My Research

 Whilst participating in my undergraduate research, I developed a very strong interest in the effects of climate change and ocean acidification (OA), and how this is having an impact on marine organisms olfactory systems, specifically looking at behavioural responses in the Carcinus maenas. My research focused on the effects of size and sex on the behaviour of the Carcinus maenas when exposed to olfactory cues. My research looked at different behaviours exhibited by the crabs when exposed to different cues, including food odours and sex pheromones.

This research encouraged me to pursue and expand this topic, looking in greater detail at individual variability in behavioural and physiological responses, and helped lead to the development of my MSc research ‘Does combined stress from pH and microplastic derived odours impact Carcinus olfactory capacity?’

This MSc project will test the impacts of ocean acidification and microplastics on the Carcinus maenas, looking at different types of microplastics and chemicals derived from microplastics. It will look at the behavioural and physiological responses from the Carcinus, exposed to these cues in different pH levels. I will undertake studies linked to this research to get a better insight to the question ‘Are the effect of microplastic pollution accelerated or reduced in the current changing climate’.

 Short CV

2020- Present: MSc by Research (Mres) Biological Sciences, University of Hull.

2017-2020: BSc (Hons) Marine Biology, University of Hull.