Libby Liggins | |
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Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Queensland |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Massey University |
Libby Liggins is an evolutionary ecologist and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Natural and Computational Science at Massey University,Auckland,New Zealand,as well as a research associate at Auckland Museum. Her research uses genetic and genomic data to explore the biogeography,population ecology,and biodiversity of marine organisms.
Liggins grew up in Northland,New Zealand. [1] She graduated from Victoria University of Wellington in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science,followed by a MSc exploring the population genetics of mainland New Zealand skinks and the Chatham Islands skink ( Oligosoma nigriplantare ). [2] [3] Liggins was a Blake Antarctic Ambassador in 2008,carrying out environmental monitoring on a wind farm project to supply electricity to Scott Base and McMurdo Station. [4]
She then completed a PhD at the University of Queensland in 2013 in Cynthia Riginos's lab,with Hugh Possingham,and Eric Treml as additional supervisors,using mitochondrial and microsatellite markers to study the colonisation and dispersal of marine fishes and echinoderms around coral reefs of Australia and the West Pacific. [5] She was part of the 2013 Auckland Museum expedition to the Three Kings Islands. [1] Liggins was a Graduate Fellow at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham,North Carolina from March to August 2014,working with the "Advancing genetic diversity research in the Indian and Pacific Oceans" group. [6] [7] Liggins then moved to the Albany campus of Massey University to take up an Allan Wilson Centre postdoctoral fellowship for a year,afterwards becoming a lecturer in marine ecology. She won a Rutherford Foundation New Zealand postdoctoral fellowship in 2015 and became a Senior Lecturer in 2018. [8] [6] In 2020,Liggins received a five year Rutherford Discovery Fellowship to work on a project titled Tohu of change for Aotearoa New Zealand’s marine biodiversity,based at Massey University. [9]
Liggins has spoken out against proposed cuts to science research at Massey University's Albany campus,in which 50 staff jobs were under threat,and some majors such as marine biology were to be discontinued. [10] [11]
Liggins was project coordinator for the Ira Moana –Genes of the Sea –Network,a collaborative researcher network and database project to advance marine genetic research in New Zealand. The 2018–2020 project aimed to create a comprehensive genetic database that collected and curated all the metadata from thousands of biological samples,involving over 85 researchers and 25 institutions. The database also allows metadata to be tagged with "Traditional Knowledge" notices,to signal that indigenous people have rights associated with the genetic data. In 2019 Liggins won the World Data System (WDS) Data Stewardship Award for her work on the project. [12]
In 2020 Liggins and her colleagues discovered three new records of fish species not previously known from the Kermadec Islands Marine Reserve. [13] The observations were captured in hundreds of hours of unused underwater footage recorded in 2015,from a wildlife documentary being filmed while Liggins and her colleagues were on an expedition to the Kermadecs to collect DNA samples. [14] [15]
The Kermadec Islands are a subtropical island arc in the South Pacific Ocean 800–1,000 km northeast of New Zealand's North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga. The islands are part of New Zealand. They are 33.6 km2 (13.0 sq mi) in total area and uninhabited, except for the permanently staffed Raoul Island Station, the northernmost outpost of New Zealand.
The copper skink is a skink of the family Scincidae that is endemic to the North Island of New Zealand.
MARXAN is a family of software designed to aid systematic reserve design on conservation planning. With the use of stochastic optimisation routines Marxan generates spatial reserve systems that achieve particular biodiversity representation goals with reasonable optimality. Over the years, Marxan has grown from its standard two zone application to consider more complex challenges like incorporating connectivity, probabilities and multiple zones. Along the way, Marxan's user community has also built plug-ins and interfaces to assist with planning projects.
Oligosoma alani,, also known as the robust skink is the largest endemic skink to New Zealand. The robust skink is in the family Scincidae and found in the protected nature reserves of the Mercury Islands in the North Island of New Zealand. The robust skink has an at risk - recovering conservation status.
The chevron skink is a large species of skink that is endemic to New Zealand. Previously found across Northland and the northern Auckland Region, it is now found only on the Great Barrier and Little Barrier islands in the Hauraki Gulf. A cryptic forest dweller, it can hide underwater. The chevron skink is the longest species of skink in New Zealand, reaching lengths of up to 340 mm (13 in). It is under threat from introduced rats.
The bluestreak cleaner wrasse is one of several species of cleaner wrasses found on coral reefs from Eastern Africa and the Red Sea to French Polynesia. Like other cleaner wrasses, it eats parasites and dead tissue off larger fishes' skin in a mutualistic relationship that provides food and protection for the wrasse, and considerable health benefits for the other fishes. It is also notable for having potentially passed the mirror test, though this is not without controversy.
