Dr Alix de Jersey
Researcher
After completing her PhD with Adrift Lab, Alix continues with the lab as a researcher. Her work has a strong conservation focus, aiming to uncover the mechanisms driving seabird health and population dynamics under accelerating anthropogenic and environmental stressors. During her PhD, Alix investigated the sublethal physiological impacts of plastic ingestion on seabird health using a multi-omic framework. This work linked plastic exposure to impaired organ function, including signs of neurodegeneration in developing seabirds.
Alix is now extending this mechanistic approach into spatial ecology in her postdoctoral research at Stony Brook University, New York. Using long-term tracking datasets and bioenergetic modelling, her work examines how environmental change, such as shifts in wind regimes, sea-ice dynamics, and prey availability, shapes foraging behaviour, energetics, drive population dynamics in Antarctic seabird species. By linking physiological responses to movement and habitat use, her research aims to improve our ability to anticipate population-level risk and support targeted, evidence-based conservation planning.