Elizabeth Chadwick

My research focuses on freshwater aquatic systems, particularly the Eurasian otter and British amphibians. I head the Cardiff University Otter Project (CUOP), a research and monitoring project run collaboratively with the Environment Agency. Using the otter as a model species, we address fundamental questions about freshwater systems and population biology. For example, molecular genetic analysis is used to explore the influence of landscape on population connectivity, and to allow epidemiological modelling of recently introduced biliary parasites; stable isotope analysis is applied to investigate nutrient cycling, and volatile analysis of gland material is used to investigate scent communication. Research in amphibian ecology focuses particularly on phenology and climate change, and the effect of environmental cues on behaviour.