Mahtab Yaghouti

Iran

Adaptation strategies against progressing anoxia in lakes.

I am kind of raised on the lake (Caspian Sea, Iran). Witnessing rapid changes such as dead fish corpses on beach sand and oil spills at the water surface was a gravitational force that drew me to work on water-related issues. Strong connection as a result of growing up on water has emphasized my most resolute mission not only as a human but also as a student in Civil and Environmental Engineering to help to understand and care for water pollution. The more I learned the more I realized how forecasting the ecosystem can enable us to find management strategies against future possible catastrophes. In my master thesis project, I used a 2-D model to evaluate the effects of climate change on the water quality in a shallow lake located in Canada, named Mississippi Lake, including water temperature and dissolved oxygen. Afterward, I added one more part which is using the results of the model for detecting the effects on the safe habitat of warm water fish species (the most predominant fish species there). On a personal level, this research has formed my trajectory of life as a researcher to be interested in water modelling, climate change effects on water resources, and ecosystem forecasts.

I am currently a PhD student at the University of Stirling working on adaptation strategies against progressing anoxia in lakes. I am sure my research in inventWater project would strongly enrich my future studies and help me in fulfilling my ambition to elaborate on limnology modelling and ecological analyses. Furthermore, I am sure it will help me to unleash my potential as a modeler to develop a global overview instead of a single case study. I am sure this chapter of my life will be super amazing with other ESRs and my supervisors and other researchers.