Predator-prey interactions under near-future environmental change: The combined effects of increasing temperature and turbidity

The scope of the work is to investigate how combined water temperature and turbidity variations impact predator-prey interactions in freshwater systems, both tropical and temperate.

The project will use three-spine sticklebacks and damsel flies as model organisms in the temperate system here at Bristol University, where predator's activity will be measured and analysed using computer vision tracking software (hunting behaviour) and prey mortality.

In Trinidad, at the University of West Indies, both field based and mesocosm experiments will test the interactions of guppies and their natural predator, the pike cichlid. Here I will also collect eDNA samples from the field sites to assess population size and its relationship to local turbidity and temperature.

Finally, data will be fed into a model to estimate the effects of global heating on these communities in near-future scenarios.