Chris Yesson

Research Fellow

Research Interests

Investigating the impact of trawling on the benthic habitats of Greenland

I am investigating the impact of the shrimp trawl fishery on the seabed of west greenland using benthic photography and bycatch observations to map, model the distribution of cold water coral species. See the project page benthic habitats of west greenland for more details.

Large brown seaweeds

I am researching the distribution and abundance of large brown seaweeds (kelp and wracks) around the UK, in collaboration with Prof Juliet Brodie of the Natural History Museum. Our investigations involve using historical observations to track trends, species distribution modelling, remote sensing and population genetics.

Phyloclimatic modelling

Phyloclimatic modelling is a term to describe the integration of ecological niche models and phylogenetic reconstruction. Phyloclimatic models are essentially niche models for ancestral lineages and these models can be used in conjunction with palaeoclimate reconstructions and temporally calibrated phylogenies to estimate ancestral distribution patterns. I am interested in using these techniques to investigate the impact of historic climate change on evolutionary radiations.

Teaching

I teach phylogenetics, species distribution modelling (aka ecological niche modelling / habitat suitability modelling), GIS and computer programming. My old teaching pages were lost in the website upgrade. I have migrated the most commonly requested practicals to my github training pages (https://github.com/cyesson/Training).

Curriculum Vitae

Aug 2013-Present: Research Fellow, Benthic habitats of the Greenland shelf, Institute of Zoology, London.
Jan 2013-July 2013: Postdoctoral Researcher, Distribution of Large Brown Seaweeds in the UK, Natural History Museum, London
June 2009-Dec 2012: Postdoctoral Researcher, EU FP7 Coralfish project, Institute of Zoology, London.
2004-2009: Associate Lecturer in Computing, Open University, London.
2008: Postdoctoral Researcher, Darwin Initiative project, Certification of Endangered Mexican Cacti, University of Reading, Berkshire.
2004-2008: PhD, Investigating Plant Diversity in Mediterranean Climates, University of Reading, Berkshire.
2004-5: Researcher, BBSRC project BiodiversityWorld, University of Reading, Berkshire.
2001-2: MSc, Advanced Methods in Taxonomy and Biodiversity, Natural History Museum & Imperial College, London.
1996-2001: Management Consultant, The pH Group Ltd, London.
1993-1996: BSc, Pure Maths with Russian, Queen Mary College, London.
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Selected Publications ( Complete List )

Long S, Sparrow-Scinocca B, Blicher ME, Hammeken Arboe N, Fuhrmann M, Kemp KM, Nygaard R, Zinglersen K & Yesson C (2020) Identification of a soft coral garden candidate vulnerable marine ecosystem (VME) using video imagery, Davis Strait, west Greenland. Frontiers in Marine Science. 2020;7:460. (doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00460)

Yesson C, Jackson A, Russell SJ, Williamson C & Brodie J (2018) SNPs reveal geographical population structure of Corallina officinalis (Corallinaceae, Rhodophyta). European Journal of Phycology (doi:10.1080/09670262.2017.1402373)

Gougeon S, Kemp KM, Blicher ME & Yesson C (2017) Mapping and classifying the seabed of the West Greenland continental shelf. Estuarine and Coastal Shelf Science. (doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2017.01.009)

Yesson C, Bedford F, Rogers AD, Taylor ML (2017) The global distribution of deep-water Antipatharia habitat. Deep Sea Research II. (doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2015.12.004)

Yesson C, Fisher J, Gorham T, Turner CJ, Hammeken Arboe N, Blicher ME & Kemp KM (2016) The impact of trawling on the epibenthic megafauna of the West Greenland shelf. ICES Journal of Marine Science. (doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsw206)

Yesson C, Simon P, Chemshirova I, Gorham T, Turner CJ, Hammeken Arboe N, Blicher ME, Kemp KM (2015) Community composition of epibenthic megafauna on the West Greenland Shelf. Polar Biology. 38:2085-2096

Rogers AD, Yesson C, Gravestock P (2015) A Biophysical and Economic Profile of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands as Potential Large-Scale Antarctic Protected Areas. Advances in marine biology. 70:1–286

Yesson C, Bush LE, Davies AJ, Maggs CA, Brodie J (2015) Large brown seaweeds of the British Isles: evidence of changes in abundance over four decades. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. 155:167-175

Yesson C, Bush LE, Davies AJ, Maggs CA, Brodie J (2015) The distribution and environmental requirements of large brown seaweeds in the British Isles. J Mar Biol Assoc UK. 95:669-680

Wright EP, Kemp K, Rogers AD, Yesson C (2015) Genetic structure of the tall sea pen Funiculina quadrangularis in NW Scottish sea lochs. Marine Ecology. 36:659-667 (pdf)

Yesson C, Taylor ML, Tittensor DP, Davies AJ, Guinotte J, Baco A, Black J, Hall-Spencer JM & Rogers AD (2012) Global habitat suitability of cold-water octocorals. Journal of Biogeography. 39: 1278-1292. (Abstract , Data )

Yesson C, Bárcenas RT, Hernández HM, De La Luz Ruiz-Maqueda M, Prado A, Rodríguez VM & Hawkins JA (2011) DNA barcodes for Mexican Cactaceae, plants under pressure from wild collecting. Molecular Ecology Resources. 11: 775-783

Yesson C, Clark MR, Taylor ML & Rogers AD (2011) The global distribution of seamounts based on 30-second bathymetry data. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 58(4): 442-453. (data)

Yesson C, Brewer PW, Sutton T, Caithness N, Pahwa JS, Burgess M, Gray WA, White RJ, Jones AC, Bisby FA and Culham A (2007) How global is the global biodiversity information facility? PLoS ONE 2(11): e1124 (pdf)

Yesson C & Culham A (2006) A phyloclimatic study of Cyclamen. BMC Evolutionary Biology 6: 72(23pp) (pdf)

Yesson C & Culham A (2006) Phyloclimatic Modelling: Combining Phylogenetics and Bioclimatic Modelling. Systematic Biology 55: 785-802 (abstract)

Prizes

2009: The Linnean Society’s Irene Manton Prize for the best thesis in botany.
2006: A BMC biology prize for Yesson & Culham (2006) A phyloclimatic study of Cyclamen.
1996: Institute of Mathematics and its Applications Prize for outstanding achievement in a Bsc.

Software

Contributor to the open source niche modelling project openModeller
- Implementation of ENFA niche modelling algorithm
- Co-author (with Tim Sutton) of the Envelope Score niche modelling algorithm for openModeller (used by the GBIF data portal)
Contributor to the open source GIS project GDAL ( Geospatial Data Abstraction Library )
- Implmentation of TPI, TRI and roughness algorithms in the gdaldem application
- Python/GDAL raster calculator (gdal_calc.py)