Catherine Louise Waller

University of Hull · Centre for Environmental and Marine Sciences

Our research cluster aims to deconstruct the cause-and effect network between aquatic environmental change (climate change, human-induced pollution) and organismal stress response at the molecular level, and to utilize this information to generate tools and strategies for mitigating the ecosystem effects of global change. We take a systems approach, collaboratively bridging a variety of disciplines (ecology & evolution, toxicology, genomics, proteomics, analytical and computational chemistry, and computational biology) to achieve these goals. Some of our research at Hull has been prominently featured in a recent research outlook in the Oct. 2017 issue of Nature (https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v550/n7675_supp/full/550S54a.html).

To celebrate the University's research successes, the University of Hull is offering a full-time UK/EU PhD Scholarship or International Fees Bursary for candidates applying for each of the following projects. The application deadline is 23rd January 2019 Studentships will start on 16th September 2019 Link to apply: https://www.hull.ac.uk/choose-hull/study-at-hull/admissions/postgraduate/how-to-apply.aspx Summary of Cluster Since the onset of mass production of plastics in the 1950’s the flux of plastics to the marine environment has been a growing problem (Cole at al., 2011), such that microplastic contamination of the oceans is now one of the world’s most pressing environmental concerns (Hurley et al., 2018). Recent work highlights how such materials have been found in the full range of ocean environments from the depths of the deepest ocean trenches (Woodall et al., 2014; Fischer et al., 2015; Frid and Caswell 2017)) to coastal seas around the ice-capped poles (Waller et al., 2017; Lusher et al., 2015, Obbard et al., 2014). Microplastic pollution is known to be interacting with organisms and entering primary levels of the marine food chain (Cole et al., 2013) causing a range of unidentified and unquantified ecological outcomes. Critically, we have little understanding of the complex biological, bio-physical and bio-chemical interactions associated with the ingestion of microplastics and how this influences their fate and the fate of marine ecosystems. Significant research is therefore needed to address some of the critical gaps in our knowledge of microplastics in the marine environment. This will be achieved by a cluster of 6 PhDs investigating the physical processes and dynamics of plastic particles from fluvial source zones, through estuarine stores to marine sinks, the ecological impacts on remote and local environments and the ecophysiological and ecotoxicological effects on individual species and ecosystems. The cluster objectives are: [1] To quantify ecological and biological effects of microplastics on marine ecosystems and marine invertebrate physiology (1-2; 5-6). [2] Determine the flux, types and concentrations of micro-plastic debris exiting major riverine and estuarine systems, into the coastal and wider ocean (projects 3-4). For individual project descriptions see updates below

In the framework of the RECTO project funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office, the Belgica121 expedition aims at carrying out a biodiversity census in the shallow areas of the Western Antarctic Peninsula in March 2019, and to test-case the potential for an agile, low-emission, sampling platform (the Australis sailboat). The expedition bears a strong historic link to the first scientific expedition to overwinter in Antarctica in 1897-99 recording the first intertidal biodiversity data, 121 years ago.