Pierre Pistorius

Following intensive data collection at Marion Island, Pierre completed his PhD at the University of Pretoria in 2001. He then spent a year doing post-doctoral research on geese at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) in Trondheim. He followed this up with two years on Aldabra Atoll, employed by the Seychelles Islands Foundation, and another year at the Falkland Islands contracted through Falklands Conservation. Most of his research here was focused on seabird demographics. Since late 2009, Pierre has been based at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University as Senior Lecturer at the Department of Zoology.

Pierre’s primary interests relate to population and behavioural ecology of seabirds and other marine predators and their conservation in the face of climate and anthropogenic changes. He is also interested in trophodynamics and the use of seabirds as indicators of the state of the marine environment and their potential use in ecosystem based management. A further interest is the use of Marine Protected Areas as a conservation management tool, particularly in the Southern Cape. He is currently involved in seabird research at Marion Island, the Falkland Islands and islands along the South African coastline.

Pierre is on the advisory board of African Journal of Marine Science and editorial board of ISRN Zoology.