Lead Supervisor (DoS): Professor Abigail McQuatters-Gollop
Second Supervisor: Dr Clare Ostle
Third Supervisor: Professor Adrien Desjardins
Fourth Supervisor: Dr James Scott
Fifth Supervisor: Dr Saskia Rühl

Applications are invited for a 3.5 year PhD studentship with Marine Research Plymouth – a collaborative partnership between the University of Plymouth, the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the Marine Biological Association. The studentship is due to start on 1 October 2026.

Plymouth has been at the forefront of global marine research for more than a century, and today it is home to the largest concentration of marine researchers in the UK. Come and join our vibrant community of marine PhD students.

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.

The candidate will collect plankton images using an innovative benchtop flow-through imaging sensor, integrating them with existing datasets from established platforms. They will also have the opportunity to conduct field work at sea in collaboration with Cefas, and to visit the University of British Columbia to field test the new instrument. A novel ML image classifier tool will be applied to classify plankton taxa and quantify essential ecological traits such as size and biovolume. These traits, critical for biodiversity analyses and policy evaluation, are often absent from traditional plankton data. The combined data will then be used to characterise plankton spatio-temporal ecological change in the Northeast Atlantic.

The candidate will acquire skills in machine learning, plankton taxonomy, ecological trait analysis, and biodiversity indicator development, actively contributing to the UK and OSPAR Pelagic Habitats Expert Groups. Professional development will be supported through UoP’s Plankton and Policy Research Unit and Marine Research Plymouth’s early career network.

Applicants should have a first or upper second class honours degree or a Masters qualification in ecology, marine biology, data science, environmental sciences, or related fields. Candidates with interdisciplinary backgrounds and strong quantitative skills are particularly encouraged.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum English requirements for the programme: IELTS Academic score of 6.5 (with no less than 5.5 in each component test area) or equivalent.

The studentship is supported for 3.5 years and includes full home tuition fees plus a stipend at the 2026/27 URS rate (to be confirmed; compare the 2025/26 URS rate of £19,215 per annum). The last 6 months of the four-year registration period is a self-funded ‘writing-up’ period. The studentship will only fully fund those applicants who are eligible for home fees with relevant qualifications. Applicants normally required to cover international fees will have to cover the difference between the home and the international tuition fee rates (£13,745 per annum at 2025/26 rate, Band 2 programme). There is no additional funding available to cover NHS Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) costs, visa costs, flights, etc.

If you wish to discuss this project further informally, please contact Professor Abigail McQuatters-Gollop .

To apply, please click the ‘Online application’ link above. Please include the following documents with your application:

Please also see here for a list of supporting documents to upload with your application.

For more information on the admissions process generally, please visit our How to Apply for a Research Degree webpage or contact the Doctoral College.  Applications will not be considered if information is missing.

Shortlisted candidates will be informed as soon as possible after the deadline, with interviews likely to take place in the second half of February. We regret that we may not be able to respond to all applications. Applicants who have not received a response within six weeks of the closing date should consider that their application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.