Research interests
- Sensory physiology and chemical signals
- Climate change and stability of functional traits
- Impacts of combined stressors on animal health
- Effects of microplastics
- The use of pheromones in invasive species and pest control
- development of ecologically sound aquaculture
- development of plastic replacement products
- development of electrodes to split water for hydrogen production
Postgraduate supervision
Dr Hardege welcomes MSc and PhD projects that deal with animal ecology and physiology, especially when research on animal olfaction is involved.
His research group also has a major interest in applied projects in areas such as aquaculture and pest control, developing sensor for animals, plant fitness and research related to the impacts of climate change (i.e. ocean acidification). These are encouraged, as are projects linking these to past extinctions or predicting future extinctions.
The group's work spans areas from behaviour to physiology, including molecular aspects as well as chemistry.
Completed PhDs
Over the past 20 years, Dr Hardege's research group has hosted 14 PDRAs and more than 50 postgraduate students, most of whom are now in academic positions worldwide - including in China, the USA, Portugal, Uruguay, Germany, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UK. Current PDRA/Fellows: Dr. Nichola Fletcher (NERC), Dr. Victoria Scott (EU fellow);
Over 20 PhD research projects have been completed under his supervision, with all but one of these externally funded. Current PhD supervisions:
First supervisor:
Paula Schirrmacher, Jessica Hurley, Rebecca Goodwin, Ashely McCowen, Hannah Ohnstad,
Second supervisor:
Amber Jones, Jonathan Burnett, Bryce Richardson, Victoria Scott, Afshan Dabeer, Nazish Fatima,