rinaldi, R., Siciliano, S., Stack, S., Tintore, B., Torres, L. G., Towers, J. R., Trotter, C., Tyson Moore, R., Weir, C. R., Wellard, R., Wells, R., Yano, K. M., Zaeschmar, J. R., Bejder, L.
    Methods in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 14, no. 10, pp. 2611-2625
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Variation in foraging activity influences area-restricted search behaviour by bottlenose dolphins

    Fernandez Betelu, O., Iorio-Merlo, V., Graham, I., Cheney, B., Prentice, S., Cheng, X., Thompson, P.
    Royal Society Open Science, vol. 10, no. 6, 221613
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

View My Publications

Research

Research Overview

The Lighthouse Field Station research aims to study how natural and anthropogenic variation affects the behaviour, life history and vital rates of marine top predators. I manage our long-term individual based study of bottlenose dolphins on the east coast of Scotland. My current research focuses on the application of individual based studies in marine mammal conservation and I am specifically interested in the use and development of techniques to study the ecology of individual marine mammals.

Research Areas

Biological and Environmental Sciences

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Research Specialisms

  • Ecology
  • Marine Biology
  • Population Biology
  • Population Ecology

Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

Investigating fecundity and calf survival

Accurately estimating variation in reproduction and survival is critical for supporting conservation. Data from our long-term individual based bottlenose dolphin study was applied in a novel method, allowing for uncertainty in breeding status, to investigate changes in fecundity and calf survival in this protected population.

 

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