Dr Cristian Navarro Waggershauser

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Dr Cristian Navarro Waggershauser 

Researcher in Wildlife Ecology 

cristian.waggershauser.ic@uhi.ac.uk 

I graduated from my PhD in 2022 at the University of Aberdeen having studied the diet and interactions of predators in the north-western region of the Cairngorms through DNA metabarcoding and camera traps. Previously, I was a research and field assistant at the James Hutton Institute where I studied the impacts of carcass provisioning on arthropod communities and carried out live-trapping of mountain hares in various remote sites. I have an MSc in Ecology and Environmental Sustainability by the University of Aberdeen and a BSc in Biology by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. 

  • PhD: Lethal and non-lethal interactions and competition in guilds of boreal forest predators (2022) 

Research interests:

  • Species Interactions  
  • Biodiversity monitoring  
  • eDNA and metabarcoding
  • Population and statistical modelling  

Research project highlights: 

  • New Genetic Tools for species detection and management. 
  • DNA Food Webs 
  • Reconstructing trophic interactions though molecular genetic diet analysis. 
  • Cairngorms Connect Predator Project: We are part of a network of academic institutions in partnership with Cairngorms Connect, the largest landscape restoration project in Britain.
  • Recovering Peat. Peatland Restoration Monitoring. 
  • Peatland Restoration Monitoring: We are working with Forestry Land Scotland to use eDNA and metabarcoding on peat to monitor the progression of biodiversity at restoration sites throughout Scotland.
  • Red deer genotyping: We are developing Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) arrays suitable to genotyping by sequencing to enable large-scale and cost-effective monitoring of this species of high management priority. 

Publications:  

Waggershauser, C. N., Taberlet, P., Coissac, E., Kortland, K., Hambly, C., & Lambin, X. (2022). Interspecific coprophagia by wild red foxes: DNA metabarcoding reveals a potentially widespread form of commensalism among animals. Ecology and Evolution, 12, e9029. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9029   

Waggershauser, C. N, Ruffino, L, Kortland, K, Lambin, X. Lethal interactions among forest-grouse predators are numerous, motivated by hunger and carcasses, and their impacts determined by the demographic value of the victims. Ecol Evol. 2021; 11: 7164–7186. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7574   

Zalewska, K., Waggershauser, C. N., Kortland, K. and Lambin, X. (2021), The best defence is not being there: avoidance of larger carnivores is not driven by risk intensity. J Zool, 315: 110-122. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12910 

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