iAtlantic Fellows

I hold a BSc Environmental Science degree from the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and an MSc Biology from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), including a certificate in Spatial Ecotoxicology and Ecotoxicological Risk Assessment from the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany. My PhD at the University College Cork is focused on key control processes and the spatial distribution of benthic megafauna in the cold-water coral (CWC) habitats in the Porcupine Bank Canyon (PBC) in the NE Atlantic. It is a multidisciplinary project that utilises data from hull mounted multibeam echosounder (MBES), Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) and ROV- based benthic video surveys to map and monitor CWC habitats in the canyon.

Since I started my undergraduate course in Oceanography in southern Brazil I wanted to study corals, but was unaware at the time of their presence in the region. That’s when I found out about corals living in the deep sea, as colleagues started to bring samples from fishing by-catch in southern Brazil. Following graduation I studied deep-sea octocoral taxonomy in my masters and worked on shallow-water coral reefs in NE Brazil, mostly habitat mapping, as I developed my Ph.D. thesis in Geosciences, working with bathymetry, geomorphology, species distribution and data set design. After Ph.D. completion I returned to work on the deep sea, working on habitat characterization through ROV images in unexplored deep-sea coral areas and rodolith beds off Brazil, where I had the opportunity to collect octocoral specimens that occur associated with deep-sea corals ecosystems. As part of the iAtlantic project I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) working mostly on deep-water coral taxonomy and identification, species distribution and deep-sea coral habitat characterization in the target areas off Brazil.

After researching tropical corals for my Masters in Tropical Ecology and Management of Natural Resources at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, I made the dive to deep sea ecology for my PhD. As a member of University of Edinburgh’s Changing Oceans Research Group, my research connects the work of iAtlantic to the Global Challenges Research Fund’s One Ocean Hub. My research focuses on triple stressor impacts on the habitat-building cold-water coral, Lophelia pertusa. Using laboratory mesocosms to run year-long experiments on live corals and coral skeletons, my work will allow scientists to better understand physiological and structural responses of L. pertusa to ocean acidification, warming, and deoxygenation. Through combining the results of these experiments with analysis of ROV footage to quantify reef Alive:Dead ratios I aim to create carbonate budget models to predict reef futures in projected ocean scenarios. I am the current All-Atlantic Ocean Youth Ambassador for the United Kingdom, where I support the Floating University Network through promoting at-sea training: AANCHOR – Cohort 2020/21 (allatlanticocean.org)

Since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to dedicate all my life to the ocean. For this reason, I graduated in Marine Science, and then continued my career by enrolling a MSc in Oceanography. My aim was to become an expert about my passion: the physical properties of the ocean. My interests and knowledge for the physical oceanography have been increasing and I have decided to start a PhD at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. My PhD project aims to study the spatial and temporal variability of the Meridional Overturning Circulation in the South Atlantic (AMOC). Specifically, the returning limb of the AMOC, which first has to transfer heat in the thermocline waters from the southern latitudes to the subtropical gyre and later from this gyre to the tropical ocean. The thermocline exchange implies the incorporation of SAMOC waters to the subtropical gyre either through the cold (Malvinas Current) or warm (Agulhas Current) paths.

After completing an Environmental Science degree at the University of Miguel Hernández (Elche), I moved into the marine biology field due to my passion for the ocean. In 2018, I started an internship with the deep-sea ecology research team at IMAR / Okeanos, on Faial island (Azores). My activities within the group mainly relate to fauna annotation of deep-sea underwater images recorded in seamounts of the
Azores, also providing assistance in building visual catalogues to improve the identification of benthic fauna. I also collaborate in surveys and oceanographic cruises during summer months to collect new underwater footage that will be used to better understand the diversity and distribution of Azores deep-sea habitats.

I am an early career researcher, interested in marine ecology and conservation. My research has been centred on studying spatial and temporal dynamics of marine food-webs through ecosystem modelling. I am particularly keen on understanding how deep-sea and open-ocean ecosystems respond to fishing pressures, climate change and to spatial management strategies, such as marine protected areas. Within the scope of iAtlantic, my PhD research proposes to identify priority areas for conservation and blue growth in the Atlantic Ocean; and to evaluate the effectiveness of marine protected areas under a range of future conditions scenarios induced by fishing and climate-change in the Atlantic Ocean.

I am an early career researcher in physical oceanography at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in Oban, Scotland. I did my PhD on changes in ocean currents and oxygen in the tropical Atlantic Ocean at GEOMAR in Kiel, Germany. My current research focuses on the variability of the entire Atlantic Ocean on seasonal to longer time scales. I am investigating how and why temperature, salinity and oxygen are changing. These changes can be caused for example by variations of the large ocean currents like the Gulf Stream or through changes in the wind condition above the ocean. For my investigations I am using observational data as well as model simulations. I would like to find out which process is most important for changes in temperature, salinity and oxygen individually for each iAtlantic region. This knowledge is crucial to detect and predict tipping points of ecosystems within these regions.

