Mr Kyran Graves

I am an ARIES DTP PhD Student at the University of Plymouth, based in the Deep-Sea Conservation Research Unit (DeepSeaCRU) and the Marine Conservation Research Group. My PhD focuses on providing the first estimates of the role deep-sea animals play in the blue carbon budget using a range of lab, deep-learning, and modelling techniques. I hope to quantify the organic carbon content of selected deep-sea species, apply deep-learning techniques to deep-sea image and video analysis to generate species density datasets, model the density of species at the Atlantic basin scale, map the spatial distribution of carbon sinks and assess the efficacy of existing Marine Protected Area networks.

I am also a member of Challenger 150 and the Deep Ocean Observing Strategy DOERs Programme.

Previous work includes mapping vulnerable marine ecosystems across UK & Irish waters using habitat suitability models, developing density-based models of VME indicator species, investigating the role of internal waves in shaping the distribution and density of sponge aggregations, and working on ICES Working Group on Deep-water Ecology.

Qualifications

• 2022-Current. PhD Marine Science, Unversity of Plymouth
• 2020-2022. ResM Marine Science (Deep-sea Ecology), University of Plymouth
• 2016-2020. BSc Marine Biology & Oceanography, University of Plymouth

Professional membership

Deep-sea Biology Society (DSBS)

Journals

Graves KP, Bridges AEH, Dabrowski T, Furey T, Lyons K, Howell KL (2022) Oceanographic variability drives the distribution but not the density of the aggregation forming deep-sea sponge Pheronema carpenteri. Deep-Sea Research Part I.

Howell KL, Bridges AEH, Graves KP, Allcock L, et al. (2022) Performance of deep-sea habitat suitability models assessed using independent data, and implications for use in area-based management. Marine Ecology Progress Series 695:33-51. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14098

Reports

ICES. 2021. Working Group on Deep-water Ecology (WGDEC). ICES Scientific Reports. 3:89. 162 pp. http://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.8289.