‘As a professional marine conservation ecologist, the main goal of my research is to understand how human interactions, environmental variation and climate change are responsible for altering biodiversity, biomass and productivity. My aim, to facilitate the rewilding of marine ecosystems in an effort to restore the natural ecology, biodiversity and energy flow. I look for unusual patterns within my data, and strive to understand diminishing aquatic ecosystems and how best to improve, restore and manage those impacts.’

Research papers Dr Ian has written/ contributed to

-       Biodegraders of large woody debris across a tidal gradient in an Indonesian mangrove ecosystem

-       Climate-driven golden tides are reshaping coastal communities in Quintana Roo, Mexico

-       Seagrass Restoration Handbook: UK and Ireland

-       Ephemeral detection of Bonamia exitiosa (Haplosporida) in adult and larval European flat oysters Ostrea edulis in the Solent, United Kingdom

-       Interactions of larval dynamics and substrate preference have ecological significance for benthic biodiversity and Ostrea edulis Linnaeus, 1758 in the presence of Crepidula fornicata

-       Mosquitofish avoid thermal stress by moving from open water to the shade of the mangrove Rhizophora mangle

-       Active management is required to turn the tide for depleted Ostrea edulis stocks from the effects of overfishing, disease and invasive species

-       Modeling projected changes of mangrove biomass in different climatic scenarios in the Sunda Banda Seascapes

-       Rhizophora stylosa prop roots even when damaged prevent wood-boring teredinids from toppling the trees

-       Seagrass-associated macrobenthic functional diversity and functional structure along an estuarine gradient

-       Functional uniformity underlies the common spatial structure of macrofaunal assemblages in intertidal seagrass beds

-       Wild Asia

-       Habitat creation and biodiversity maintenance in mangrove forests: teredinid bivalves as ecosystem engineers

-       Mangrove forests of the Wakatobi National Park