The 18th of June 2015, Ocean Life PhD Karin Olsson succesfully defended her PhD titled "Trait-based analysis of reproductive strategies among marine fish".
Karin Olsson successfully defended her thesis "Trait-based analysis of reproductive strategies among marine fish" on 18 June 2015. Karin is the first PhD student employed by Centre for Ocean Life. She has investigated why sharks and rays produce relatively few large offspring with a weight at birth proportional to the weight of the adult, while bony fish typically produce large amounts of small eggs irrespective of the size of the adult. Using theoretical life history models she found that the difference may be explained by a lack of density dependence in the early larval stages of bony fish. She also critically evaluated models of reproductive output and effort, and found most to be poor, which could have major implications for the use of general life history models to predict the sustainability of fisheries on data-poor species. Associate professor Christian Jørgensen, Bergen University, Norway and Dr. Daniel Falster, Macquarie University, Australia acted as external examiners and commended her for her clear graphical presentation of the models, her well composed thesis, the combination of data analysis and theoretical modeling, and, not the least, her interesting results. Congratulations!