Jennifer Donelson

Jenni grew up in Melbourne before moving to Townsville to complete a BSc (Hons) at JCU in 2006 on how parental and environmental conditions influence the early life history of a reef fish. Her PhD research investigated the effects of climate change on the reproductive performance and early life history traits of reef fish and whether species have to potential to acclimate or adapt to changes in sea water temperature over multiple generations. Her PhD was supervised by Dr. Philip Munday and Dr. Mark McCormick from JCU, and collaborations with Dr. Roland Pitcher of CSIRO. Currently she is a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology, Sydney. Her research continues to concentrate on understanding the importance and prevalence of developmental plasticity, when fish experience warmer conditions in the first months of life, as well as the potential for acclimation across generations, when parents and grandparents are kept under elevated temperature conditions for their entire life. Her continuing research will expand our knowledge of how marine fishes throughout Eastern Australia (temperate to tropical) may cope with climate change through both developmental and transgenerational acclimation.