Heather Bouman

I am a sea-going scientist with a primary research focus on understanding how ocean physics and chemistry regulates phytoplankton productivity over multiple scales. My approach is to combine field observations with satellite remote sensing to improve knowledge of the factors governing the taxonomic structure and biogeochemical function of phytoplankon communities. My research has also examined the utility of marine bio-optics and molecular biology as tools for monitoring the ecological and physiological dynamics of marine ecosystems.  Our most recent fieldwork has focussed on high latitude regions (e.g. Atlantic Arctic and Southern Oceans) that serve as a sink for both heat and carbon and are believed to be hotspots of ecosystem change.

Research themes include: plankton macroecology, modelling of marine primary production, physiological ecology of marine microalgae and picocyanobacteria, biological-physical interactions, bio-optical properties of phytoplankton.

1st-year Cell Biology

2nd-year Remote Sensing

3rd-year Biological Oceanography

4th-year Topics in Climate Science

4th year field course in Ocean, Climate and the Environment (Bermuda)

The Research Vessel Atlantic Explorer monitors the state of open-ocean ecosystems off Bermuda.

BIO-Carbon Fieldwork 2024

In May and June of 2024, we sailed from Southampton to sample the spring bloom in the Iceland Basin. Working together with UK and international collaborators, we will combine ship-based experiments along with observations from earth-orbiting satellites to estimate the amount of carbon fixed by marine phytoplankton within the sunlit layer and how it has changed over time.

Sarah Le Besque (DTP DPhil) will be joining us in another expedition this autumn to find out how many and what type of algal cells live in these subpolar waters as the surface ocean cools and becomes more turbulent.  We will also measure the photosynthetic properties of the phytoplankton as they enter a new phase of the annual productivity cycle.

The Bio-Carbon team that sailed on the spring cruise was made up of scientists from universities across the UK as well as two of our leading oceanographic centres (the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory).