Mr James McCoy
Profiles

Mr James McCoy

School of Biological and Marine Sciences (Faculty of Science and Engineering)

Biography

Biography

ARIES NERC funded PhD student at the Marine Biology and Ecology Research Center (MBERC). 

My research interests focus on understanding how environmental change influences the earliest life stages of marine and freshwater invertebrates through the application of bio-imaging, and computer vision approaches. 

Supervisory team: Dr Oliver Tills, Professor John Spicer and Professor Simon Rundle. 

Qualifications

MRes Marine biology, University of Plymouth, 2018: Distinction

Marine Biology and Oceanography, University of Plymouth, 2017: 1:1

Professional membership

Society of Experimental Biology 

Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology

Research

Research

Research interests

Overview:

Embryonic development is a period of huge functional and structural upheaval. Responses to environmental change during this highly dynamic life stage are complex and involve changes to morphology, physiology and behaviour, requiring the application of phenotyping approaches capable of capturing this complexity. My PhD research is focused on what phenomics, the acquisition of phenotypic data at the scale of the whole organism, can contribute to our understanding of physiological development and the response to climatic change. Using technology developed by Dr Oliver Tills, I am applying bio-imaging and computer vision approaches to assess responses to elevated temperature regimes in embryos of freshwater snails. 

My previous research has demonstrated how exposure to mild hypoxia during early development influences the size of gas exchange and locomotory structures in embryos of a marine snail. In this study, animals that survived periods of low oxygen were shown to have much larger surface areas for gas exchange, a potentially adaptive response allowing them to survive periods of environmental stress through a mechanism known as 'developmental plasticity'. 

Research group webpage: www.embryophenomics.org


Publications

Publications

Journals

McCoy, J.C.S., Spicer, J.I., Tills, O., Rundle, S.D. (2020). Both maternal and embryonic exposure to mild hypoxia influence embryonic development of the intertidal gastropod Littorina littorea. Journal of Experimental Biology, 223, jeb221895.


Personal

Personal

Conferences organised

Member of the organisation committee for PlyMSEF (Plymouth Marine Science and Education Foundation) conference 2020, a conference for postgraduate and early career marine scientists organised by students at the University of Plymouth, the Marine Biological Association and Plymouth Marine Laboratory.