My pronouns are she/her
The focus of my DPhil is an investigation of the mechanisms by which phytoplankton evolve and adapt to the lack of nutrients in the surface ocean. Chlorophyta (green algae) are dominant eukaryotic primary producers in oligotrophic oceans that contribute significantly to CO2 fixation. They are expected to increase in abundance as the oceans warm, yet key members of this group have only recently been described. This limits our understanding of how they have evolved to inhabit nutrient poor waters and our ability to make predictions about how these important organisms might respond to climate change and a warming ocean. In my work I integrate ship-based fieldwork with laboratory-based analysis, employing a range of techniques from analytical flow cytometry to molecular 'omics (metabarcoding and transcriptomics) to improve our understanding of plankton physiology and ecology, community structure and genetics across the global ocean.
