PhD Researcher, School of Natural Sciences
I am a marine ecologist researching the effects of climate change on coastal benthic communities. For Land2Sea, I model the marine Bayesian Belief Network for the Dublin Bay case study. The model will link local drivers and predicted climate change scenarios to the impacts they will have on coastal and marine biology in Dublin Bay. In addition to this modelling work, I conduct experiments in a new mesocosm facility to disentangle the independent and combined effects of multiple stressors on benthic rocky shore species. I am interested in how multiple stressors such as ocean warming, acidification and nutrient enrichment affect single species or assemblages, if, how and why their effects interact, and if interactive effects are mediated by biological interactions. By quantifying key processes (e.g. primary and secondary production, or macroalgae-grazer relationships) under current and predicted climate conditions I hope to help estimate our future ocean’s species assemblages and the capacity to produce bioenergy, food and biomaterials from marine organisms (e.g. shellfish, seaweed).