Research Interest

An up-and-coming research topic related to changing oceans is finding out how multiple environmental stressors together produce adverse outcomes – many small adverse effects will eventually result in “tipping points”, larger effects that are more difficult to predict. Such negative outcomes include increased disease susceptibility. My project aims investigate the molecular response and fitness outcomes resulting from the combination of environmental stress levels expected under climate change predictions with additional stress experienced through micro-plastics in one vertebrate and an invertebrate model organism.

Aims and Objectives:

• Explore the adverse outcomes for population fitness such as disease susceptibility: Measure the fitness effects of organisms exposed to stress via their response to immune challenges;

• Quantify the ecological and biological effects upon marine ecosystems and marine invertebrate physiology with regard to micro-plastic: Investigate the molecular response of organisms to a combination on stressors, including micro and /or nano-plastics;

• Produce an estimator for the mathematical relationship between micro-plastics and additional stressors which will inform trait-based models of climate change impacts: Quantify the relationship between micro-plastics and additional stressors.