Rate My Professor Victoria Cole

Dr. Victoria Cole serves as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Southern Cross University. Holding a PhD, she brings more than 10 years of post-PhD experience in experimental marine ecology, with 15 years overall across universities and government institutions in Australia and South Africa. Currently employed as a Research Scientist by the NSW Department of Primary Industries Fisheries at the Port Stephens Fisheries Institute, her research investigates complex ecological interactions that influence marine biodiversity, focusing on shellfish reef habitats formed by mussels and oysters. She explores how natural and anthropogenic factors, including small- and large-scale processes like ocean warming and acidification, pollution, urbanisation, and harvesting, affect biodiversity patterns, habitat loss, and restoration outcomes.

Cole has advanced shellfish reef restoration by manipulating climate stressors in field settings, developing novel methods to measure in situ filtration rates of bivalves, assessing ecological effects of microplastics on oyster reefs, and creating monitoring programs for invertebrate fisheries and restoration. Her efforts align with projects funded by the NSW Marine Estate Management Strategy. Key publications include "Estuarine fishes associated with intertidal oyster reefs characterized using environmental DNA and baited remote underwater video" (2022), "Bioaccumulation of estuarine pollutants in leaf oysters (Isognomon ephippium)" (2023), "Functional and structural responses to marine urbanisation" (2018, 131 citations), and "Effects of multiple climate change stressors: ocean acidification interacts with warming, hyposalinity, and low food supply on the larvae of the brooding flat oyster Ostrea angasi" (2016, 109 citations). On Google Scholar, her work has garnered over 1,150 citations with an h-index of 18. She supervises postgraduate research students at Southern Cross University.