Overview

I am a marine geoscientist and ecologist with particular interests in the production and cycling of calcium carbonate in coastal and oceanic settings, how these processes interact with the environment, and their responses to climate change. Key research areas include: 1) quantifying biogenic carbonate production at the organism level (e.g., by fish, algae, and hosts of calcareous epipihytic communities) and using these data to construct carbonate production budget estimates at ecosystem, regional and global scales; 2) understanding and quantifying carbonate sediment dynamics in and around coral reefs, incorporating the roles of fish and other key organisms as important ecosystem engineers; and 3) characterising marine carbonates (morphology, mineralogy, solubility) in order to predict their post-production pathways (transport, accumulation, and dissolution). Together, this research helps to resolve broader research questions that I am driven to answer: how and to what extent does the production and cycling of marine carbonates: i) regulate seawater chemistry and the capacity of the oceans to absorb atmospheric CO2; and ii) provide ecosystem services through their influence on nearshore geomorphology and ecology. More recently through these research themes I have also begun to address questions around the ‘blue carbon’ applications of carbonate system processes.

My recent and ongoing research combines fieldwork in remote island and coastal settings (including Australia, New Zealand, The Bahamas, and Mexico) with lab-based experiments and analysis.  

Qualifications

2013 PhD in Marine Geoscience, Manchester Metropolitan University

2009 MESci in Geology, University of Liverpool

Research group links

• Environmental Biology

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Publications

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