Christina Hunt

Academic Profile

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.

Current Research

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.

Publications

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