Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs), such as deep-sea coral gardens and sponge fields, are biodiversity hotspots that deliver critical ecosystem services through their complex structures. UN member states are required to take action to prevent significant adverse impacts from bottom fishing activities in areas where VMEs are known or likely to occur. Assessing where impacts are ‘significantly adverse’ relates to the resistance and resilience of an ecosystem. Functional diversity–the range of ecological roles species fulfil within a community–is central to ecosystem resilience but remains poorly understood in VMEs. Quantifying VME functional diversity can help assess vulnerability and guide their conservation. This project will advance our understanding of VME ecology and function and develop science-based advice in fisheries management to prevent significant adverse impacts.

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Plankton play essential roles in marine food webs and global carbon cycles, acting as sensitive indicators of environmental change and enabling predictions of climate impacts on ocean biodiversity. However, current plankton monitoring is insufficient, limiting our ability to detect biodiversity shifts, model ocean responses to climate stressors, and inform effective conservation policies. Although advances in imaging technologies have enhanced the spatio-temporal resolution of plankton sampling, these data remain virtually unused in biodiversity assessments and policy frameworks.

This studentship addresses this critical gap by leveraging recent advancements in plankton imaging data classifiers’ translatability across multiple instruments’ output. It will apply existing biodiversity policy indicators to new plankton image data, significantly expanding available datasets and directly improving biodiversity assessments under the UK Marine Strategy and OSPAR frameworks. This approach is timely, as improvements in machine learning (ML) applications now allow researchers without extensive programming backgrounds to implement advanced image-processing techniques using accessible programming languages and annotation platforms.

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Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, with major consequences for biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and the services that coastal habitats provide. Temperate nearshore ecosystems, particularly intertidal and shallow subtidal zones, are highly dynamic and thermally extreme, exposing organisms to both marine (MHW) and atmospheric (AHW) heatwaves, often in rapid succession or simultaneously. Despite this, we have limited understanding of how these events interact and influence individual physiology, population resilience, and community-level dynamics.

This project will investigate how temperate coastal ecosystems respond to extreme heat events by combining high-resolution thermal mapping, experimental studies of organismal physiology, and community-scale experiments. It aims to identify physiological and ecological tipping points, revealing how compounding MHWs and AHWs affect organisms, species interactions, and ecosystem resilience, providing crucial insight for forecasting impacts under future climate change.

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