I am working with Heather Bouman on phytoplankton dynamics in the Southern Ocean.
The remote biomes of the Southern Ocean are highly under- sampled and our understanding of how the community structure and physiology of phytoplankton evolves over the seasonal cycle is poorly known. This weakens our ability to accurately predict how the productivity of the Southern Ocean will respond under climate change.
My work will focus on using in situ observations and remote sensing to understand how phytoplankton community structure changes seasonally in the Southern Ocean, particularly under High Nutrient, Low Chlorophyll (HNLC) conditions, and which environmental factors drive these changes. The primary factors I will focus on are nutrient availability, water-column stratification, and light within the surface mixed layer.
I am funded by NERC as part of the NERC Environmental Research DTP.