MBERG performs leading edge strategic and applied interdisciplinary research across a range of model organisms and ecosystems, from the coast to the deep ocean, from the tropics to the poles.
Work with the most innovative technology
Learn about the oceans
Solve global challenges
How molecular mechanisms shape the functioning of individuals and their interaction with the environment
· What controls the assembly, function and stability of ecological communities
· How do communities respond to natural and human perturbation?
· How sensitive are complex biological systems to change?
· At what scales of space and time do patterns hold, and how do they vary across different scales?
· Identifying the benefits that ecosystems provide people
· Improving sustainable resource use by society
· Communicating risks and values to policy makers and citizens globally
| Katrin Bohn | Alastair Brown | Benjamin Ciotti | Rachel Hale | Benjamin Hume |
| Elizabeth Morgan | Adam Reed |
Facilities linked to Marine Biology and Ecology include:
We have two vessels based at NOCS that are available to staff and students of Ocean and Earth Science. R.V. Callista and R.V. Bill Conway.
We have a multi-use aquarium, with a variety of tanks and facilities for keeping and handling live specimens. In the entrance, large observation tanks contain different biotopes, displaying animals from a variety of habitats, including seagrass beds and rocky shores.
The pressure lab enables us to study deep-sea organisms under pressurised conditions.
The coral reef laboratory propagates and studies more than 40 species of cnidarians in a multi-compartment aquarium system circulating more than 4200 litres of artifical seawater.
This facility provides a range of services including, secondary electron and backscattered electron imaging, automated image acquisition, qualitative and quantitative elemental spot analysis and elemental mapping.
The NERC funded facility analyses seawater samples for carbonate variables, and has state-of-the-art instrumentation. We also undertake carbonate chemistry calculations following total alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon analysis, providing pCO2, pH and other carbonate chemistry variables.
PhD Project Titles
A sticky situation: probing the chemistry of aggregate formation in the ocean
Assessment of temporal changes in the benthos of the Atlantic abyss
Autonomous oceanic primary production through novel chlorophyll fluorometry *
Climate change impacts on ecological communities in the North Pacific and North Atlantic oceans
Developing and using an isoscape for the north east Atlantic shelf
Developing oceanic biomarkers to disentangle signatures of abiotic and biotic phytoplankton stress
Effects of multiple environmental stressors on reef corals
Environment, Ecology and Evolution of Plankton Communities
Global Players – learning from successful marine bacteria
Greenhouse gas – nitrous oxide (N2O)– production by marine nitrifiers
High-speed autonomous imaging system for algae and other phytoplankton using acoustic technologies
How does a varying ocean climate drive change in seafloor ecosystems?
Physiology of polar zooplankton
Profiling Marine Phytoplankton Ecology using State of the Art Microcytometry
Temporal variability of the carbon system across the Pacific Ocean; causes and implications
The Not-So-Common Eider: applying transient analysis to seaduck conservation *
Tracking particles to understand the role of biology in ocean carbon storage
Using and improving benthic ecosystem models to understand the future of seafloor communities
What drives variation in the Biological Carbon Pump?
Zooplankton, jellyfish and climate
* signifies projects with additional CASE funding.