I am an oceanographer, interested in how physical processes in the ocean influence biological processes, principally those involving phytoplankton. For example, I look at how turbulence and mixing in shelf seas affects levels of primary production. I am particularly interested in how human marine developments impact on these physical and biological processes, and how this should be accounted for in marine management. I am interested in stakeholder and communities’ understanding of the range of ecosystem services that can be supplied by local marine areas.
2013-current, Research Fellow, University of Aberdeen. Supporting marine management and planning with research and expertise in bio-physical interactions and phytoplankton patchiness, working with Marine Scotland and the Marine Management Organisation, in particular.
2012-2013, Marine Spatial Planning Officer, NAFC Marine Centre, Shetland, UK. I worked on the "Shetland Islands’ Marine Spatial Plan" and associated projects, such as a Regional Locational Guidance for marine renewable developments in Shetland’s waters, and a non-native species survey scheme. This policy based position provided excellent training in policy work and marine planning.
2009-2010, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Boston University, USA. I used dynamical estimates along with satellite data to investigate the role of physical processes such as advection and mixing on the time variability of phytoplankton, and thereby inferring carbon production and export in open and coastal oceans.
2007-2009, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Oregon State University, USA. I used satellite and in situ data to gain insight into the oceanography driving Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) off the Oregon coast, developing a system of prediction, to provide early warnings of potential HAB events to fisheries and coastal managers.
2016 – 2019, NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellow, workig with the Marine Management Organisation. “A bottom-up approach to marine management: Marine phytoplankton as regulators of ecosystem functions and services.”
2013- 2016, MarCRF Research Fellow in Marine Spatial Management, University of Aberdeen, in collaboration with Marine Scotland Science. Looking at small scale (meters to kilometres) "patches" in phytoplankton distribution, and how these may be affected by marine renewable developments, such as offshore wind farms. Initially focusing on the Firth of Forth region, off the east coast of Scotland.
• Scott et al. (2016). The Cooperative Participatory Evaluation of Renewable Technologies on Ecosystem Services (CORPORATES). Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science, 7 (1). 88pp.
• Shetland Islands Marine Spatial Plan, 4th Ed. (2015). NAFC Marine Centre. 202pp.
• Tweddle et al. (2014). Developing regional locational guidance for wave and tidal energy in the Shetland Islands. Mar Pol, 50:53-66.
• Shucksmith, R., Gray, L., Kelly, C. & Tweddle, JF. (2014). ‘Regional marine spatial planning: The data collection and mapping process’. Marine Policy, vol 50, no. Part A, pp. 1-9.
• Tweddle et al. (2013). Enhanced nutrient fluxes at the shelf sea seasonal thermocline caused by stratified flow over a bank. From Physics to Fish Special Issue of Prog Oceanog, 117:37-47.
