Laura Palmer

Senior Scientist

Email: lp@smruconsulting.com

Laura is a Senior Scientist at SMRU Consulting, Europe. She joined the team in April 2025, having recently finished her PhD, which assessed the natural and anthropogenic drivers of bottlenose dolphin whistle variation. Her research also used distinctive “signature whistles” to address applied conservation questions, including estimating population abundance and tracking individual movements and habitat use.

Laura has a strong interest in applied acoustic monitoring in the renewable energy sector. She has previously used passive acoustic monitoring to research harbour porpoise behavioural responses to tidal turbines. She specialises in the analysis of long-term acoustic datasets and statistical modelling. At SMRU Consulting, she contributes to projects focused on estimating the impacts of offshore wind developments on marine mammals, cetacean monitoring, and soundscape analysis.

  • Education

    2024 PhD in Biology, University of Bristol. Thesis: “Bottlenose dolphin vocal communication: drivers of whistle variation and the utility of identity signals to inform conservation”

    2017 MSc in Marine Mammal Science, University of St Andrews. Thesis “Using animal tag data to parameterise tidal turbine collision risk models: the importance of sampling rate”

    2015 BSc in Biology, Imperial College London.

    Skills and expertise

    • Passive acoustic monitoring (long-term PAM deployments, real-time cetacean mitigation, towed hydrophone surveys)

    • Acoustic signal processing (MATLAB, PAMGuard, Adobe Audition)

    • Statistical analysis (R – GAMs, GLMs, mixed models, hurdle models)

    • Photo-identification

    • MMO/PAM operator

    • GIS analyses (R, QGIS)

    • SQL databases

    • Technical report writing

    Key Experience

    • Deployment of static PAM for sound field verification, noise monitoring and cetacean monitoring in the UK and USA

    • Behavioural, photo-ID and acoustic data collection of bottlenose dolphins in Cardigan Bay, Wales and Shark Bay, Western Australia

    • Real-time marine mammal mitigation as an MMO (PSO) and PAM operator during geophysical surveys in the USA

    • PAM mooring design, deployments and recoveries

    • Analysis and localisation of harbour porpoise detections from a 12-channel hydrophone array deployed around a tidal turbine in Scotland

    • Analysis of a multi-year, multi-site acoustic dataset for bottlenose dolphin signature whistles to track individual movements in Cardigan Bay, Wales

    • Sound propagation modelling to determine communication range of bottlenose dolphin whistles in Shark Bay, Western Australia

    • Analysis of soundscape data from long-term PAM deployments

    • Statistical modelling of temporal patterns in cetacean occurrence derived from long-term PAM data

  • Palmer, L., et al. (2021) Harbour porpoise presence is reduced during tidal turbine operation. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3737

    Gillespie, D., Palmer, L., et al. (2021) Harbour porpoises exhibit localized evasion of tidal turbines. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3660

    Gillespie, D., Palmer, L., et al. (2020) Passive acoustic methods for tracking the 3D movements of small cetaceans around anthropogenic structures. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229058

    Palmer, L., Gillespie, D., Macaulay, J., Onoufriou, J., Sparling, C.E. Thompson, D. & Hastie, G.D., 2019. Marine Mammals and Tidal Energy: Annual Report to Scottish Government -MRE Theme. Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews. pp 32.

  • Phone: +44 (0)1334 466011

    Email: lp@smruconsulting.com

    Mail:

    SMRU
    Scottish Oceans Institute
    East Sands
    University of St Andrews
    KY16 8LB
    Scotland