School of Ocean Sciences

Research strategy, 2008-2014

Our research strategy for the next six years is to exploit our established multidisciplinary strengths in response to scientific, policy, environmental and social drivers to define priorities and set the international agenda in

climate change science as it relates to coasts, shelf seas and ocean margins,
novel applications of marine materials, and
sustainable use of marine resources.

Ongoing research/newly submitted proposals underpin our climate change strategy in; carbon cycling and turbulence; sea level control of shelf sea CO2 sources and sinks; enhanced models for prediction of seabed and coastal morphological change; sea ice carbon and nutrient biogeochemistry; ultra-high-resolution molluscan sclerochronology; species' range changes and ecosystem dynamics in warming seas, and coastal ocean acidification. In marine materials, our active biofuels research group will be enhanced through novel applications including bioengineering (light, strong, marine skeletal materials e.g. cuttlefish bones, as templates for new carbon fibre structures for aircraft wings) and studies of ageing from molecular biology of Arctica islandica. Research that underpins the sustainable use of marine resources will build upon the existing interaction between ecology and oceanography to inform implementation of marine protected areas, population and genetic studies.