MISS DEVONNE GARDINER

Biography

I'm a fourth year PhD student, primarily interested in the physiological responses of baleen whales to environmental stressors. Funded by the The Leverhulme Trust, and supervised by Dr Davina Derous, and Dr Joanna Kershaw at the University of St Andrews, I am using molecular methods to investigate markers of health in blubber biopsy samples from free-ranging baleen whales.

I am a passionate wildlife conservationist, with a background in molecular biology. I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Strathclyde in Forensic Biology, where I used molecular techniques to investigate the potential of using degraded mitochondrial DNA from burial remains to determine population demographics. Having completed this undergraduate degree, I then transitioned fields to ecology, and undertook a Masters degree at the University of East Anglia in Applied Ecology and Conservation. During this degree, I researched the impacts of deep-water fishing on sharks, skates, and rays in the North East Atlantic, in collaboration with CEFAS. 

External Memberships

European Cetacean Society, 2025-Present

Society for Marine Mammalogy, 2024 - Present

British Ecological Society, 2022 - Present

RSPB, 2018 - Present

Current Research

My current research is focused on understanding the physiological responses of baleen whales to environmental stressors by combining molecular methods with modelling approaches. I also have a particular interest in assessing reproductive health and identifying novel markers of health in free-ranging mysticetes, specifically in relation to their feeding and fasting cycle.

During my PhD thus far, my focus has been on extracting and quantifying steroid hormones from blubber biopsy samples to investigate long-term population demographics of minke and fin whales in a critical North Atlantic feeding ground, the Gulf of St Lawrence. This is an area which has undergone significant ecosystem change, and I've been trying to understand how such environmental shifts have impacted the reproductive health of these two baleen whale species by modelling hormone concentrations with environmental variables, such as prey availability.

Past Research

Ecological impacts of deep-water fishing on Chondrichthyans of the North East Atlantic

Using statistical modelling approaches in R, this project investigated the long term impacts of deep-water fisheries on the morphology, and community composition of deep-water elasmobranchs (sharks, skates, and rays). Using a large dataset spanning 44 years, generalised additive modelling was performed to determine the effects of deep-water fishing on length and weight of different species. Taking into account environmental variables such as depth, two distinct habitats being used by the species of interest were identified. This was followed up by performing PERMANOVA analysis, which revealed changes in the community composition over the 44 year period in these two distinct habitats.

Collaborations

MSc research project was in collaboration with Dr Rui Vieira from CEFAS.

Funding and Grants

I was awarded an Early Career Conference Grant worth £2000 from the Association of Commonwealth Universities. This helped to fund my attendance at the 25th Biennial Conference of the Society for Marine Mammalogy in Perth, Australia, where I presented some of my PhD work investigating the population health of minke whales in the Gulf of St Lawrence. 

Additionally, I was awarded one of the travel bursaries from the MASTS Aquatic Stressors Forum worth £300, which also helped to fund my attendance at this conference.