I am a marine geoscientist with an interest in mapping, conservation, palaeoceanography and climate change. I have obtained a BSc (Hons) in marine science with arctic studies from the Scottish Association for Marine Science and an Erasmus MSc in marine spatial planning. My recent work focused on using geospatial multi-criteria analyses to identify potential wind energy development zones in Irish waters that help meet climate action targets while respecting environmental concerns and other maritime activities.

As part of iAtlantic, I am investigating the environmental processes affecting the habitat forming cold-water coral mounds on the Porcupine Bank Canyon to understand the drivers and limitations for their formation and distribution. I regularly employ techniques such as underwater imaging, GIS, geospatial and ecological statistics as well as sedimentary analyses to answer trans-disciplinary questions about issues concerning our oceans.

Patterns are found in many forms in the natural world. As a marine ecologist, I am particularly interested in the ecological patterns of cold-water coral reef organisms. By studying these patterns, I aim to improve our understanding of these complex ecosystems, which will ultimately help us protect them against human impacts and climate change. During the iAtlantic project, I will study the distribution, morphology and ecosystem function of Brazilian and Icelandic cold-water coral reefs, for which I will create habitat and predictive maps. I am also passionate about building a stronger relationship, and two-way dialogue, between science and society, via art-science interactions and public engagement activities.

My research is focused on how abyssal benthic (=seafloor) ecosystem functioning will react to multiple environmental stressors. Climate change and human activities are predicted to alter the biogeochemistry of seawater, for example the temperature, organic matter quality and quantity, pH (acidity) and oxygen concentration. This may impact ecosystem functioning, which can be measured, for example, as carbon cycling rates and bioturbation activity. Firstly, I will study how ecosystem functioning varies naturally across environmental gradients by studying sites with different environmental conditions. Secondly, I will experimentally assess the effect of altered seawater biogeochemistry on abyssal sediments with shipboard incubation experiments.

I am a Dutch marine biologist with a background in spatial ecological analyses, mathematical modeling, and metabarcoding, and I have experience with working in deep-sea ecosystems. Anyone with an interest in or questions about my research is welcome to get in touch!

> Read about Danielle starting her PhD under lockdown

My current research aims to better understand the diversity and ecology of deep-sea benthic communities in the Azores region using underwater images. I previously worked at the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC) of Barcelona, where I participated in several projects that explored unknown areas of the Mediterranean continental shelf and submarine canyons using marine technology (ROVs and submarines). After finishing my PhD, I joined IMAR in the Azores to take part in several projects that aimed to characterise the benthic fauna of seamounts and island slopes.
My goal is to better understand the ecological processes behind the spatial distribution of marine benthic fauna at different scales, from small patches to the whole Azores region, to inform managers and policy makers. I am also collaborating on the development of low-cost custom-made video devices to increase our capacity to explore deep-sea areas with limited budgets.

I am a marine ecologist interested in the functioning of nearshore kelp forests in South Africa, primarily through the application of stable isotope ecology. I completed a PhD at the University of Cape Town in 2018, which focused on the trophic ecology of South African kelp forests. As part of my postdoctoral research at the University of the Western Cape, I am investigating the trophic coupling of coastal kelp forests and nearshore pelagic food webs. Within the iAtlantic framework, I aim to investigate the export, and trophic importance, of kelp-derived material from the coastal zone of South Africa to deep sea environments in the south-east Atlantic. This knowledge will contribute to our understanding of the importance of kelp forest ecosystems in the marine environment.

I am postdoctoral researcher in the Ocean Technology and Engineering Group at NOC where I am currently working on the development of biogenomic sensing and sampling technology. I received my PhD at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, UK in 2018 and my expertise lies primarily in marine microbiology with a focus on biogeochemical cycling and molecular biology. My research interests also include coupling advances in technology with environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis for biodiversity monitoring of vulnerable ecosystems.

For iAtlantic, as part of the iMirabilis cruise we will deploy our autonomous eDNA sampler in a deep diving autonomous underwater vehicle for the first time. Ultimately, this allows sampling at a higher resolution in both space and time. My first research cruise was to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in 2009 during the ECOMAR project and I am happy to be returning to the Atlantic Ocean once again.

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Deep-Sea Ecology and Evolution Laboratory at the Oceanographic Institute of the University of Sao Paulo (IO/USP), Brazil. My background is in marine biology and ecology, focused on the benthic macrofauna. I worked with the population biology of a bivalve species and with the community structure of annelid polychaetes. However, during the last seven years I have been working on polychaete systematics of shallow-water organisms. Now I am really happy to be diving into the amazing world of the deep sea. In iAtlantic I will work on the deep-sea macrofauna of Santos Basin off SE Brazil (study area 10), where we will map and characterise deep-sea benthic ecosystems, studying the biodiversity, biology, and biogeography of the fauna, in order to contribute to the overall aim of the iAtlantic project.

