The Boyd Orr Centre for Population and Ecosystem Health

Annabel Harrison

Contact Details:
Ecology Group
Room 426.08
Macaulay Institute,
Aberdeen
Tel: 01224 498200 ext 2456
Email: a.harrison@macaulay.ac.uk 
         a.harrison.1@research.gla.ac.uk  

Academic History

2007 - present: PhD title "Compensatory Population Dynamics in a Harvested Mammal".
Supervised by Prof. Dan Haydon at University of Glasgow and Dr Simon Thirgood and Dr Scott Newey at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (www.macaulay.ac.uk/hares)

2006-2007: MSc Biodiversity and Conservation, University of Leeds

2002-2005: BSc Zoology, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Research Interests

The Mountain hare is an important game species which has been traditionally harvested in the Central Scottish Highlands for over two centuries.  Mountain hares are shot for sport, protection of crops and forestry and to control ticks acting as vectors for louping ill, a viral disease that causes high mortality rates in grouse and sheep.  Scottish Mountain hare populations are characterised by high amplitude, weak cycles of approximately 9 years which further complicates their sustainable management.  Despite a wealth of knowledge on Mountain hare ecology, patterns in dispersal and how the birth rate, death rate, immigration and emigration change with hare density or in response to harvesting remains unknown.  My PhD project will explore dispersal patterns in Mountain hares and investigate how differing harvesting regimes affect population dynamics in this species.

Theoretical Ecology Research Group

Previous Research Projects

2007: MSc project entitled "Environmental effects on breeding behaviour of Manx Shearwaters" University of Leeds.

2005-2006: Behavioural ecology of feral goats on the Isle of Rum. University of Liverpool.

Scholarships

2007- 2010: NERC CASE studentship

Cairngorms