Dr Richard Cottrell
Honorary Research Fellow
School of the Environment
Researcher biography
Rich is an Honorary Research Fellow with UQ School of the Environment and the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science who focuses on how human food production systems affect our planet. His main research interests lie in the field of aquaculture – the farming of fish, seaweeds and aquatic invertebrates – and particularly how this rapidly growing food sector can evolve to sustainably provide a critical source of food and nutrition to a human population growing in number and affluence under global change.
Through data synthesis, spatial analysis, and ecological modelling, Rich's research aims to understand the trajectory of aquaculture growth through three main approaches. The first focuses on the growth potential of aquaculture in response to demand given its need for space and inputs (e.g., feed). The second is understanding the environmental and social impacts of aquaculture's current and projected growth. And the third is to understand how this picture changes amid a backdrop of meteorological and geopolitical shock events and sustained pressures of climate change.
He is currently developing decision-making tools for project partners in the aquaculture feed industry to minimise their environmental footprint at both global and local scales.
Journal Articles
Bilotto, Franco, Harrison, Matthew T., Vibart, Ronaldo, Mackay, Alec, Christie-Whitehead, Karen M., Ferreira, Carla S.S., Cottrell, Richard S., Forster, Daniel and Chang, Jinfeng (2024). Towards resilient, inclusive, sustainable livestock farming systems. Trends in Food Science and Technology, 152 104668, 104668. doi: 10.1016/j.tifs.2024.104668
Doubleday, Zoë A., Willoughby, Jasper, Martino, Jasmin C., Cottrell, Richard S. and Gephart, Jessica A. (2024). Improved fisheries management and aquaculture growth align with fewer shocks to Australian seafood production. Cell Reports Sustainability, 1 (7) 100131, 100131. doi: 10.1016/j.crsus.2024.100131
Spillias, Scott, Cottrell, Richard S., Layton, Cayne, O’Brien, Katherine R. and McDonald-Madden, Eve (2024). Having our kelp and eating it too: minimising trade-offs from seaweed farming. Journal of Cleaner Production, 448 141150. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.141150
Cottrell, Richard S. (2024). Towards a nutritional balance of fish for feed and fish for food. Nature Food, 5 (3), 200-201. doi: 10.1038/s43016-024-00933-y
Partelow, Stefan, Asif, Furqan, Béné, Christophe, Bush, Simon, Manlosa, Aisa O., Nagel, Ben, Schlüter, Achim, Chadag, Vishnumurthy M., Choudhury, Afrina, Cole, Steven M, Cottrell, Richard S., Gelcich, Stefan, Gentry, Rebecca, Gephart, Jessica A., Glaser, Marion, Johnson, Teresa R., Jonell, Malin, Krause, Geshe, Kunzmann, Andreas, Kühnhold, Holger, Little, Dave C, Marschke, Melissa J., Mizuta, Darien D., Paramita, Adiska O., Pin, Nie, Salayo, Nerissa D., Stentiford, Grant D., Stoll, Joshua, Troell, Max and Turchini, Giovanni M. (2023). Aquaculture governance: five engagement arenas for sustainability transformation. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 65 101379. doi: 10.1016/j.cosust.2023.101379
Halpern, Benjamin S., Frazier, Melanie, Rayner, Paul-Eric, Clawson, Gage, Blanchard, Julia L., Cottrell, Richard S., Froehlich, Halley E., Gephart, Jessica A., Jacobsen, Nis Sand, Kuempel, Caitlin D., Moran, Daniel, Nash, Kirsty L. and Williams, David R. (2023). Reply to: The environmental footprint of fisheries. Nature Sustainability, 6 (11), 1314-1315. doi: 10.1038/s41893-023-01223-4
Cao, Ling, Halpern, Benjamin S., Troell, Max, Short, Rebecca, Zeng, Cong, Jiang, Ziyu, Liu, Yue, Zou, Chengxuan, Liu, Chunyu, Liu, Shurong, Liu, Xiangwei, Cheung, William W. L., Cottrell, Richard S., DeClerck, Fabrice, Gelcich, Stefan, Gephart, Jessica A., Godo-Solo, Dakoury, Kaull, Jessie Ihilani, Micheli, Fiorenza, Naylor, Rosamond L., Payne, Hanna J., Selig, Elizabeth R., Sumaila, U. Rashid and Tigchelaar, Michelle (2023). Vulnerability of blue foods to human-induced environmental change. Nature Sustainability, 6 (10), 1186-1198. doi: 10.1038/s41893-023-01156-y