I am an early career researcher from South Africa with an interest in ecology and ecophysiology. I  am currently pursuing my MSc through the University of the Western Cape in association with iAtlantic. My MSc is an ecophysiological project that will look at the impacts of multiple environmental stressors on the physiological processes of deep-sea copepods in a Norwegian fjord.

I obtained my BSc in Biodiversity and Conservation Biology (combination of zoology and botany) in 2017 from the University of the Western Cape. I majored in Marine Biology during my Honours which I obtained in 2018 – my mini thesis looked at  the presence of invasive and cryptogenic hydroids in a Namibian harbour. I recently completed a two year Biodiversity internship with our governmental Department of Environmental Affairs where I participated in a number of research surveys, biodiversity cruises and ecophysiological experiments and was exposed to MPA workshops and other environmental legislation and policy-making processes.

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical Oceanography at GEOMAR, investigating the dynamics of the marine carbon cycle in the eastern tropical North Atlantic off Western Africa. Together with African partners, I have established biogeochemical ocean time-series measurements near Cabo Verde and am currently overseeing the scientific coordination of the CVOO observatory here. Currently, I am also involved in the organisation of the WASCAL master research programme “Climate Change and Marine Sciences” which is hosted at the Universidade Técnica do Atlântico (UTA) in Cabo Verde. I am a member of the scientific steering group for the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP) and responsible for ocean time-series efforts therein. In iAtlantic, together with my colleague Helena Hauss, I will compile existing ecological, biogeochemical and physical time-series data from CVOO for assessment, and be involved in organising two capacity development workshops in Cabo Verde in 2021.

After graduating in Biology and focusing my Bachelor’s thesis on neurophysiology and ecology of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), I decided to start a Masters programme in aquaculture at the University of Vigo. I am currently developing my master’s thesis through my home university in collaboration with Aquarium Finisterrae (A Coruña), supervised by Alfredo Veiga and iAtlantic. I have always been interested in marine ecology and how our world is changing due to human impact. That is why I am focusing a chapter of my thesis on the ecophysiological response of Dendrophyllia cornigera (a cold-water coral) to multiple anthropogenic stressors. This knowledge is crucial to understand the potential changes in marine ecosystems, especially in the deep sea, and their fate under climate change.

I am a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh with a research focus on the science-policy interface of deep and open-ocean biodiversity governance. In particular, I am interested in how evidence-based approaches, which integrate the best-available scientific evidence, can be implemented in order to help achieve the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). Drawing on my interdisciplinary background in law, policy, and marine science, my research merges social and natural sciences in order to identify ways to enhance the use of science within marine biodiversity governance processes.

I have always been excited about corals. In my master’s with the University of Edinburgh, I was inspired to narrow my focus down to cold-water corals. During my research project and after, I investigated biomass distribution and ecosystem functions of cold-water coral reef habitats in Norwegian fjords. With a special interest in vertical coral reefs, I got involved into the iAtlantic & CLASS expedition to Whittard Canyon, NE Atlantic in 2022 with the National Oceanography Centre and enjoyed linking different disciplines in marine science. Especially in a changing ocean, I see the importance of increasing knowledge on the functional role of cold-water coral reefs within marine biogeochemical cycles. Because of that, I am very excited to do my PhD on the carbon budget of cold-water coral mounds of the Atlantic with MARUM (University of Bremen) in the research group of Prof. Dierk Hebbeln from September 2022 onwards.

I am a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, studying the impacts of disturbance on whale populations. Specifically, I assess the potential impacts of whale watching activities on humpback whales in North Iceland. This allows me to gain an in-depth understanding of local systems, whilst working with communities to find potential solutions. iAtlantic provides the perfect opportunity to assess marine mammal populations on a far larger scale. I have two roles in the project. First, I will reconstruct abundance trends for migrating humpback whales passing through Bermuda, a key stopover for humpbacks across the North Atlantic. Second, I will investigate environmental drivers of humpback sightings around Iceland and the wider Northeast Atlantic. Ultimately, I hope to predict how these populations may change in the future, in response to oceanographic shifts. This basin-scale research will place a broader context for local case studies, in Iceland and beyond, to improve prediction of, and protection for, whale populations.

After graduating in Environmental Sciences, I finished an MSc in Marine Biology. My Masters thesis was developed at Aquarium Finisterrae and was focused on the study of tissue regeneration of a cold-water coral (Dendrophyllia cornigera). Since then, my interest and knowledge in the deep sea and especially cold-water corals has been growing. I am currently working at Instituto Español de Oceanografía and doing a PhD at University of Barcelona to evaluate the response of D. cornigera to climate change. The goal is to quantify the impact of multiple stressors (ocean warming, acidification and deoxygenation, as well as anthropogenic impacts on the deep sea) on its ecology and physiology. This work will improve our current knowledge of this species, particularly its ecophysiological response to predicted climate scenarios, with the aim to better understand deep-sea ecosystem functioning and its vulnerability to climate change.

