Christina Hunt

Education

I achieved a First Class BA (Hons) Biological Sciences degree from the University of Oxford. I was awarded a First for my final year project: "Diet preference changes with depth in the invasive lionfish Pterois volitans in Utila, Honduras".

My final year project involved six weeks of fieldwork in Honduras. During this time I learnt about, and subsequently carried out: lionfish dissections (including stomach content analysis), SCUBA-based lionfish abundance surveys using belt transects, and also stereo-video footage analysis.

My DPhil focuses on the invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans) in Honduras, Central America. Although native to the Indo-Pacific, lionfish are now widespread across the western Atlantic. My work is a combination of ecology and behaviour research, with the common theme of lionfish-habitat interactions. So far, I have investigated lionfish aggregation behaviour and habitat preference. My plans for the remainder of my DPhil include a study on indirect interactions between lionfish and benthic community composition as well as an experiment on shelter competition between lionfish and native species.

Hunt CL, Kelly GR, Windmill H, Curtis-Quick J, Conlon H, Bodmer MDV, Rogers AD and Exton DA (2019) Aggregating behaviour in invasive Caribbean lionfish is driven by habitat complexity. Scientific Reports. 9:783

Andradi-Brown DA, Grey R, Hendrix A, Hitchner D, Hunt CL, Gress E, Madej K, Parry RL, Regnier-McKellar C, Jones OP, Arteaga M, Izaguirre AP, Rogers AD, Exton DA (2017) Depth-dependent effects of culling- do mesophotic lionfish populations undermine current management? Royal Society Open Science 4(5):170027

Andradi-Brown DA, Head CEI, Exton DA, Hunt CL, Hendrix A, Gress E, Rogers AD (2017) Identifying zooplankton community changes between shallow and upper-mesophotic reefs on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, Caribbean. Peer J 5:e2853