Irene Susini, postgraduate researcher, CDT SuMMeR: Cohort 2

Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Management of UK Marine Resources (CDT SuMMeR)

Postgraduate researcher: Irene Susini

Project: CDTS212: Linking organism traits to ecosystem service mapping to inform natural capital-based management approaches to the offshore marine environment 

Hosting Institute: University of Plymouth
Associate Partners: Bangor University, Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Marine Biological Association (MBA)
Contact: 
Irene Susini

Background 

I am an Animal Behaviour graduate with two master’s degrees in Conservation and Oceanography, respectively. In-between my postgraduate degrees, I worked as an ROV Image Analyst at a technology-focused marine consultancy, a time during which I developed my passion for marine science and published my first ever research papers. I also worked as a Journal Specialist for the open access peer-reviewed publisher Frontiers, a job I thoroughly enjoyed and which strengthened my passion for research.

Research interests

My research interests revolve largely around seascape and functional ecology, understanding causes and ecological consequences of spatial patterns in the marine environment and investigating the ecological roles that different species play within the community/ecosystem. Ecological functions often account for the specific spatial point patterns exhibited by different species; therefore, these two branches of ecology complement each other nicely. My interests culminated into the dissertation I produced for my master’s in Oceanography, where I investigated the spatial organisation of deep-water sea pens—the latter being largely overlooked in the literature—and uncovered multiple patterns at both large and fine spatial scales.

PhD research: Linking organism traits to ecosystem service mapping to inform natural capital-based management approaches to the offshore marine environment

Increasing human use of the marine environment and competition for space from industries have led to significant challenges of habitat loss and degradation, such challenges being compounded by the effects of climate change on marine species. The loss of species and habitats can lead to changes in, or loss of, ecosystem function and ultimately impact the services provided by the ecosystem.
These ecosystem services are critical to supporting human health and well-being and should thus be, but are not yet, considered in marine environmental management fora. One of the challenges is that our understanding about the links between biodiversity and individual ecosystem services remains incomplete. As functional traits have been shown to determine an organism’s response to pressures and their effects on ecosystem function and services in terrestrial systems, the aim of this PhD is to conduct research that draws together traits-based information, with habitat mapping approaches, and management scenario modelling, to inform development of natural capital approaches to non-coastal marine environmental management.
This project will focus on the following four questions:
  • What benthic marine organism traits are linked to ecosystem services and organism responses to human-induced pressures?
  • Which biotopes contribute most to functional diversity and ecosystem services, and what are their respective vulnerabilities to human-induced pressures?
  • How is functional diversity, ecosystem services, and species vulnerability spatially distributed throughout UK offshore waters?
  • How do UK offshore benthic ecosystems respond to management decisions and what are the societal implications in terms of risk to ecosystem services?

Why I applied for the CDT SuMMeR

The motivation behind my decision to pursue a doctoral degree lies in the genuine interest in functional ecology, marine conservation, and GIS mapping that I developed during my academic degrees and subsequent employment, and the desire to explore research avenues afforded by their combination. This doctoral project embodies the culmination of both my academic and professional careers, unifying the different expertise acquired thus far. This includes research on fish and invertebrate colonisation of offshore petroleum platforms and its ecological implications, numerous courses on GIS and achievement of a technical certification, and a seafloor exploration university module, to name a few.