Marine Global Change Group

Research keywords: Arctic, ecology, nature-based solutions, biogeochemistry , blue carbon, climate change, glaciers, human interactions, palaeoclimate reconstruction, global change, multiple stressors, ecosystem services, ocean acidification, tropical, coralline algae, corals, seagrass, sediment  

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The oceans are a critical global resource which is changing. Change is both natural but also, in recent times, has become anthropogenically driven. My group's research at the Umeå Marine Sciences Centre and the Department of Ecology and Environmental Science at Umeå University asks questions about how the oceans are altered by the synergy between natural and anthropogenic change while trying to better determine the actual extent of global change.

Global biogeochemical and ecological cycles are a key interest of my group’s research which we consider in two broad groupings:

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 1) We investigate relationships between global change (e.g. climate variability, ocean acidification & multiple stressors) and ecosystem engineers (including macroalgae, coralline algae, corals, seagrass and sediments) along with the services they provide. Recently, this has focused the their role in understanding glacier and freshwater discharge, blue carbon repositories and coral bleaching.

 2) We develop climatic and ecological proxies for the Holocene to better understand past responses of ecosystem engineers to different rates of environmental change at Arctic, temperate and tropical latitudes.

Both research groupings are strongly multidisciplinary including many biological, geological and chemical techniques. We counduct our research in polar to tropical seas using SCUBA as well as in the Marine Mesocosm Facility.  My group also benfits from access to the latest analyical facilities including laser ablation ICPMS, isotope ratio mass spectrometry, Raman, SEM, gas chromatography, photosynthetic and carbonate chemistry analysis.

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Some of our latest research is published in PlOS BIOLOGY, Science and in Nature Ecology and Evolution.