Professor Rodney Forster

Prof Rodney Forster

Professor

Faculty and Department

  • Faculty of Science and Engineering
  • School of Environmental Sciences

Summary

Rodney is the lead of Hull Marine Laboratory, and is responsible for teaching at level 5 (second year) for B Sc Marine Biology students. He leads the Coastal Seas and Oceanography modules and he also supervises several final-year project students. His teaching is very closely aligned with his scientific research on coastal seas. Projects that are running at present include:

The Great Yorkshire Kelp Project – using SCUBA diving, underwater video and satellite remote sensing to calculate the extent of the underwater kelp forest along the east coast.

REWRITE – with many partners in the EU, we are looking at the possibilities to restore coastal ecosystems, in particular tidal flats and seagrass meadows (rewrite.eu)

The effects of offshore windfarms on the marine environment have been a large part of Rodney’s research at Hull. Present projects include

eSWEETS with UK partners, looking at the effects of the new, floating windfarms on patterns of water movement and phytoplankton production. Cruises in the North Sea are planned in 2025-2026.

Humber Gateway post-construction assessments with industry partner RWE, scientific surveys have been done on the closest windfarm to the Humber, looking at seabirds, fish populations and commercial shellfish.

Have you heard about the recent problems on the North-East coast of England, with crabs and lobsters dying and washed up on beaches? The universities of Hull, Durham, Newcastle and York are working hard to try and solve this mystery.

Media cuttings are here:

I teach primarily on the B Sc. Marine Biology degree programme, and contribute to other undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

I am module lead of Oceanography (500695) and Coastal Seas (500696).

Recent outputs

View more outputs

Journal Article

Assessing the Welfare of Technicians during Transits to Offshore Wind Farms

Uzuegbunam, T. D., Forster, R., & Williams, T. (2023). Assessing the Welfare of Technicians during Transits to Offshore Wind Farms. Vibration, 6(2), 434-448. https://doi.org/10.3390/vibration6020027

Individual, sexual and temporal variation in the winter home range sizes of GPS-tagged Eurasian Curlews Numenius arquata

Mander, L., Nicholson, I., Green, R. M., Dodd, S. G., Forster, R. M., & Burton, N. H. (2022). Individual, sexual and temporal variation in the winter home range sizes of GPS-tagged Eurasian Curlews Numenius arquata. Bird Study, 69(1-2), 39-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/00063657.2022.2144129

Long-Term Changes in the Abundance of Benthic Foraging Birds in a Restored Wetland

Mander, L., Scapin, L., Thaxter, C. B., Forster, R. M., & Burton, N. H. (2021). Long-Term Changes in the Abundance of Benthic Foraging Birds in a Restored Wetland. Frontiers in ecology and evolution, 9, Article 673148. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.673148

Satellite data for the offshore renewable energy sector: Synergies and innovation opportunities

Medina-Lopez, E., McMillan, D., Lazic, J., Hart, E., Zen, S., Angeloudis, A., …Zampollo, A. (2021). Satellite data for the offshore renewable energy sector: Synergies and innovation opportunities. Remote Sensing of Environment, 264, Article 112588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112588

Remote Sensing for Aquaculture

Gernez, P., Palmer, S. C., Thomas, Y., & Forster, R. (2021). Remote Sensing for Aquaculture. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, Article 638156. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.638156

Research interests

primary production, algae, optics, coastal systems, human impacts, offshore wind farms.

Lead investigator

Project

Funder

Grant

Started

Status

Project

REWRITE

Funder

UKRI UK Research and Innovation

Grant

£333,267.00

Started

1 October 2023

Status

Ongoing

Project

eSWEETS: Enabling Sustainable Wind Energy Expansion in Seasonal Seas

Funder

NERC Natural Environment Research Council

Grant

£163,853.00

Started

1 May 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

Great Yorkshire Kelp Forest

Funder

ERYC East Riding of Yorkshire Council

Grant

£62,405.00

Started

1 April 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

NE-IFCA bait-digging MSc.

