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Research project

Toward enabling sustainable expansion of offshore wind while protecting marine benthic biodiversity and functioning (BEcoWIND)

Staff

Lead researcher

Professor Martin Solan

Professor of Marine Ecology

Research interests

  • Biodiversity ecosystem function bioturbation benthic ecology

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Other researchers

Professor Paul White

Prof of Statistical Signal Processing

Research interests

  • Paul has research interests which include signal processing, underwater acoustics and bioacoustics (the way animals, especially marine mammals, use sound). He is primarily concerned with developing tools to assist in the computer-aided analysis of underwater sounds and understanding the role of those sounds in the marine environment.
  • Acoustics, in the form of sonar, is an important tool for the exploration of the marine environment. It is used by the seismic industry to locate oil and gas reserves, by the military to detect objects, by oceanographers to make measurements and by marine mammals to survive.
  • Man-made underwater acoustic systems rely upon computers to process the data coming from sensors to interpret the environment. The processing methods within the computer systems are a critical component often defining the overall success of the instrument.

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Professor Justin Dix

Professor in Marine Geology & Geophysics

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Professor Chris Hauton PhD, FRSB, FMBA

Professor of Ecophysiology

Research interests

  • Hauton has worked extensively with colleagues in India and Bangladesh since 2015 and has developed an international profile in shrimp health research, including contributing to the development of a mobile phone app, the 'Chingri Shrimp App', to support shrimp farmer training in Bangladesh.
  • Research has also included quantifying the potential toxic risk of deep sea mining of mineral resources. He was part of the leading team of the EC FP7 MIDAS Project, exploring the ecological risk of deep-sea mining, outputs from which led to contributions to the Royal Society Foresight Future of the Sea report (2016/17), to presentations at the UN International Seabed Authority in Jamaica, and expert contributions to the UN ISA ISA Legal and Technical Commision ISBA/27/C/11 'Guidelines for the establishment of baseline environmental data.'
  • Other activity

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Professor Paul Kemp

Professor of Ecological Engineering

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Professor Jasmin Godbold

Professor

Research interests

  • The aim of my research is to understand how marine communities interact with the environment and affect community dynamics and ecosystem properties in natural and disturbed ecosystems. A key focus of my research is to investigate how environmental complexity, disturbance (organic enrichment and habitat modification) and climate change (ocean acidification, warming, hypoxia & extreme events) affect species-specific functional effect and response traits, as well as community composition in order to develop a mechanistic understanding of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relations in natural ecosystems. To this end I am exploring the importance of variability in biological trait expression, in terms of organism behaviour, growth and more recently reproductive physiology, of individuals within and between populations that have experienced different environmental histories. To realise my research agenda, I use a combination of laboratory and in-situ model systems, as well as observational studies in coastal and shelf-sea environments across temperate and polar sediment ecosystems. I have experience in interrogating and analysing large (historical) data sets to establish generality of the impacts of anthropogenic disturbance and environmental conditions on organism physiology and population structure. A growing area of interest is the linkage between biodiversity, the environment and ecosystem services with respect to socio-economic benefits, management and policy decisions.
  • My work involves the handling, manipulation and analysis of large and complex datasets, large scale mesocosm experiments, in situ manipulative experiments, and the use of in situ observation technology, to examine natural communities.

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Dr George Callender

Lecturer in Electrical & Electronic Eng

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Professor Blair Thornton

Professor of Marine Autonomy

Research interests

  • Autonomous robotic platforms allow detailed observations to be made over large areas in the ocean. For these systems to be useful, it is necessary to develop advanced sensing capabilities and methods to allow the robots to safely navigate and accurately localize themselves in complex, GPS denied environments. Once observations have been made, it’s necessary to interpret the large volumes of data that are gathered in an efficient and scalable way. For more information on research activities, please visit the ocean perception research website.
  • Seafloor 3D visual reconstruction: Development of deep-sea imaging hardware and processing pipelines for calibration, localisation and 3D mapping of the seafloor with full-field uncertainty characterisation.
  • BioCam (NERC NE/P020887/1): Development of a deep-sea, high-altitude seafloor imaging system for monitoring seafloor ecological variables as part of the Oceanids Marine Sensor Capital program. This project is a collaboration with Sonardyne International Ltd, the National Oceanography Centre and the ACFR University of SydneyAT-SEA (NERC NE/T010592/1): 3D visual survey of decommissioned seafloor infrastructure using a shore launched Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (Boaty McBoaface) as part of the INSITE program. This project is a collaboration with the National Oceanography Centre. Automated interpretation of data: Development of AI methods for rapid scalable interpretation of seafloor imagery.

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Professor Susan Gourvenec FREng, FICE, FIEAust, PhD, BEng

Prof Offshore Geotechnical Engineering

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Professor Dave White PhD (Cantab), FREng, FICE, FTSE, FRINA, FIEAust

Professor of Infrastructure Geotechnics

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Dr Martina Stiasny BSc, MSc

Lecturer

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