Graeme C. Hays (born 1966) is a British and Australian marine ecologist known for his work with

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, ...

s and

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

. He is the

Alfred Deakin Alfred Deakin (3 August 1856 – 7 October 1919) was an Australian politician who served as the second Prime Minister of Australia. He was a leader of the movement for Federation, which occurred in 1901. During his three terms as prime ministe ...

Professor of Marine Science at Deakin University, Australia. He was born in

Nairobi, Kenya Nairobi ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows throug ...

and works in the area of marine ecology researching

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

movements and impacts of

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. His work has helped reveal navigational abilities of sea turtles.,Hays, G.C., Cerritelli, G., Esteban, N., Rattray, A., Luschi, P. (2020
"Open ocean reorientation and challenges of island finding by sea turtles during long-distance migration"
''Current Biology'' 30, 3236-3242. the impact of

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

on sea turtlesLaloë, J.-O., Cozens, J., Renom, B., Taxonera, A., Hays, G.C. (2014
"Effects of rising temperature on the viability of an important sea turtle rookery"
''Nature Climate Change'' 4, 513-518 and the factors controlling

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

diel vertical migration Diel vertical migration (DVM), also known as diurnal vertical migration, is a pattern of movement used by some organisms, such as copepods, living in the ocean and in lakes. The word ''diel'' comes from the Latin ''dies'' day, and means a 24-h ...

,Hays, G.C., Kennedy, H., Frost, B.W. (2001
"Individual variability in diel vertical migration of a marine copepod: why some individuals remain at depth when others migrate"
''Limnology & Oceanography'' 46, 2050-2054 the largest animal migration on Earth. Hays has been named one of the most highly cited scientists in the field of

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies s ...

.Ioannidis, J.P.A., Boyack, K.W., Baas, J. (2020
"Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators"
''PLoS Biology'' 18 (10), e3000918.

Career

Hays gained a PhD in

physiological ecology Ecophysiology (from Greek , ''oikos'', "house(hold)"; , ''physis'', "nature, origin"; and , ''-logia''), environmental physiology or physiological ecology is a biological discipline that studies the response of an organism's physiology to environm ...

in 1991 under the mentorship of

John Speakman John Roger Speakman (born 1958) is a British biologist working at the University of Aberdeen, Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, for which he was Director from 2007 to 2011. He leads the University's Energetics Research Group, ...

FRS at the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

. He worked at the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science and

Bangor University , former_names = University College of North Wales (1884–1996) University of Wales, Bangor (1996–2007) , image = File:Arms_of_Bangor_University.svg , image_size = 250px , caption = Arms ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

before becoming a lecturer at Swansea University in 1996, becoming a Professor in 2005. He became Professor of Marine Science at Deakin University in Australia in 2013. He served on numerous journal editorial boards and from 2005 to 2013 he was Executive Editor of the British Ecological Society's

Journal of Animal Ecology The ''Journal of Animal Ecology'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research in all areas of animal ecology. It began publication in 1932, and as such is the second oldest journal of the British Ecological Society (after '' ...

Recognition

In recognition of his research, he was made an Alfred Deakin Professor in 2014, the most prestigious honour that Deakin University bestows on its staff. According to the 2020 science-wide standardized citation indicator, developed by

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

academic

John P.A. Ioannidis John P. A. Ioannidis (; el, Ιωάννης Ιωαννίδης, ; born August 21, 1965) is a Greek-American physician-scientist, writer and Stanford University professor who has made contributions to evidence-based medicine, epidemiology, and cl ...

and colleagues, Hays was listed in the top 30 most cited marine biologists in the world. His research expedition to

Ascension Island Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is about from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America. It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory o ...

in 1997 for

satellite tracking A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotop ...

studies of green turtles to examine questions of turtle navigation first posed by

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

, became the subject of a best-selling book ''Turtle Island: A Visit To Britain’s Oddest Colony'' by Sergio Ghione. Two first-day issues of postage stamps have been dedicated to his research on sea turtles. In 2022 Hays received the

Scopus Scopus is Elsevier's abstract and citation database launched in 2004. Scopus covers nearly 36,377 titles (22,794 active titles and 13,583 inactive titles) from approximately 11,678 publishers, of which 34,346 are peer-reviewed journals in top-l ...

Outstanding Researcher Award (Australia & New Zealand) for Excellence in Research Impacting a Sustainable Future. The award recognised his research that "Uses satellite tracking to reveal the movements and patterns of habitat use by marine animals and highlights the threats of climate change for sea turtles".

Research work

Sea turtle satellite tracking

In 1990 he conducted one of the first satellite tracking studies of sea turtles and subsequently used this approach to assess their navigational abilities, including at-sea experiments, and to reveal how ocean currents affect movements and so influence migration patterns. Leading international review teams he has shown how satellite tracking can be widely used, across diverse animal taxa, to understand movement patterns and drive successful

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

outcomes for endangered species. His research has developed methods to assess how climate warming is affecting the temperature-dependent

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species devia ...

s of sea turtle hatchlings and the likely impacts of population feminisation. Recent research also shows how the long-distance movements of sea turtles can take them outside of even the largest

marine reserve A marine reserve is a type of marine protected area (MPA). An MPA is a section of the ocean where a government has placed limits on human activity. A marine reserve is a marine protected area in which removing or destroying natural or cultural ...

s and into ocean areas with no protection from poaching or fishing gear entanglements, raising conservation concerns.

Plankton long-term changes and diel vertical migration

Hays’ research has provided some of the key evidence for understanding that predator-evasion underpins

diel vertical migrations, which is the largest animal migration (by biomass) on the planet. He has also showed how

phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'. Ph ...

and zooplankton

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonality, seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as environmental factor, habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples includ ...

, range changes and abundance are being dramatically altered by climate change including major shifts in

species composition Species richness is the number of different species represented in an community (ecology), ecological community, landscape or region. Species richness is simply a count of species, and it does not take into account the Abundance (ecology), abunda ...

Media

Hays’ research has received media coverage including in ''Science'', ''Nature'' and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)."ABC Breakfast News"
''Interview'' (5 May 2014). Retrieved 27 June 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hays, Graeme 1966 births Living people British ecologists Academic staff of Deakin University Alumni of the University of Southampton