Troell, Max, Costa‐Pierce, Barry, Stead, Selina, Cottrell, Richard S., Brugere, Cecile, Farmery, Anna K., Little, David C., Strand, Åsa, Pullin, Roger, Soto, Doris, Beveridge, Malcolm, Salie, Khalid, Dresdner, Jorge, Moraes‐Valenti, Patricia, Blanchard, Julia, James, Philip, Yossa, Rodrigue, Allison, Edward, Devaney, Christopher and Barg, Uwe (2023). Perspectives on aquaculture's contribution to the
Sustainable Development Goals
for improved human and planetary health. Journal of the World Aquaculture Society, 54 (2), 251-342. doi: 10.1111/jwas.12946
Spillias, Scott, Valin, Hugo, Batka, Miroslav, Sperling, Frank, Havlík, Petr, Leclère, David, Cottrell, Richard S., O’Brien, Katherine R. and McDonald-Madden, Eve (2023). Reducing global land-use pressures with seaweed farming. Nature Sustainability, 6 (4), 380-390. doi: 10.1038/s41893-022-01043-y
Kuempel, Caitlin D., Frazier, Melanie, Verstaen, Juliette, Rayner, Paul-Eric, Blanchard, Julia L., Cottrell, Richard S., Froehlich, Halley E., Gephart, Jessica A., Jacobsen, Nis Sand, McIntyre, Peter B., Metian, Marc, Moran, Daniel, Nash, Kirsty L., Többen, Johannes, Williams, David R. and Halpern, Benjamin S. (2023). Environmental footprints of farmed chicken and salmon bridge the land and sea. Current Biology, 33 (5), 990-997.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.01.037
Spillias, Scott, Kelly, Rachel, Cottrell, Richard S., O’Brien, Katherine R., Im, Ran-Young, Kim, Ji Yoon, Lei, Chuan, Leung, Rainbow W. S., Matsuba, Misako, Reis, Juliana Albano, Sato, Yoichi, Sempert, Kai and McDonald-Madden, Eve (2023). The empirical evidence for the social-ecological impacts of seaweed farming. PLoS Sustainability and Transformation, 2 (2) e0000042, 1-23. doi: 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000042
Halpern, Benjamin S., Frazier, Melanie, Verstaen, Juliette, Rayner, Paul-Eric, Clawson, Gage, Blanchard, Julia L., Cottrell, Richard S., Froehlich, Halley E., Gephart, Jessica A., Jacobsen, Nis S., Kuempel, Caitlin D., McIntyre, Peter B., Metian, Marc, Moran, Daniel, Nash, Kirsty L., Többen, Johannes and Williams, David R. (2022). The environmental footprint of global food production. Nature Sustainability, 5 (12), 1027-1039. doi: 10.1038/s41893-022-00965-x
Spillias, Scott, Cottrell, Richard S., Kelly, Rachel, O’Brien, Katherine R., Adams, John, Bellgrove, Alecia, Kelly, Bronagh, Kilpatrick, Carley, Layton, Cayne, Macleod, Catriona, Roberts, Shane, Stringer, Damien and McDonald-Madden, Eve (2022). Expert perceptions of seaweed farming for sustainable development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 368 133052, 1-14. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.133052
Clawson, Gage, Kuempel, Caitlin D., Frazier, Melanie, Blasco, Gordon, Cottrell, Richard S., Froehlich, Halley E., Metian, Marc, Nash, Kirsty L., Többen, Johannes, Verstaen, Juliette, Williams, David R. and Halpern, Benjamin S. (2022). Mapping the spatial distribution of global mariculture production. Aquaculture, 553 738066, 1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2022.738066
Ferraro, Danielle M., Cottrell, Richard S., Blasco, Gordon D., Froehlich, Halley E. and Halpern, Benjamin S. (2022). Historical food consumption declines and the role of alternative foods. Environmental Research Letters, 17 (1) 014020, 1-12. doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac4072
Cottrell, Richard S. (2021). Feeding fish with fumes. Nature Sustainability, 5 (1), 9-10. doi: 10.1038/s41893-021-00798-0
Cottrell, Richard S., Maier, Jason, Ferraro, Danielle M., Blasco, Gordon D., Geyer, Roland, Froehlich, Halley E. and Halpern, Benjamin S. (2021). The overlooked importance of food disadoption for the environmental sustainability of new foods. Environmental Research Letters, 16 (10), 1-11. doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac269c
