Alex Nicol-Harper has just finished the first year of her PhD at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, in collaboration with the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust. She is using the Common Eider as a model study system for population dynamics, applying novel methods towards improved management. Prior to her PhD, she completed a Masters in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at the University of Oxford, and worked as a research technician on a project investigating human population dynamics.