Katie Lee
PhD Student

Profile

Biography

My PhD project uses numerical modelling to investigate the interaction between tidal dynamics and coral reef ecology on the Great Barrier Reef throughout large time scales. My work brings together computational modelling of how tidal dynamics are altered by sea level; Lagrangian methods to track coral larvae from mass spawning events to understand coral connectivity throughout time and mathematical modelling to capture how ecological dynamical systems are altered by oceanic changes. The aim of this work is to develop computational tools to aid in the investigation of this little known interaction and for this work to eventually be used to assist with coral reef management. In 2022 I have lead-authored a paper on past tidal dynamics on the Great barrier reef explaining how ooid grains were able to be formed there 16,000 years ago and I have also co-authored a paper on future Great Barrier Reef tidal dynamics.

Grants:
Funding Body: Natural England Research Council (NERC)
DTP: Adapting to the Challenges of a Changing Environment (ACCE)

Supervisors:
Jon Hill (Department of Environment and Geography, University of York), Jon Pitchford (Department of Biology and Department of Mathematics, University of York), Tom Webb (School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield) and Jody Webster (School of Geosciences, University of Sydney). 

Career

2019 - 2020: MSc in Marine Environmental Management, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York
2016 - 2019: BSc in Philosophy and Linguistics, University of York