Singh, Gerald G., Cottrell, Richard S., Eddy, Tyler D. and Cisneros-Montemayor, Andrés Miguel (2021). Governing the land-sea interface to achieve sustainable coastal development. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8 709947. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.709947
Cottrell, Richard S., Ferraro, Danielle M., Blasco, Gordon D., Halpern, Benjamin S. and Froehlich, Halley E. (2021). The search for blue transitions in aquaculture-dominant countries. Fish and Fisheries, 22 (5), 1006-1023. doi: 10.1111/faf.12566
Love, David C., Allison, Edward H., Asche, Frank, Belton, Ben, Cottrell, Richard S., Froehlich, Halley E., Gephart, Jessica A., Hicks, Christina C., Little, David C., Nussbaumer, Elizabeth M., da Silva, Patricia Pinto, Poulain, Florence, Rubio, Angel, Stoll, Joshua S., Tlusty, Michael F., Thorne-Lyman, Andrew L., Troell, Max and Zhang, Wenbo (2021). Emerging COVID-19 impacts, responses, and lessons for building resilience in the seafood system. Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment, 28 100494, 1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.gfs.2021.100494
Cottrell, Richard S., Metian, Marc, Froehlich, Halley E., Blanchard, Julia L., Sand Jacobsen, Nis, McIntyre, Peter B., Nash, Kirsty L., Williams, David R., Bouwman, Lex, Gephart, Jessica A., Kuempel, Caitlin D., Moran, Daniel D., Troell, Max and Halpern, Benjamin S. (2021). Time to rethink trophic levels in aquaculture policy. Reviews in Aquaculture, 13 (3), 1583-1593. doi: 10.1111/raq.12535
Halpern, Benjamin S., Maier, Jason, Lahr, Heather J., Blasco, Gordon, Costello, Christopher, Cottrell, Richard S., Deschenes, Olivier, Ferraro, Danielle M., Froehlich, Halley E., McDonald, Gavin G., Millage, Katherine D. and Weir, Michael J. (2021). The long and narrow path for novel cell-based seafood to reduce fishing pressure for marine ecosystem recovery. Fish and Fisheries, 22 (3), 652-664. doi: 10.1111/faf.12541
Froehlich, Halley E., Gentry, Rebecca R., Lester, Sarah E., Cottrell, Richard S., Fay, Gavin, Branch, Trevor A., Gephart, Jessica A., White, Easton R. and Baum, Julia K. (2021). Securing a sustainable future for US seafood in the wake of a global crisis. Marine Policy, 124 104328, 1-6. doi: 10.1016/j.marpol.2020.104328
White, Easton R., Froehlich, Halley E., Gephart, Jessica A., Cottrell, Richard S., Branch, Trevor A., Bejarano, Rahul Agrawal and Baum, Julia K. (2021). Early effects of COVID-19 on US fisheries and seafood consumption. Fish and Fisheries, 22 (1), 232-239. doi: 10.1111/faf.12525
Blasco, Gordon D., Ferraro, Danielle M., Cottrell, Richard S., Halpernu, Benjamin S. and Froehlich, Halley E. (2020). Substantial gaps in the current fisheries data landscape. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7 ARTN 612831, 1-12. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2020.612831
Halpern, Benjamin S., Cottrell, Richard S., Blanchard, Julia L., Bouwman, Lex, Froehlich, Halley E., Gephart, Jessica A., Jacobsen, Nis Sand, Kuempel, Caitlin D., McIntyre, Peter B., Metian, Marc, Moran, Daniel D., Nash, Kirsty L., Többen, Johannes and Williams, David R. (2020). Erratum: Opinion: Putting all foods on the same table: Achieving sustainable food systems requires full accounting (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America(2019)116(18152–18156)Doi: 10.1073/pnas.1913308116). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117 (28). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2011873117
Kuempel, Caitlin D., Frazier, Melanie, Nash, Kirsty L., Jacobsen, Nis Sand, Williams, David R., Blanchard, Julia L., Cottrell, Richard S., McIntyre, Peter B., Moran, Daniel, Bouwman, Lex, Froehlich, Halley E., Gephart, Jessica A., Metian, Marc, Többen, Johannes and Halpern, Benjamin S. (2020). Integrating Life Cycle and Impact Assessments to Map Food's Cumulative Environmental Footprint. One Earth, 3 (1), 65-78. doi: 10.1016/j.oneear.2020.06.014
Cottrell, Richard S., Blanchard, Julia L., Halpern, Benjamin S., Metian, Marc and Froehlich, Halley E. (2020). Global adoption of novel aquaculture feeds could substantially reduce forage fish demand by 2030. Nature Food, 1 (5), 301-308. doi: 10.1038/s43016-020-0078-x
