My research interests lie in understanding how the distributions and biodiversity patterns of deep-sea animals are shaped by their environment across multiple spatio-temporal and organisational scales. My research has examined the role that fishes play in connecting the deep oceans with shallow-water and terrestrial ecosystems to understand how human activities may affect marine ecosystems; and to relate the findings from my empirical research to theoretical concepts in community, meta-community and population biology. I am particularly interested in understanding the extent to which deep-sea fishes link the pelagic and benthic realms, the implications that this may have for active carbon export from the surface ocean, and how the ecological roles of deep-ocean fishes may be affected by human impacts affecting all depths.