I am a biological oceanographer interested in the distribution, growth and metabolism of planktonic organisms in relation to environmental drivers as well as food web interactions in the pelagic realm. Although I am an ecologist by training, I nevertheless try to keep in mind how organisms also shape their environment and how they impact biogeochemical cycles. In iAtlantic, I will work on the Cape Verde Ocean Observatory (CVOO) time series as well as conducting experiments with Periphylla periphylla in Norway using different stressors.

I am a post-doctoral marine biologist at the German Centre of Marine Biodiversity Research (DZMB Wilhelmshaven, Senckenberg am Meer). As a part of the IceDivA2 project (Icelandic marine Animals meets Diversity along latitudinal gradients in the deep sea of the Atlantic Ocean II), I contribute in completing the map of biodiversity of deep sea meiofauna distributed along the mid-Atlantic ridge using new molecular techniques (i.e. eDNA analysis and meta-barcoding). I have multi-disciplinary backgrounds of applying metabolomics in studying stress responses of marine organisms as well as exploring the novel bioactive compounds isolated from sea cucumbers during my Master and PhD research projects. As an iAtlantic fellow, I am so curious to learn more about deep sea biodiversity and gain precious new insights on different genomic-related scientific approaches.

Dr Georgios Kazanidis serves as Offshore Industries Advice Manager (Senior Executive Officer) at the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). Georgios leads the provision of high-quality, evidence-based and pragmatic nature conservation advice to regulators and industry (oil and gas, renewables, cables, deep-sea mining, marine planning, etc.) in the UK and overseas.

Before joining JNCC, Georgios was a postdoctoral Research Associate in deep-sea biodiversity in the H2020 ATLAS project and also the Scientific Project Manager for ATLAS and iAtlantic. He collaborated with talented and enthusiastic people on the science-policy interface advancing scientific knowledge and facilitated the implementation of ambitious marine policies. His research work in ATLAS and iAtlantic culminated in 17 peer-reviewed publications including a co-authorship in the ‘Cold-water corals’ chapter of the United Nations 2nd World Ocean Assessment. He was also involved in many public outreach events disseminating ATLAS and iAtlantic findings across wide audiences. In 2022 he was elected a Fellow for the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) nexus assessment of the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food, and health.

You can learn more about Georgios’s work through his LinkedIn and ResearchGate profiles. If you want to get in contact, you can send him a message at Georgios.Kazanidis@jncc.gov.uk.

Currently I am about to finish my MSc Biology at the University of Oldenburg in cooperation with the Senckenberg Institute (DZMB). My master’s thesis is about the mitochondrial DNA structure of Octocorallia by using samples of the IceAGE project supervised by Prof. Pedro Martinez and Saskia Brix. I am interested in the mitochondrial evolution, phylogeny, diversity, and species delimitation of Octocorallia, especially cold-water octocorals. Furthermore, during a potential PhD program, I would like to dig deeper into coral morphology and taxonomy, as well as study the connectivity of octocoral species and assemblages of the North Pacific and North Atlantic.

I am a Marine Geoscientist with interests in habitat mapping, sedimentary processes and geomatics/GIS. After receiving my PhD in 2017, I continued my research as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geoscience (UCC) and the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (UCC). I have participated in over 15 research cruises (chief scientist on four) and I’m Principal Investigator on a number of research projects.

My current research uses image data acquired by remotely operated vehicles (ROV’s) to generate 3D reconstructions of cold water coral habitats in the Porcupine Bank Canyon, NE Atlantic. In addition, I use seabed monitoring systems deployed via ROV to determine active processes within these habitats. These datasets are being analysed to quantify cold water coral habitat variability and to determine the drivers of this variability.

I am a Marine geoscientist and PhD student at University College Cork and member of the UCC Marine Geology Research Group. I hold a BSc in Geology from Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Brazil and I am interested in GIS, seabed mapping and new mapping technologies.

The research I am currently developing aims to advance seabed mapping techniques using 3D underwater photogrammetry and computer vision to provide further understanding of cold-water coral habitats and submarine canyons. Through applying different classification techniques, I am analysing which methodology is more appropriate for cold-water corals and submarine canyons and which features be analysed from 3D and to 2D data. This research is part of the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) funded project MMMonkey_Pro and the Irish Research Council (IRC) funded project ASMAT (Advancing Seabed Mapping Techniques for Deep-water Habitat Classification in Submarine Canyons).

I am an Environmental Scientist with an expertise and passion for plastic pollution. I am currently working as a Postdoctoral Fellow as part of the UCC Marine Geology Research Group. My project, funded by the Marine Institute, is focussed at investigating the abundance of microplastics and their associated chemicals in Irish cold-water coral habitats.

I graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Sciences from the University of Salamanca (Spain) in 2014. That summer I volunteered in Cape Verde (West Africa) at a loggerhead turtle conservation project placed on a very remote location. Right there I experienced for the first time how a heavy storm polluted an otherwise spotless beach. Later in 2014, I decided to move to England to complete a MSc in Wildlife Management and Conservation and graduated from Reading University in 2015. For my master’s thesis I researched the topic of microplastics and the transfer of plastics in a marine food chain. I also started the blog The Problem with Plastic to communicate in simple words the consequences of this environmental issue. Later in 2016, I travelled to the Galapagos Islands to volunteer for Ecology Project International in their Green turtle and Plastic Pollution projects. It was then in 2017 when I decided to pursue a PhD in University College Cork, Ireland. This EPA-funded PhD project focussed on the impacts of microplastics in the freshwater environment. My thesis was submitted to UCC in September 2020 and since then I have been working on my three-year postdoctoral fellowship.

A long time ago, when I enrolled in Marine Sciences at the University of Vigo, I intended to pursue the “living resources” option, until the “non-living” (geological, chemical and, above of all, physical oceanography) crossed my path. For this reason, even after graduation, I started work at the Remote Sensing Lab of my home University and afterwards I completed a MSc in Applied Physics there and also a MSc in Remote Sensing at the University of Dundee. Years after, in 2017, I had the opportunity to join the ATLAS team at the Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO) as physical oceanographer, and now, thanks to iAtlantic, I can continue with my work at this institution. My focus is on the special ocean circulation that takes place over seamounts and other underwater features, and I will continue to study the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.

I am a PhD student at the German Centre of Marine Biodiversity Research (DZMB Hamburg, Senckenberg am Meer) researching the connectivity and population dynamics of invertebrate deep-sea species from various taxa (Isopoda, Bivalvia, Polychaeta) that are distributed along the mid-Atlantic ridge in the NE Atlantic. The study is part of the IceDivA2 project (Icelandic marine Animals meets Diversity along latitudinal gradients in the deep sea of the Atlantic Ocean II) and contributes to iAtlantic key objectives such as mapping the deep Atlantic ecosystems and assessing their biodiversity. In 2020, I completed my MSc in marine biology at the University of Bergen, Norway, by studying a cryptic species complex in the nudibranch genus Jorunna and describing a new species from the Norwegian coast. This detailed taxonomic study in combination with genetic methodology encouraged me to continue my scientific journey and I am looking forward to taking a dive into the mysteries of the deep Atlantic Sea.

Born and raised in Cork (Ireland), I grew up next to the Atlantic and always had a connection to her power and beauty. A lover of all things earth science, I began college to peruse geology. During this time, my fondness of the ocean was re-inspired during several marine related subjects – and even participated on a two-week scientific expedition which used a ROV to investigate cold-water coral reefs living in Ireland’s largest submarine canyon. All my life I had observed the harshness on what happened at the surface of the Atlantic, but this trip peeled back the layers on what I knew existed. That is, a place of amazing tranquility and peace.  I am now a PhD student in University College Cork researching these exact deep-sea cold water corals. I have a particular interest in how these animals have responded to past climactic events, such as ice ages. As such, I use ROV-mounted cores to narrow down what the corals like and don’t like. Cold-water coral reef habitats are considered by many as the primary root of Ireland’s rich offshore biodiversity. Thus, understanding their environmental thresholds through geological time can help inform conservation management efforts in the future.

My interest is in combating climate change and improving the values of our coastal and marine systems. I hold a BSc in Marine Science and Technology from the Federal University of Technology Akure in Nigeria. My thesis focused on the levels and transport of a major persistent organic pollutant in part of the coastal waters of Nigeria. I moved to Cape Verde for a master’s research in Climate Change and Marine Science.
The principal way to address climate change is through energy sustainability, efficiency, and energy security for all. Since most renewables (land and marine-based) are intermittent, I’m trying to understand the potential of the ocean in energy storage, so as to bridge the gap between energy demand and supply. I’m developing a multi-criteria model based on depth, distance to shore, perturbation of circulation, and cost to classify Cape Verde waters according to suitability for Marine Gravity Energy Storage Development. This emerging, easy-to-implement, and environmentally friendly technology harnesses the huge depth of the ocean to raise masses and store potential energy during peak supply and releases this potential energy to the grid during demand.
My future research will be focusing on the effects of small-scale (mesoscale and sub-mesoscale) processes on ocean biogeochemistry.

I hold a BSc in Geology and I completed an MSc in Marine and Environmental Geology at the University of Vigo, Spain, where I studied the sedimentology and morpho-hydrodynamics of a beach located in northern Spain. Afterwards, I earned my PhD in Earth Sciences at the University of Zaragoza, Spain, which focused on Late Cretaceous planktonic foraminifera and their applications in biostratigraphy and palaeoceanography. After my PhD I was employed as a stratigrapher at a geological consultancy firm based in North Wales, UK. In that role I undertook micropalaeontological analysis in order to date marine sediments and infer palaeoenvironmental settings. I also collaborated on the updating, reinterpretation and standardisation of large volumes of historical geological data, with the aim of creating a modern and comprehensive database system.

As part of the iAtlantic, I will be working as a GIS specialist at the Instituto Español de Oceanografía. This will involve the acquisition and management of geoscientific information, mapping benthic habitats, and undertaking the processing and quantitative analysis of submarine video images.

