Studying the species feeling the pinch of climate change

Academic Spotlight: Dr Lucy Turner
Dr Lucy Turner with red crabs
The Western Ghats is a vast mountain range stretching hundreds of kilometres along India’s west coast. In one part of it, freshwater crabs are considered a delicacy, gracing the menus of the most exclusive restaurants. Yet in another, they are a vital source of protein for some of the country’s poorest people. For years, there have been questions as to whether the species could become a critical element of India’s push towards sustainable aquaculture.
“It’s a really delicate balance,” says Dr Lucy Turner , who has recently completed a major project in the region, supported by the Global Challenges Research Fund. “We looked at the different populations from a biological perspective, to see if some of the crabs were better suited to being farmed as a source of food. But the cultural aspect, and how different people perceived the impact such an expansion might have, was almost even more interesting.”
That element of the research saw Lucy, and partners in India, talking to people in six communities spread over a distance of around 2,000km. From families and tribal groups to market sellers and restaurateurs, the questions were simple: to what extent did they use the crabs, and would they be interested in an aquaculture process that potentially made them available all year round?
Unsurprisingly, the answers were varied. But what they did highlight was all the communities had already seen changes in the crab populations linked to changes in the region’s climate. And the potential for those changes to grow was a key concern.
“The region is prone to both floods and droughts, which can obviously damage the crabs’ habitats. So everyone was interested in the possibility of a small-scale aquaculture process that would ensure the crabs remain available,” Lucy says. “The challenge is finding ways to do that which preserve them as a sustainable food source regardless of people’s finances. We’re now looking to establish a small-scale field trial linked to that.”
 
 
Dr Lucy Turner in Abu Dhabi
Researching crabs on the beach
Red crabs clinging to rocks
 
 
The project is one of a number Lucy has pursued in India over the last decade and more. Much of that work has been furthered through an ongoing relationship with colleagues at Nitte University, whose campus nestles between the Western Ghats on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other. But it’s fair to say the west coast of India is a sizeable step away from Lucy’s formative experiences with the natural world and its species.
 
 
Brought up in Dorset, her love of the natural world was encouraged through trips to the beach and countless hours exploring the rockpools of the Jurassic Coast. Her father’s work as a coastal engineer meant he was able to explain about the tides and the effects they were having. But Lucy was always more interested in the biology – the coastline’s animals and plants – and how they lived in particular locations. That led to a Marine Biology degree at Swansea and, after graduating, a place on the MRes Marine Biology programme in Plymouth.
“I knew I wanted to do something centred around molecular biology,” Lucy says. “So I spent my Masters year learning how to extract and analyse DNA samples from a family of nudibranchs. When that finished, I decided to combine the molecular side of things with some of the wider aspects of marine ecology and that’s how my PhD came about.”
Lucy Turner
 
 
While the Western Ghats may cover a vast area, that PhD – and the ongoing research it has spawned – was on a much smaller scale, in geographical terms at least. At just 12 miles long and nine miles wide, and surrounded by the huge expanse of the Indian Ocean, Christmas Island definitely classes as a remote tropical paradise. Lucy has been visiting its shores on and off for two decades, but it’s not just the geography of the place that inspires her. She’s quite a fan of some of its more iconic species.
“I first encountered some of Christmas Island’s land crabs in the lab in Bristol when I was about to start my PhD,” Lucy says. “I’d seen videos of them running across its beaches as they emerge from the rainforests. And I was fascinated by how a crab could survive inland, spending most of the year getting every bit of water it needs from just drinking dew, and only going to the ocean to spawn. I wanted to know more about their evolution.”
She spent the next couple of years examining how the crabs’ ecology was impacted by certain hormones, specifically how they are used to control energy use, and salt and water balance. Completing that work in 2010, she decided to focus on a number of other factors linked to environmental change. But in December 2023, the lure of Christmas Island drew her back and she returned with a number of Plymouth colleagues and graduates.
This time, the aim was to explore whether lower salinity – one of the possible effects of future increased rainfall during the tropics’ monsoon season – might harm the development of crab embryos. Using technology developed within the School of Biological and Marine Sciences, they found such changes had no impact on the time of first heartbeat, time of hatching, first in-egg embryonic and post-hatch heart rate, or post-hatch movement.
For Lucy, it was a demonstration that this particular environmental stressor might not be such a threat to Christmas Islands’ crabs as initially thought. But more broadly, it was a further insight into the resilience of a species that has captured a special place in her heart.
“I keep finding myself coming back to them,” she adds. “I went away for years to work on other projects, but I still feel land crabs are one of the best models we have when it comes to trying to answer some of the big questions in biology, such as how life evolved from the oceans to live on land, and how biodiversity might respond to future change.”
Land crabs
 
 
That most recent work was an extension of Lucy’s work to explore the ways our changing climate is impacting marine species. That has included examining the effects of rising temperatures and salinity on various crustaceans, as well as looking into the impacts of harmful microorganisms on certain species of mussels and, more broadly, at some of the impacts being generated by ocean acidification.
Lucy is also just starting another research initiative in the Arabian Gulf, which will explore some of the warmest parts of the global ocean. The region’s intertidal habitats regularly see temperatures approaching 40°C and 70% salinity, yet they support a rich variety of species. Working with colleagues at New York University Abu Dhabi, Lucy will be exploring how those species survive and whether they will still have the capacity to do so as temperatures almost inevitably continue to rise.
“There’s no getting away from climate change,” she says. “It’s the cause of major shifts all over our planet, but the tropics are really understudied. We desperately need to know more about how changes there might impact species living in these environments.”
As evidenced by her most recent trip to Christmas Island, much of Lucy’s work over the years has been developed and delivered with students across the School of Biological and Marine Sciences. She has published research with undergraduates, postgraduate and PhD researchers, and teaches on modules across the three Marine Biology programmes at Plymouth. She also developed, and leads, a module in Conservation Physiology, and helps to run field trips in both the first and second years of the degree.
“I love working with students, it’s great to interact with them,” she says. “First up, we’re teaching them new skills and knowledge, but they all bring their own ideas to the table. It’s great to see their enthusiasm and to support students at the earliest stage of their journeys.”
Speaking of younger people, Lucy’s work at the University is also carefully balanced with another important role – as a mum. With two young children born in 2018 and 2021, pairing family commitments with teaching ones, in addition to opportunities to go on research or field trips to the Arabian Gulf or the Algarve, is a delicate balance to strike.
“I want to be a positive role model to female scientists, and to show that it is possible to bring up a family and work in my field,” Lucy says. “I guess the next step will hopefully be to take my children to visit some of the amazing places I’ve seen through my work, particularly Christmas Island. That’s something I’d love to do one day.”
Tractor mowing fields by the sea

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