Dr Kirsty Nash is looking into social-ecological thresholds and using that knowledge to predict a safe and just operating space for humanity in the global ocean. In particular, Kirsty is exploring the trade-offs between living within the ocean's ecological limits and meeting societal needs to ensure minimum standards of human wellbeing. More broadly, the overarching theme of Kirsty's research is the resilience of marine ecosystems. Her research is split into three main areas: i) the cross-scale and spatial resilience of ecological communities, using discontinuity analysis and approaches to elucidate cross-scale patterns; ii) ecological indicators for data-poor, tropical fisheries; and iii) the functional and spatial ecology of fishes. Important underlying themes of her research are body size distributions, the importance of structural and habitat complexity in driving community composition, and cross-scale patterns, interactions and feedbacks.

Kirsty is also the founder of aKIDemic Life, a free resource hub for academics with caring responsibilities.