I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Geosciences, where I examine the impact of climate change and pollutants on marine organisms and ecosystems, with particular focus on tropical and cold-water coral reefs.

I explore how past events have impacted upon marine ecosystems and organisms, examine how organisms have adapted to survive in a wide variety of present day systems, and use aquaria experiments to predict how Future projected changes will impact organism fitness. By combining climate research with potential pollution problems, I also investigate how nanoparticles from sunscreen may exacerbate the bleaching response of corals, and whether oil-degrading microbes can still ‘clean up’ oil spills in a future ocean. The four main themes of my research are:

• The impact of climate change on tropical and cold-water corals
• The impact of pollutants on marine organisms in a changing ocean
• Ecosystem based adaptation and sustainable aquaculture
• Fundamental Ecology

My fieldwork throughout my career has included expeditions to cold-water coral reefs in the UK and Norway, and to tropical reefs in Indonesia, the Maldives, the Seychelles and Egypt.

I was lead editor of a United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity report on ocean acidification, and am on the steering group for the MASTS Dynamics and Properties of Marine Systems theme.