I am an evolutionary ecologist, with a deep interest in population and landscape genetics and a special focus on population conservation and management. I am thus studying the complex interactions between genetics, spatial heterogeneity, species movements and population persistence. I use genetics and genomics data coupled with environmental and spatial ones to determine which elements are impacting gene flow. I am also interested in the links between phenotypes and genotypes. I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the IFREMER (French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea), studying genetic connectivity and demographic history of hydrothermal vents gastropods and shrimps species, using Next-Generation Sequencing approaches. Using similar approaches I am also working in collaboration with the station biologique de Roscoff (CNRS) where I will pursue my postdoctoral project, thanks to iAtlantic funding, studying Bathymodiolus spp. of hydrothermal and other chemosynthetic environments.
Before joining the field of marine ecology, I was more a terrestrial girl since I worked on spatial genetic structure and its interaction with parasitism in Mediterranean mouflon during my PhD (completed in 2018) and studied their phylogeny in parallel of European wildcats landscape genetics during my first postdoctoral position at the university of Lyon.

I’m a postdoctoral researcher with a background in marine biology and ecology and a PhD in global change. I am interested in finding out what drives spatial and temporal patterns in marine populations and how those changes can affect the ecosystem functioning. I’m particularly interested in how climate change influences such variations. After working in many different projects investigating a range of topics from macrofauna in sandy beaches, microalgae, cephalopods to demersal fish, I’m focusing my research on deep-sea benthic ecosystems formed by cold-water corals and sponges. In iAtlantic, I will mainly investigate deep-sea biodiversity and species distribution patterns across environmental gradients, focusing on the data obtained during the iMirabilis cruise; as well as studying changes in marine communities over long-term periods.

I studied General Biology in Greece, and later followed an Erasmus MSc program in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. I have been studying cold-water corals ever since, focusing on their physiology, reproduction and larval biology. My PhD project aims at determining the impacts of climate change, especially acidification, on several stages of the life of these animals, from early larvae to reproductive adults. It addresses several aspects of their biology, including feeding biology, resource allocation strategies, larvae physiology and behaviour, contributing to a better understanding of the ecology and function of these enigmatic ecosystems.

I am a benthic marine ecologist based at IMAR / Okeanos in the Azores. I am currently doing my PhD thesis on the diversity and distribution patterns of benthic megafauna, mainly Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem indicator species, along the extended Azorean continental shelf. My work aims to highlight the possible biological diversity linkages and/or differences between the Atlantis-Meteor Seamount Complex and the Azores Triple Junction using different geomorphogical features (guyots and seamount ridges) as case studies. I am thereby also collaborating with my team helping in the development of management support tools, such as coral and sponge ID guides, specimen identifications from past and current expeditions and upgrading deep-sea classification systems for the Azores (e.g. EUNIS).

My research centres on the use of stable isotope analysis to elucidate trophic ecology of deep-sea food webs from zooplankton to top predators. I earned my PhD from the University of Oviedo (Spain) in which I aimed at investigating the trophic ecology of the Avilés Submarine Canyon ecosystem as well as the pathways of particulate organic matter within the food web. During my postdoctoral training at the University of Hawaii I investigated deep-sea food webs using measurements of amino acid compound-specific stable isotopes. Currently, my research focuses on the trophic ecology of cold water corals and aims to elucidate their functional role in contrasting ecosystems.

I started my university studies with one main objective: to investigate the deep sea and contribute to its knowledge. After graduating in Biology, I decided to continue my career studying the Master of Marine Biology at the University of Santiago de Compostela. During my first year, I became especially interested in the effect of climate change on marine biodiversity, mainly in invertebrates such as cold-water corals (CWC). I am currently developing my master’s thesis at the Aquarium Finisterrae (A Coruña, NW Spain), studying the echophysiological response of the CWC, Dendrophyllia cornigera, to multiple stressors. This work will allow us to know how these deep, cold-water species will respond to the projected climate change conditions and interpret their impact on the deep benthic ecosystem.

I am a biologist from The National University of Colombia, where I worked for my bachelor thesis on the taxonomy of sponges from the Caribbean Sea, describing a couple of new species from the Petrosiidae family. I am currently a MSc student at the Consortium MER+ in an Erasmus Mundus programme in Marine Environments & Resources. Now I am developing a research thesis at the Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO), about the distribution and density patterns of benthic mega-fauna associated to cold-water coral reefs (mainly Lophelia pertusa) in a mound system with hypoxic conditions off Angola using video footage provided by the ANNA expedition in 2016.
I am interested in continuing working in deep-sea ecology research after my master, I like the approaches of deep-sea imagery and video analysis based on ROV-observations or submersibles to contribute to the knowledge of deep-sea benthic biodiversity, and also the approaches contributing to conservation initiatives of vulnerable marine ecosystems in deep-sea realm.