Durvillaea is a genus of large brown algae in the monotypic family Durvillaeaceae. All members of the genus are found in the southern hemisphere, including Australia, New Zealand, South America, and various subantarctic islands. Durvillaea, commonly known as southern bull kelps, occur on rocky, wave-exposed shorelines and provide a habitat for numerous intertidal organisms. Many species exhibit a honeycomb-like structure in their fronds that provides buoyancy, which allows individuals detached from substrates to raft alive at sea, permitting dispersal for hundreds of days over thousands of kilometres. Durvillaea species have been used for clothing, tools and as a food source by many indigenous cultures throughout the South Pacific, and they continue to play a prominent role in Chilean cuisine.
Chaetodon mertensii, the atoll butterflyfish, yellowback butterflyfish or Merten's butterflyfish, is a species of marine ray finned fish, a butterflyfish belonging to the family Chaetodontidae. It is found in the western Pacific Ocean.
Oligosoma nigriplantare, the Chatham Islands skink, is a species of skink in the family Scincidae.
Oligosoma suteri, known commonly as Suter's skink, the black shore skink, the egg-laying skink, and Suter's ground skink, is a species of lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to New Zealand, found in fragmented populations on the mainland of the Coromandel Peninsula as far south as the Coromandel Peninsula, and on offshore northern islands of New Zealand.
Oligosoma lineoocellatum, commonly known as the Canterbury spotted skink, is one of a species complex of several related spotted skink species from New Zealand.
The McCann's skink is a species of skink native to New Zealand.
Lesley Louise Rhodes is a New Zealand scientist. She is the co-leader of the Nationally Significant Database programme (NSD) for the Cawthron Institute. In the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was named as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in recognition for her contributions to science and marine farming.
Carlos Adolfo Lehnebach is a New Zealand botanist. He is employed as a botany curator at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Lehnebach has a master's degree and a PhD from Massey University.
Landscape genetics is the scientific discipline that combines population genetics and landscape ecology. It broadly encompasses any study that analyses plant or animal population genetic data in conjunction with data on the landscape features and matrix quality where the sampled population lives. This allows for the analysis of microevolutionary processes affecting the species in light of landscape spatial patterns, providing a more realistic view of how populations interact with their environments. Landscape genetics attempts to determine which landscape features are barriers to dispersal and gene flow, how human-induced landscape changes affect the evolution of populations, the source-sink dynamics of a given population, and how diseases or invasive species spread across landscapes.
The Alborn skink is a critically endangered and poorly known species of skink only found in a single 2 ha site near Reefton, New Zealand. It is classified as "Nationally Critical" by the Department of Conservation under the New Zealand Threat Classification System.
The Chesterfield or Kapitia skink is a species of skink found in New Zealand. Only discovered in 1994 and for years not recognised as a distinct species, it is endemic to a narrow 1 km strip of coastal vegetation on the West Coast of New Zealand, 15 km north of Hokitika. There are fewer than 200 individuals remaining in the wild. Oligosoma salmo is the only New Zealand skink with a prehensile tail, suggesting it was once arboreal and inhabited coastal forest, which was subsequently cleared for dairy farming. Following the partial destruction of its remaining habitat in 2018 by a cyclone, a small captive breeding population was established at Auckland Zoo.
A marine coastal ecosystem is a marine ecosystem which occurs where the land meets the ocean. Worldwide there is about 620,000 kilometres (390,000 mi) of coastline. Coastal habitats extend to the margins of the continental shelves, occupying about 7 percent of the ocean surface area. Marine coastal ecosystems include many very different types of marine habitats, each with their own characteristics and species composition. They are characterized by high levels of biodiversity and productivity.
Karen Ann Stockin is a New Zealand academic marine ecologist, and as of 2021 is a full professor at Massey University and a Rutherford Discovery Fellow for Royal Society Te Apārangi. Her research focuses on animal welfare and the impacts of human activities on cetacean populations, including tourism effects, and persistent marine contaminants.
Macauley Island is a volcanic island in New Zealand's Kermadec Islands, approximately halfway between New Zealand's North Island and Tonga in the southwest Pacific Ocean. It is part of a larger submarine volcano that features a 10.5 by 7 kilometres wide underwater caldera northwest of Macauley Island. Two islets, Haszard Island and Newcome Rock, lie east offshore of Macauley Island. The island is mostly surrounded by high cliffs that make accessing it difficult; the inland parts are mostly gently sloping terrain covered with ferns and grasses.