PhD projects within the research area Fisheries Management.
Berthe Vastenhoud
Title of the PhD project
Fish stock assessment and fisheries dynamic modelling—Investigating the sustainability of potential mesopelagic resource exploitation
Supervisors
J. Rasmus Nielsen, Alexandros Kokkalis & Francois Bastardie
Background of project
The mesopelagic zone of the ocean is located in pelagic water masses from 200m to 1000m depth, between the euphotic zone, where light is available, and the bathypelagic zone, where no light is visible. Global survey estimates of the mesopelagic fish biomass are large but remain uncertain, with estimates ranging between 1 and 20 Gt. There is increased interest from commercial fisheries to exploit these species for the use for fishmeal, fish oil and nutraceuticals, but the question is whether such potential exploitation is sustainable or not.
About the project
This project evaluates the sustainability of potential exploitation of two key mesopelagic fish species, Maurolicus muelleri and Benthosema glaciale, in the North-East Atlantic Ocean, both in terms of ecological sustainability and economic viability. Length-based statistical methods for data-limited stock assessments are used to estimate demographic parameters related to growth, mortality, stock size and production of the stocks according to Maximum Sustainable Yield. The economic sustainability of a mesopelagic fishery and different management strategies will be evaluated using the DISPLACE individual vessel based bio-economic model for Danish large scale pelagic fisheries.
Perspective
Alongside with the global human population growth, the demand for food, including marine products, continues to increase. The sustainable exploitation of new marine resources such as mesopelagic species could complement and potentially partially relieve the fishing pressure on existing marine resources while meeting the increasing demands of aquaculture and human nutrition. It is important already in an early stage to make assessments of the long-term ecological and economic sustainability of potential exploitation, and to develop suitable management measures. This project is part of the H2020 MEESO project, which aims at filling knowledge gaps related to mesopelagic species, to assess their role in the ecosystem and the sustainability of potential mesopelagic exploitation.
Anne Cathrine Linder
Title of PhD project
Using computational human ecology approaches to understand the role of cultural ecosystem services to trade-offs between human well-being and biodiversity conservation
Supervisors
David Lusseau & Laura Alessandretti
Background of project
One of the grand challenges of sustainability science is understanding principal trade-offs between human well-being and the natural environment. Such trade-offs are dependent on how well-being benefits emerge from spending time in nature and how such use of nature may in turn threaten biodiversity. Thus, it is relevant to determine the overlap between species and habitats sensitive to tourism and recreation and ecosystem features underpinning cultural ecosystem services (CES). CES are generally defined as non-material benefits people obtain from nature and have been suggested to be important contributors to human well-being. However, we have a poor understanding of how CES are derived from human-nature interactions, with one of the key hurdles being data access.
About the project
The objective of my PhD project is to utilize data from social media to understand cultural ecosystem services associated with human-nature interactions and assess trade-offs arising from these interactions. Social media sampling and text mining approaches will be used to sample the intensity of nature use and retrieve the context of human-nature interactions to identify key ecosystem features providing CES. This project will also estimate sentiment and emotions expressed in social media posts, which along with a series of controlled experiments will enable me to understand well-being emerging from CES exposure as facilitated by human-nature activities.
Perspective
This project will advance sustainability science by providing a global understanding of CES. Moreover, this project will identify nature features important for eliciting well-being benefits and determine the overlap between these key features and species and habitats sensitive to tourism and recreation. Thus, providing a framework for assessing trade-offs arising from human-nature interactions.
Previous PhD students (since 2020)
Søren Espersen Schrøder
Decision Tools and Management in the Fish Sector. Examining the psychological components of the Analytical Hierarchy Processes methodology and its effect on decision-making
(link awaits publication of thesis)
Katrina Bromhall
The effect of modified and lightweight fishing gears on benthic macrofauna
Go to DTU Orbit to download thesis
Tobias Mildenberger
Towards sustainable fisheries: Improving the robustness and effectiveness of management procedures for data-limited fish stocks
Go to DTU Orbit to download thesis
Marie-Christine Rufener
Integrating commercial fisheries and scientific survey data: Advances, new tools and applications to model the fish and fishery dynamics
Go to DTU Orbit to download thesis
Sieme Bossier
Evaluating Major Baltic Fish Stocks under Climate, Eutrophication and Fishing Pressure using a Holistic end-to-end Ecosystem Model
Go to DTU Orbit to download thesis
Kristian Plet-Hansen
Fisheries data from electronic monitoring and traceability systems in the context of the EU landing obligation
Go to DTU Orbit to download thesis