I have a bachelor degree in Oceanography and MSc in Environmental Science and Technology. Currently, I am a doctoral student at University of Vale do Itajaí, where I also teach statistics. I specialise in statistical methods and focus my research on oceanography and marine ecology, with an emphasis in marine fisheries and stock assessment. Recent experiences include applications of Bayesian spatial and temporal models to wild populations and fishing resources.

In iAtlantic, I intend to compile and organise the spatial and temporal pelagic and demersal fisheries datasets, evaluate the spatial and temporal changes in population biomass, analyse long-term changes in species composition (pelagic fish, demersal fish, crustaceans and cephalopods) and try to correlate these possible changes with climatic and/or oceanographic variations as well as assessing quantitative models that could be used to predict species distributions and the possible long term changes in these distributions.

I am a PhD student at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria researching the field of physical oceanography. I graduated in marine sciences after studying the Deep Western Boundary Current in its 24ºS division and I subsequently obtained a master’s degree in oceanography, in which I explored the decadal evolution of the Deep Western Boundary Current and the Gulf Stream. This field has captivated me because of its relationship with climate change, as well as giving me the opportunity to learn more about the fascinating water mass and heat transports in the ocean. Currently, I am looking forward to a new challenge in my PhD as I will study the thermohaline circulation and its path from the north to the south Atlantic Ocean.

I am a postdoc fellow, focused on the development and application of machine learning methods to understand the physical drivers of ocean temperature extreme events known as marine heatwaves (MHWs). I began my PhD at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, with the intention of studying the effects of temperature anomalies on kelp forests. Through this pursuit I learned about MHWs and quickly understood the value of this emerging subject from both scientific and science communication perspectives. In order to more fully pursue MHWs I pivoted away from ecology and into a data science space. Time not spent writing is now mostly dominated for me with scientific software and operational web application development… all in the pursuit of the better understanding, visualising, and communicating of MHWs and their role in the future ocean.

I am an early career researcher at GEOMAR in Germany. My research is to transform imagery into scientific data. I apply methods of machine learning and image processing to monitor the oceans. The focus lies on the exploration and exploitation of big data archives of 2D and 3D images of benthic and pelagic images. I also go to sea and deploy deep-diving robots to acquire new high-resolution imagery. I particularly like to work at the interface between different disciplines: biology, geology, etc. to provide method-expertise on machine learning to various natural science partners. This allows me to participate in many different research projects and to work together with many inspiring colleagues.

Since my bachelor studies at the University of Kiel I have been working with numerical ocean models. Now as a PhD student at the GEOMAR Institute in Kiel, I’m developing a new model configuration explicitly designed to study the interhemispheric connectivity of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The AMOC transports warm surface water northwards and cold water to the
south at depth throughout the whole Atlantic. Therefore, the AMOC connects both hemisphere and has important consequences for the distribution of heat, salt and trace gases in the Atlantic Ocean. Changes of the AMOC may arise from changes in the South or North Atlantic with unknown relative importance and interactions. My studies also involve the tracking of large numbers of virtual particles that may represent water masses or individual biological species.

I am a geoscientist and have a Masters degree in geoinformatics with specialisation in hydrography. Currently, I am working at GEOMAR in Kiel, in the group led by Prof. Dr. Colin Devey. Anything related to GIS, creating maps, collecting hydro-acoustic data, especially focussed on multibeam bathymetry, is my mission. A deep and comprehensive knowledge about the sea floor is crucial as it is closely related to life existing down there, even in the deepest parts of the ocean. Hence, I am also trying to advance semi-automatic seabed habitat classification techniques to understand the dynamics of local flora and fauna, in the hope that, in the future, a vast amount of the ocean will be under protection from human impacts.

Fascinated by the deep sea, I oriented my master’s internships in marine biology on these environments. I first worked on the adaptation to high hydrostatic pressure in a piezophilic hyperthermophilic archaea at LM2E, then on the biodiversity and distribution of free-living marine nematodes in the Atacama Trench at LEP of IFREMER in France. Now, I am doing a PhD at Okeanos-University of the Azores in co-supervision with the University of Gothenburg. My thesis project aims to evaluate the physiological responses of early life stages of cold-water corals (CWCs) to the cumulative impact of global change (acidification) and human activities (microplastic, deep-sea mining). Little is known about the anthropogenic impacts on CWCs larval stages, yet, the sensitivity of early life stages to multiple stressors is of particular concern because larval dispersal ensures connectivity between populations and thus species persistence in a changing ocean. This project will therefore help us improve our knowledge of the early larval stages of CWC and their vulnerability to future environmental challenges.

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and Nelson Mandela University (NMU) and am based in Cape Town, South Africa. I have fairly broad research interests, ranging from animal behaviour and trophic interactions and more recently deep-sea habitat mapping. My earlier work (for my PhD) focused on predator-prey interactions on rocky shores and shallow water ecosystems like the kelp forests around the Cape Peninsula, with a particular focus on how invasive species can alter the dynamics in these communities. At present I think I can summarise my greatest research obsessions as (1) basically anything deep-sea and (2) trophic interactions. Throughout my PhD research I’ve come to appreciate the importance of biological interactions, and in the context of deep-sea habitats we still know very little in this regard. As part of the iAtlantic project I have been focusing on predictive Species Distribution Modelling of cold-water corals in the South-East Atlantic. Even though we remain greatly data-limited in this region, predictive maps of where key deep-sea organisms might occur is a valuable start and may help guide future surveys and marine spatial planning.

