Imperial College London
Centre for Environmental Policy & Division of Biology
Silwood Park Campus
Buckhurst Road
Ascot, Berkshire
SL5 7PY

e: a.wallace08 @ imperial.ac.uk
t: +44 (0) 207 594 2262

Research interests

My research interests include aquatic ecosystems, conservation and education strategies, and associated anthropogenic issues including competition with fisheries and conservation impacts for local stakeholders.

Current Research

Participatory monitoring of fishers spatial behaviour: Estimating social costs in local conservation planning. Improving our understanding of artisanal fisheries and the impacts of conservation actions for those that rely on fisheries resources is fundamental for conservation planning and participatory resource management. While aquatic protected areas can improve sustainability of fisheries and reduce environmental degradation in the long-term, it is likely to come at a short-term cost to local fishers by reducing areas that are open to fishing. It is necessary to mesh ecological goals with the interests, concerns, and livelihoods of local stakeholders to develop effective long-term conservation strategies that are socio-economically viable. This requires an interdisciplinary approach that acknowledges the key role of local fishers in determining the sustainability of aquatic protected areas while incorporating an assessment of the livelihood impacts of conservation for those fishers.

Whereas most fisheries studies tend to focus on ecological considerations, my research provides an opportunity to investigate the development and impact of conservation efforts from an anthropocentric perspective. The aim of the research is to assess the value of participatory monitoring in understanding spatial fishing behaviour and to estimate the costs of alternative conservation plans from the fishers’ perspective.

Lake Alaotra hosts the largest inland fishery in Madagascar, is internationally recognised as an important area for biodiversity conservation (declared a Ramsar site in September 2003), and is the case study site for this research.

Objectives

1. Characterise the Alaotra fishery to gain an understanding of system dynamics;

2. Analyse the drivers of spatial and seasonal fishing behaviour, as a function of revenues, costs, and constraints;

3. Evaluate  the performance of a set of monitoring methods to track system status in terms of (a) participatory engagement, (b) cost and time investment, (c) bias, (d) precision, and (e) technical requirements;

4. Assess  the costs for fishers of alternative conservation interventions, based on a range of assumptions about fisher responses, using spatially-explicit data and management scenarios;

5. Develop a framework for integrating spatially-explicit socioeconomic data as well as participatory monitoring into conservation planning.

Supervision and funding

My PhD is jointly supervised by Professor EJ Milner-Gulland and Dr Emily Nicholson (Imperial College London), Dr Julia Jones (Bangor University), and Dr Richard Young (Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and University of Bath). My research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and CASE partner, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (DWCT). Fieldwork will be undertaken in collaboration with DWCT, who have worked in the Lake Alaotra area in Madagascar since 1996.

Brief CV

2008 – to date: PhD, Imperial College London.

2007 – 2008: Research Assistant, Department of Anthropology, Oxford Brookes University.

2007 – 2008: Administration Manager, Pond Conservation, Oxford.

2006 – 2007: Project Manager, Kasokwa Forest Chimpanzee Project, Uganda.

2006 – 2007: Researcher, Household Food Survey in Rural Communities around Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda.

2006 – 2007: Research Assistant, Mitigating Human-Wildlife Conflict around Budongo Forest, Uganda.

2005: Research Assistant, Galago Vocalisation and Abundance Study in the Shire Highlands, Malawi.

2004 – 2005: Researcher, Steller Sea Lion Research Program, Vancouver, Canada.

2002 – 2003: Research Assistant, Mountain Gorilla Behavioural and Demographic Research at Karisoke Research Center, Parc National des Volcans, Rwanda.

2000 – 2004: MSc, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Research focus – Contaminant impacts on marine mammals and human health in the eastern Bering Sea.

1999 – 2000: Research Assistant, Humpback Whale Identification, Monitoring and Behaviour Study in Maui, Hawaii, USA.

1999: Research Assistant, White Rhinoceros Identification, Monitoring and Behaviour Study in Otjiwa Game Reserve, Namibia.

