Marine and Freshwater Systems, MRes

Marine and Freshwater Systems

Advanced skills training and research project

Lumpfish

Course Overview

MRes Programme Director: Dr Nicole Esteban

Our Bioscience Department MRes programme gives you expert research training embedded in our world-class research groups. The first term is all about advanced skills training at postgraduate level with guidance for research project selection and refinement. Students start their 9 month research project phase at the end of January.

The formal teaching structure during the 1st semester ensures that students improve their skills in writing, analytical approaches and critical thinking to postgraduate level. Students also select two additional modules in line with research interests (e.g., GIS, biodiversity and health ecology, endangered species, biodiversity assessment). After module assessments, students are then ready to conduct an independent research project that is guided by a supervisory team in the department. We expect students to produce a research thesis that is of publication standard and many MRes projects are published after award of MRes.

Students do not need to have a pre-defined project to apply to the MRes course and we provide a list of potential projects to select during the first term. It is possible to switch from one programme to another during the first term because each of the four MRes courses in the Bioscience Department follows the same module pathway. The programme title reflects the nature of the research project: students can change the MRes Biosciences Department programme of study at any time during the first term once they have confirmed selection of a project.

  • MRes Marine and Freshwater Systems
  • MRes Behavioural Ecology and Evolution
  • MRes Biodiversity and Ecosystems
  • MRes Natural Products and Environmental Resources

Research theme overview:

Our research takes an interdisciplinary approach and builds on a strong history of aquatic research at Swansea University to answer fundamental and applied research questions aimed at sustaining ecosystem services from marine and freshwater environments. We also consider the interconnected nature of different freshwater, estuarine and marine environments and humans as key components of these systems.

MRes research projects can be selected from any of these research groups

  • Algal Research
  • Biomove
  • Coastal Resilience (SPACEPOP)
  • Comparative Immunology and Pathobiology
  • Ecology and Biogeochemistry in Marine and Freshwater Systems
  • Fish Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution
  • Invasive Species
  • Marine Conservation and Ecology Group (MARCEL)
  • Marine Microbial Ecology
  • Seagrass Ecosystems
  • Swansea Lab for Animal Movement (SLAM)
  • Social Evolution

Examples of recent Marine and Freshwater Systems MRes projects

  • The diving behaviour of the whale shark Rhincodon typus (supervised by Prof Rory Wilson and Dr Kayleigh Rose)
  • How do community interactions affect metal toxicity in aquatic ecosystems (supervised by Dr Tamsyn Uren Webster and Dr Konstans Wells)
  • Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to assess population density and habitat use of foraging sea turtles in the Chagos Archipelago (supervised by Dr Nicole Esteban and Dr Kim Stokes)
  • The potential competitive exclusion of edible crab (Cancer pagurus) by Montagu’s crab (Xantho hydrophilus), a climate-change indicator species (supervised by Prof John Griffin)
  • Identifying the use of genetic diversity in the initial establishment of a restored seagrass meadow (supervised by Dr Richard Unsworth and Prof Jim Bull)