Dr Rob Hughes
Senior Lecturer
- Room: 1.31, Fogg building
- Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 3045
- Email: r.hughes("at" sign)qmul.ac.uk
Research interests:
My primary research areas are in the ecology, conservation and management of internationally important but threatened estuarine and coastal habitats, particularly saltmarshes and mudflats. These are designated Biodiversity Action Plan Habitats and are being lost at rapid rates. Their current management is not based on sound science. I and my research group have shown that loss of saltmarshes in SE England, and elsewhere in the UK, is not due to sea level rise and coastal squeeze but to herbivory and bioturbation by the mudflat invertebrate fauna, particularly polychaetes and amphipods. We are working on the ecology of these invertebrates, particularly the ragworm /Nereis diversicolor/, a significant ecological engineer, and of fishes that use these habitat. Saltmarshes are important as feeding areas for juvenile fish of several species, including bass which is commercially important, and internationally important wading bird populations. These too are threatened by loss of their habitats. We are also concerned with how herbivory and bioturbation affect the success of saltmarsh restoration by coastal managed realignment, and are looking at alternative methods of creating saltmarshes. On the pure research side, we are examining the primary successional processes involved in saltmarsh formation in the new intertidal areas of managed realignment sites