Funder

North Eastern Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority

Grant

£18,724.00

Started

1 January 2017

Status

Complete

Project

DataCube Service for Copernicus

Funder

EC European Commission

Grant

£200,325.00

Started

1 January 2018

Status

Complete

Project

NIRAS - Phase 1 seabirds and their environment

Funder

NIRAS Consulting Ltd

Grant

£21,749.00

Started

1 May 2017

Status

Complete

Project

The effect of monopile-induced turbulence on local suspended sediment patterns around UK wind farms

Funder

The Crown Estate

Grant

£131,712.00

Started

1 March 2016

Status

Complete

Project

FP7 - HIGHROC (Hull added as new partner and budget transferred from Cefas)

Funder

EC European Commission

Grant

£35,260.00

Started

1 September 2015

Status

Complete

Project

Evidence collection for the Humber Estuary Native Oyster and Seagrass Restoration project

Funder

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

Grant

£7,370.00

Started

1 May 2021

Status

Complete

Project

Primary productivity off the Yorkshire coast with reference to fisheries productivity and recent implications on the wider environment

Funder

The Fishmongers Company

Grant

£4,750.00

Started

1 April 2022

Status

Complete

Co-investigator

Project

Funder

Grant

Started

Status

Project

Towards enabling sustainable expansion of offshore wind while protecting marine benthic biodiversity and functioning (BEcoWIND)

Funder

NERC Natural Environment Research Council

Grant

£612,236.00

Started

1 April 2023

Status

Ongoing

Project

CEFAS23-137 LA-ICP-MS analysis on Fish Otoliths

Funder

Cefas Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science

Grant

£30,798.00

Started

30 November 2023

Status

Ongoing

Project

Defining Favourable Conservation Status for seagrass beds

Funder

Natural England

Grant

£8,250.00

Started

1 February 2019

Status

Complete

Project

Suffolk Marine Pioneer Values and Priorities Workshop Delivery

Funder

Suffolk County Council

Grant

£12,070.00

Started

1 March 2019

Status

Complete

Project

Valuing Nature Programme Placement Scheme

Funder

NERC Natural Environment Research Council

Grant

£9,480.00

Started

13 November 2017

Status

Complete

Project

CERES: Climate change and European aquatic RESources

Funder

EC European Commission

Grant

£58,108.00

Started

1 March 2016

Status

Complete

Project

Implications of climate change for the Scottish Marine Protected Area Network

Funder

NatureScot

Grant

£51,625.00

Started

18 July 2016

Status

Complete

Project

Investigation of habitat suitability for estuarine wading birds using high-resolution tracking

Funder

British Trust for Ornithology

Grant

£3,000.00

Started

1 November 2017

Status

Complete

Project

UK Seafood Fund – Science & Innovation Pillar - Fisheries Industry Science Partnerships (FISP) Research Proposal Development - Investigation into the potential of an east-coast stone crab fishery

Funder

DEFRA

Grant

£19,848.00

Started

1 July 2022

Status

Complete

Project

Evidence review on the sensitivity of seagrass to nutrients

Funder

Natural England

Grant

£18,450.00

Started

21 November 2022

Status

Complete

Project

Implementing Measures For Sustainable Estuaries

Funder

EC European Commission

Grant

£121,319.00

Started

1 October 2018

Status

Complete

Project

LoSSGO: Local Sea-State for Stop-Go offshore Operations

Funder

Green Port Hull

Grant

£191,082.00

Started

1 May 2018

Status

Complete

Project

Tyne Estuary and MetroGreen Edges Softening

Funder

Groundwork South Tyneside and Newcastle

Grant

£61,523.00

Started

1 August 2018

Status

Complete

Postgraduate supervision

My current PhD students are:

Rick McCumskay (2020-2024)

Enora Lecordier (2022-2025)

Ben Whitcombe (2024-2027)

PhD thesis completed at Hull are:

Dr. Lucas Mander (2018-2021)

Dr. Tobenna Uzuegbunam (2018-2021)

External examiner role

External examiner - PhD

2018 - 2018

External examiner for PhD viva at: University of Strathclyde (January 2018), Dept of Physics University of Oxford (June 2018), Wolfson College

Journal peer reviewer

Journal peer review

2018 - 2018

https://publons.com/author/1450626/rodney-forster#profile

Research assessment service

Grant proposal reviewing

2017 - 2018

Reviewer for the following grant-awarding agencies: 1) January 2018 - Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring service 2) January 2018 - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 3) November 2017 - NERC 4) August 2017 - NERC 5) September 2018 - Swiss National Research Council

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