Dr Garfield Kwan

Dr. Garfield Kwan is a research fellow funded by the EU Marie Curie-Skłodowska Fellowship. Garfield is from the USA and comes from a postdoc position at University of California Davis following a PhD at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego. 

During his fellowship here at Exeter Garfield will be working with me and Dr. Clive Trueman (Southampton) on a project entitled: “FishOtlilithPhysio - Fish Otolith Physiology, and Implications for Climate Change, Conservation, and Fisheries Management”. The objectives of this work are to identify how warming, acidification, hypoxia, and feeding will affect the biomineralization and microchemistry patterns in otoliths (the ‘ear bones’ found in teleost fish) and then integrate the four variables into a predictive model to determine future responses and improve otolith-based tools. Otoliths provide a treasure trove of information about the lifetime of a fish (a bit like, but much more detailed and interesting), than the rings in a tree trunk), and as such have great value in fisheries management as well as fundamental biology. The physiology behind how otoliths grow is therefore fascinating as well important.

Garfield is also investigating the impacts of post-wildfire ash-input on aquatic organisms, with a particular interest in their ionic, osmotic, and acid-base responses. Finally, Garfield is a science communicator that translates research into visually-appealing yet scientifically-accurate comics (www.squidtoons.com).