Louise Kregting

Dr Louise Kregting is a recipient of a Queen’s University Belfast Research Fellowship with expertise in the Clean Energy research priority theme investigating the environmental interactions of marine (wave and tidal) energy converters. She gained her PhD in determining the influence of water motion on the growth and nutrient physiology of macroalgae in 2007 at Otago University, New Zealand. Afterwards she spent 2.5 years in the United States on an NSF funded project assessing the influence of unidirectional and oscillatory flow on sea urchin fertilization. Following this position she joined QUB as a research fellow, investigating the effects of hydrodynamics on kelp productivity funded by SuperGen2 Marine Energy Research Consortium. This work led to a SuperGen Marine Grand Challenge funded project investigating the environmental impacts of large arrays of marine energy installations using hydrodynamic and ecological modelling approaches. 

Her research interests lie in how organisms operate and interact in the marine environment. During her career she has investigated the influence of physical  processes (temperature, light, nutrients and water motion) on the biology and ecology of invertebrates (black coral communities, serpulid reefs and sea urchins) and macroalgae (browns and reds). She is an experienced scientific diver and has a range of skills from both the marine biology and hydrodynamic disciplines: use of autoanalysers for determination of nutrient concentrations in seawater and macroalgal soluble pools; use of flumes, both unidirectional and oscillatory; field measurement of water velocity using Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers and Acoustic Doppler Velocimeters in both the laboratory and field. More recently she has expanded her area of expertise to develop coupled hydrodynamic ecological models using MIKE 21.

Her key research themes are:

• Evaluation of the influence of marine energy converters on the near and far-field marine ecology (i) Using a combination of both field and laboratory work to assess the growth and productivity of kelp forests, namely Laminaria hyperborea and L. digitata. (ii) Establishment of benthic biotopes and communities over a range of ambient current velocities relevant to the tidal energy industry (iii) Modelling the environmental impacts of marine renewable energy farms.
• Spore and larval dispersal work integrating molecular and biological techniques with hydrodynamic models to examine how hydrological systems shape the distribution and genetic variation in natural populations of macroalgae, native mussels and oysters in coastal environments.