Xavier Harrison

Postgraduate research student

Qualifications

1st class BSc (Hons) Biology, University of York

PhD thesis

Causes and consequences of variation in dispersal strategy in an arctic migrant, the Light-bellied Brent goose (Branta bernicla hrota)

Funding

NERC with Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust CASE partnership

Supervisor(s)

Dr Stuart Bearhop, Professor Tom Tregenza, Dr David Hodgson

Research interests

My PhD concerns aspects of the dispersal and staging ecology of the light-bellied Brent goose. My main interests involve mechanisms structuring site fidelity at multiple points throughout the annual cycle, and by extension the factors driving dispersal, such as inbreeding avoidance. I am also particularly interested in the phenomena known as carry-over effects, which have considerable power to drive fitness differences among individuals, and consequently mean we need to assess individual performance as the product of events and processes occurring throughout the annual cycle.

Publications

Harrison XA, Tregenza T, Inger R, Colhoun K, Dawson DA, Gudmundsson GA, Hodgson DJ, Horsburgh GJ, McElwaine G & Bearhop S. Cultural Inheritance drives site fidelity and migratory connectivity in a long-distance migrant. Molecular Ecology (in press).
Harrison XA, Blount JD, Inger R, Norris DR & Bearhop S. (2010) Carry-over effects as drivers of fitness differences in animals. Journal of Animal Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01740.x
Harrison XA, Dawson DA, Horsburgh GJ, Tregenza T & Bearhop S. (2010) Isolation, characterisation and predicted genome locations of Light-bellied Brent goose (Branta bernicla hrota) microsatellite loci (Anatidae, AVES). Conservation Genetics Resources 2, 365-371.
Inger R, Harrison XA, Ruxton GD, Newton J, Colhoun K, Gudmundsson GA, McElwaine G, Pickford M, Hodgson D & Bearhop S (2010) Carry-over effects reveal reproductive costs in a long-distance migrant. Journal of Animal Ecology 79, 974-982.