Halpern, Benjamin S., Cottrell, Richard S., Blanchard, Julia L., Bouwman, Lex, Froehlich, Halley E., Gephart, Jessica A., Sand Jacobsen, Nis, Kuempel, Caitlin D., McIntyre, Peter B., Metian, Marc, Moran, Daniel D., Nash, Kirsty L., Többen, Johannes and Williams, David R. (2019). Putting all foods on the same table: achieving sustainable food systems requires full accounting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (37), 18152-18156. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1913308116
Singh, Gerald G., Hilmi, Nathalie, Bernhardt, Joey R., Montemayor, Andres M. Cisneros, Cashion, Madeline, Ota, Yoshitaka, Acar, Sevil, Brown, Jason M., Cottrell, Richard, Djoundourian, Salpie, Gonzalez-Espinosa, Pedro C., Lam, Vicky, Marshall, Nadine, Neumann, Barbara, Pascal, Nicolas, Reygondeau, Gabriel, Rocklov, Joacim, Safa, Alain, Virto, Laura R. and Cheung, William (2019). Climate impacts on the ocean are making the Sustainable Development Goals a moving target travelling away from us. People and Nature, 1 (3), 317-330. doi: 10.1002/pan3.26
Cottrell, Richard S., Nash, Kirsty L., Halpern, Benjamin S., Remenyi, Tomas A., Corney, Stuart P., Fleming, Aysha, Fulton, Elizabeth A., Hornborg, Sara, Johne, Alexandra, Watson, Reg A. and Blanchard, Julia L. (2019). Food production shocks across land and sea. Nature Sustainability, 2 (2), 130-137. doi: 10.1038/s41893-018-0210-1
Alexander, K. A., Hobday, A. J., Cvitanovic, C., Ogier, E., Nash, K. L., Cottrell, R. S., Fleming, A., Fudge, M., Fulton, E. A., Frusher, S., Kelly, R., MacLeod, C. K., Pecl, G. T., van Putten, I., Vince, J. and Watson, R. A. (2019). Progress in integrating natural and social science in marine ecosystem-based management research. Marine and Freshwater Research, 70 (1), 71-83. doi: 10.1071/MF17248
Braun, Tina, Cottrell, Richard and Dierkes, Paul (2018). Fostering changes in attitude, knowledge and behavior: demographic variation in environmental education effects. Environmental Education Research, 24 (6), 899-920. doi: 10.1080/13504622.2017.1343279
Blanchard, Julia L., Watson, Reg A., Fulton, Elizabeth A., Cottrell, Richard S., Nash, Kirsty L., Bryndum-Buchholz, Andrea, Buechner, Matthias, Carozza, David A., Cheung, William W. L., Elliott, Joshua, Davidson, Lindsay N. K., Dulvy, Nicholas K., Dunne, John P., Eddy, Tyler D., Galbraith, Eric, Lotze, Heike K., Maury, Olivier, Mueller, Christoph, Tittensor, Derek P. and Jennings, Simon (2017). Linked sustainability challenges and trade-offs among fisheries, aquaculture and agriculture. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 1 (9), 1240-1249. doi: 10.1038/s41559-017-0258-8
Cottrell, Richard S., Fleming, Aysha, Fulton, Elizabeth A., Nash, Kirsty L., Watson, Reg A. and Blanchard, Julia L. (2017). Considering land–sea interactions and trade-offs for food and biodiversity. Global Change Biology, 24 (2), 580-596. doi: 10.1111/gcb.13873
Kelly, Rachel, Cottrell, Richard S., Mackay, Mary and Rousseau, Yannick (2016). Kathleen Schwerdtner Máñez and Bo Poulsen (eds): Perspectives on oceans past: a handbook of marine environmental history. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 27 (1), 285-286. doi: 10.1007/s11160-016-9462-x
Cottrell, Richard S., Black, Kenny D., Hutchison, Zoe L. and Last, Kim S. (2016). The influence of organic material and temperature on the burial tolerance of the blue mussel, Mytilus edulis: considerations for the management of marine aggregate dredging. Plos One, 11 (1) e0147534, 1-20. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147534
Research Report
Hosch, Gilles, Roberson, Leslie, Cottrell, Richard, Harrison, Emily, Klein, Carissa, Domiguez-Martinez, Rosa Mar, Sant, Glenn and Wilcox, Chris (2023). Measures to prevent the importation of illegal, unreported and unregulated seafood: Discussion paper. Brisbane, Australia: The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/0fd4e88