Dr. Shinae Montie
Postdoc
Marine ecosystems are highly susceptible to climate change and marine heatwaves, with global impacts already evident. Temperate ecosystems and their foundation species, such as seaweed forests, are of particular concern due to their critical role in providing a myriad of ecosystem services and facilitating entire communities. As climate change intensifies and extreme events become more frequent, understanding the process of facilitation becomes crucial. These changes can disrupt essential trophic links between primary foundation species and higher-order consumers, potentially causing far-reaching effects throughout marine food webs.
My research adopts a multifaceted, interdisciplinary approach, combining field observations, experimental manipulations, and geospatial analysis to gain a comprehensive understanding of these impacts. The primary goal is to inform adaptive management strategies that enhance the resilience of ecologically vital coastal ecosystems and preserve key ecological functions of…
Qualifications
2023: PhD Marine Ecology, University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
Thesis: Marine heatwave impacts on New Zealand algal populations and their associations with epibiota.
2020: MASt Masters of Antarctic Studies (Distinction). University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
Thesis: Remote sensing of Southern Ocean phytoplankton blooms in a warming world.
2019: PCAS Postgraduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies (Distinction). University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
2018: BSc Ecology and Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
Achievements and awards
2025: Grant recipient. UWA Research Collaboration Award.
Development of a modular in situ heating system for simulating ocean warming and marine heatwaves.
2024: Grant recipient, Winifred Violet Scott Charitable Trust
Cryptic Connections: Discovery of Hidden Marine Biodiversity Along the Great Southern Reef
2023: Conference award (1st place), New Zealand Marine Sciences Conference
2022: Conference award (2nd place), New Zealand Marine Sciences Conference
2022: Grant winner, NZMSS First Overseas Conference Travel Scholarship
2022: Grant winner, Claude McCarthy Fellowship, Te Pōkai Tara Universities New Zealand
2021: Conference award (1st place), University of Canterbury Biology Conference
2021: Award (3rd place), Takiwaehere New Zealand Geospatial Hackathon
2020: Scholarship, University of Canterbury Biological Sciences Doctoral Scholarship
2019: Scholarship, Gateway Antarctica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Scholarship in Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies
Publications
Full publication list: Google Scholar
Starko, S., Pessarrodona, A., Edgeloe, J., Montie, S., Attlan, O., Burkholz, C., ... & Wernberg, T. Marine heatwave impacts on kelp growth and tissue condition reveal population-specific thermal tolerance and local adaptation. Marine Ecology Progress Series.Starko, S., Montie, S., & Wernberg, T. (2026). Deep heat threatens life on the seafloor. Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
Thoral, F., Pinkerton, M. H., Montie, S., Thomsen, M. S., Battershill, C. N., Filbee-Dexter, K., ... & Schiel, D. R. (2026). Marine darkwave as an event-based framework to assess unusual periods of reduced underwater light availability. Communications Earth & Environment, 7(1), 4.
Wernberg, T., Thomsen, M. S., Burrows, M. T., Filbee-Dexter, K., Hobday, A. J., Holbrook, N. J., ... Montie, S. … & Smith, K. (2025). Marine heatwaves as hot spots of climate change and impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Nature Reviews
Biodiversity, 1(7), 461-479.
Montie, S., Schiel, D. R., & Thomsen, M. S. (2024). Shifts in foundation species dominance and altered interaction networks after compounding seismic uplift and extreme marine heatwaves. Marine Environmental Research, 106738.
Starko, S., van der Mheen, M., Pessarrodona, A., Wood, G. V., Filbee‐Dexter, K., Neufeld, C. J., Montie, S., Coleman, M. A., & Wernberg, T. (2024). Impacts of marine heatwaves in coastal ecosystems depend on local environmental conditions. Global change biology, 30(8), e17469.
Montie, S., & Thomsen, M. S. (2023). Facilitation of animals is stronger during summer marine heatwaves and around morphologically complex foundation species. Ecology and Evolution, 13(9), e10512.
Montie, S., & Thomsen, M. S. (2023). Long‐term community shifts driven by local extinction of an iconic foundation species following an extreme marine heatwave. Ecology and Evolution, 13(6), e10235.
Montie, S., Thoral, F., Smith, R. O., Cook, F., Tait, L. W., Pinkerton, M. H., ... & Thomsen, M. S. (2023). Seasonal trends in marine heatwaves highlight vulnerable coastal ecoregions and historic change points in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1-26.
Montie, S., & Thomsen, M. S. (2023). Spatiotemporal stressors, not secondary structures or small temperature increases, control rapid facilitation of intertidal epifauna. Marine Environmental Research, 187, 105969.
Thoral, F., Montie, S., Thomsen, M. S., Tait, L. W., Pinkerton, M. H., & Schiel, D. R. (2022). Unravelling seasonal trends in coastal marine heatwave metrics across global biogeographical realms. Scientific reports, 12(1), 7740.
Thomsen, M. S., Mondardini, L., Thoral, F., Gerber, D., Montie, S., South, P. M., ... & Schiel, D. R. (2021). Cascading impacts of earthquakes and extreme heatwaves have destroyed populations of an iconic marine foundation species. Diversity and Distributions, 27(12), 2369-2383.
Montie, S., Thomsen, M. S., Rack, W., & Broady, P. A. (2020). Extreme summer marine heatwaves increase chlorophyll a in the Southern Ocean. Antarctic Science, 32(6), 508-509