1998 – 1999: Intern, Dolphin Cognition and Intelligence Research in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

1997 – 1998: Project Biologist, EVS Environment Consultants, North Vancouver, Canada.

1997: Compost Interpreter / Research Assistant, Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD), Vancouver, Canada.

1995 – 1997: Office Manager, Pacific Shirt Company, Vancouver, Canada.

1994: Field Volunteer, Wild Dolphin Societies Project, Mote Marine Laboratory, Florida, USA.

1990 – 1994: BSc (Honours), Trent University, Peterborough, Canada.

 Publications (née Coombs)

Trites, A. W., and A. P. C. Wallace. Submitted. Summer haulouts are breeding sites: Redefining the reproductive strategy of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus). Canadian Journal of Zoology.

Trites, A. W., B. P. Porter, V. B. Deecke, A. P. Coombs, M. L. Marcotte, and D. A. S. Rosen, 2006. Insights into the timing of weaning and the attendance patterns of lactating Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) in Alaska during winter, spring and summer. Aquatic Mammals 32 (1), 85-97.

Bredesen, E. L., A. P. Coombs, and A. W. Trites. 2006. Relationship between Steller sea lion diets and fish distributions in the Eastern North Pacific. pp. 131-140. In: A. W. Trites, S. K. Atkinson, D. P. DeMaster, L. W. Fritz, T. S. Gelatt, L. D. Rea, and K. M. Wynne (eds.), Sea Lions of the World. University of Alaska Sea Grant, Anchorage, Alaska.

Coombs, A. P. and A. W. Trites, 2005. Steller sea lion haulouts: Breeding locations for nonpregnant females? Society for Marine Mammalogy, 16th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, December 12 – 16, 2005. Oral presentation. San Diego, California, USA.

Rizzo, Y., A. P. Coombs, B. Bhathal, K. Freire, A. Gelchu, A. M. J. Hunter, V. Karpouzi, K. Kaschner, T. A. Okey, A. Poon, D. Preikshot, W. Swartz, D. Tesfamichael, L. Wood, and D. Pauly. 2004. Looking at fisheries on a large scale: Challenges and opportunities. Fourth World Fisheries Congress, May 2 – 6, 2004. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. p. 169.

Coombs, A. P., 2004. Marine mammals and human health in the eastern Bering Sea: Using an ecosystem-based food web model to track PCBs. Master of Science Thesis. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. 91 pp.

Trites, A. W., A. P. Coombs, and E. L. Bredesen, 2004. Whales, whaling and ecosystem change in the Antarctic and eastern Bering Sea: Insights from ecosystem models. CIESM Workshop Monographs, Investigating the roles of cetaceans in marine ecosystems, Monaco. p. 85-92.

Levings, C. D., K. L. Barry, J. A. Grout, G. E. Piercey, A. D. Marsden, A. P. Coombs, and B. Mossop, 2004. Effects of acid mine drainage on the estuarine food web, Britannia Beach, Howe Sound, British Columbia, Canada. Hydrobiologia 525 (1-3), 185-202.

Coombs, A. P., A. W. Trites, and D. Pauly, 2003. Assessing impacts of contaminants on marine mammals and human health in the eastern Bering Sea. Society for Marine Mammalogy, 15th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, December 14 – 19, 2003. Oral presentation. Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. p. 35.

Coombs, A. P., A. W. Trites, and D. Pauly, 2001. Contaminant impacts on marine mammals and human health in the eastern Bering Sea: Using an ecosystem-based food web model for resource management. Society for Marine Mammalogy, 14th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, November 28 – December 3, 2001. Poster presentation. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. p. 47.

Krebs, C. J., E. Bredesen, A. P. Coombs, R. Daniel, R. de Graaf, A. Elz, A. Hall, L. Hooper, A. Janmaat, L. Mehranvar, E. Rubidge, G. Slooten, P. Tamkee, and K. Welstead, 2001. Graphical presentation of data in the journal Ecology. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 82 (4), 247-248.