I am an early career researcher studying pelagic invertebrates, and am particularly interested in their diversity, evolutionary adaptations and ecological role in the deep ocean (e.g. biological associations, carbon cycling). Here, I combine different approaches, including in situ observations from submersibles, morphological analyses (e.g. micro-computed tomography) and molecular methods. Within the iAtlantic project, I am investigating the impacts of global warming and sediment plumes from deep-sea mining on the coronate medusa Periphylla periphylla. Through ex situ experiments, our aim is to better understand the responses of pelagic fauna to anthropogenic stressors, as species-specific tolerances in the deep ocean remain poorly documented.

My interest in marine geology and mapping began with my MSc thesis, where I studied cold-water corals and their role as deep-sea ecosystem engineers within the Porcupine Bank Canyon. The allure of marine geoscience has stuck with me since this time and drove me to pursue a PhD position at UCC, focusing on seabed habitat mapping techniques through non-invasive multibeam echosounders (MBES). I am in my third year and to date I have participated in 7 research cruises. My initial research has investigated the ability of OBIA as a tool for classifying seabed features occurring as high-resolution features across images of multiple resolutions of MBES bathymetric data. Further into my PhD I plan to utilise MBES water column data to analyse the cold-water corals and investigate the frequency and spatial relationships that can be inferred from this data with live coral framework.

I am a marine biologist, studying how deep-sea ecosystems including sponge grounds and cold-water coral reefs function. I am particularly interested in the analysis of complex and large datasets, for example, derived from seabed image analysis or RNA sequencing to determine the impacts at different biological scales (from the habitat to the individual) of environmental changes caused by human activities. Within iAtlantic, my main focus will be to compile and analyse ecological data from Canada and Bermuda gathered over extensive time periods.

My background is in marine biology and ecology. After receiving a Bachelor in Biology in 2011, I obtained a Master in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2014 from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, and the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris (France). I then carried out a PhD in Marine biology at Heriot-Watt University studying how oil and gas production affects cold-water sponges and the habitats they form in the North East Atlantic. Since December 2018, I have been working as a researcher at the University of Edinburgh within the ATLAS project studying deep-sea sponge grounds both in Scotland and in the Davis Strait. Last year, I also became the UK All-Atlantic Youth Ambassador and I am keen to encourage open data sharing.

My PhD project aims to characterise the temporal dynamics and the spatial distribution of the fauna inhabiting the hydrothermal vent field of Lucky Strike (Azores, Portugal). In the deep sea, hydrothermal ecosystems are very particular since they host rare biological assemblages relying mostly on the energy released from the geological activity of the site. These lush ecosystems are therefore unique because they do not use the sun as their primary energy source like almost all the other communities. Because of the release of hydrothermal fluid gradually mixing with the regular water of the Atlantic Ocean, these environments also provide a heterogeneous and relatively toxic environment in which these organisms must survive and actually, often thrive. Since they are threatened by the deep-sea mining, it is vital we fully understand the functioning and ecological dynamics of hydrothermal communities before any exploitation activities begin. I will participate in the MoMARSAT research expedition to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in July 2020, where I will be responsible for the image acquisition that will be used to map habitats and distribution of vent fauna, and assist with deploying environmental monitoring technologies around the vent site.

I did a BSc in Marine biology at the University of Algarve (Portugal) and I hold an international MSc in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation (EMBC+). For my MSc thesis, I worked on the evaluation of the ecological status of the Cold-water coral ecosystem of the Cassidaigne Canyon (Western Mediterranean Sea) and completely fell in love with deep-sea corals ever since. For my PhD project, I will be working on the trophic ecology of the Angolan Mounds in the SE Atlantic, and I will also be working with data from the iMirabilis expedition to be able to characterise the deep-sea megabenthic communities of the explored region through habitat mapping, species distribution models and future projections under climate change.

I am a Colombian biologist and PhD student at the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES) in Vitória, Brazil. I am a deep-sea lover with a great interest in taxonomy and ecology of deep-sea benthos. I worked on deep-sea brittle stars systematics during my Masters at UNAM, México, and on taxonomy and ecology of deep-sea and sandy beach macrofauna from the Caribbean Sea at the INVEMAR institute in Colombia. The deep ocean is the large ecosystem on earth and the least studied; it is closely linked to global processes between the ocean and atmosphere, with special importance for climate regulation and the cycle of matter and energy on the planet. In  iAtlantic we will explore the deep-sea fauna from Atlantic Ocean that lives inside the sediment at 500-2000m depth, to study how climate change is impacting benthic ecosystems, and identifying and quantifying the effects of these changes on benthic ecological processes.