Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

Join us to discover the latest topics by leading marine researchers and conservationists.

The podcast accompanies the Marine Biologist, the magazine for members of the Marine Biological Association, as presented by the editor, Guy Baker.

Today, we're delighted to welcome Caitlin Dye, who's a PhD researcher based at the Marine Biological Association with the University of Plymouth.

Caitlin's studying the relationship between marine diatoms, parasites and bacteria.

Welcome, Caitlin.

Thanks for

having me.

Enjoyed this podcast? Why not become a member of the Marine Biological Association and become part of a global community advocating for the ocean? You'll receive four beautiful copies of our magazine annually, The Marine Biologist, as well as receive a host of other benefits.

There's many organisms that are very charismatic and people care about, but actually plankton are the life of the oceans, they're the life of this planet, and we should be understanding more about them.

That's Dr Claire Ostall, marine biogeochemist at the Marine Biological Association and the chair of the Global Alliance of Continuous Plankton Recorder Surveys.

And Anna Turns, an environmental journalist and senior environment editor for The Conversation.

I am very worried about a world without plankton.

But wait, there's more in the Discovery Department, because across the ocean in the United Kingdom, something remarkable is happening on a much larger scale.

The Marine Biological Association, which is a very serious and very respected scientific organization based in Plymouth, England has been monitoring what they're calling an octopus bloom off the UK coast.

And a bloom in ocean science terms means a sudden significant population surge.

Usually you hear about algae blooms, but this? This is an octopus bloom.

The way fishermen often do their nets were coming up with far more octopuses than usual.

Octopuses appearing in places they hadn't been spotted in years or ever.

And the Marine Biological Association has now weighed in to say, this bloom may not be temporary.

It may be here to stay.

I'm your host, Jennifer.

And today I'm going to be speaking with Dr. Alice Horton from the Marine Biological Association about microplastics and their effect on aquatic ecosystems.

So, Dr. Horton, thank you so much for being on.

And can you start by telling us a bit about your background and the work you do at the Marine Biological Association?

Yeah, absolutely.

Thanks for having me here today.

So I am a senior research fellow here at the Marine Biological Association, the MBA, and my research focuses specifically on microplastics and how these interact with wider environmental stresses with respect to things like chemical pollution and climate change effects and so on.

So I lead a small research group here who are looking all at these kind of microplastics and multi-stressor.

[laughs]

The festival formed part of the Big Rockpool Challenge, delivered in partnership with the Plymouth-based Marine Biological Association, and funded by the Scottish Power Foundation and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Lovely.

Luke said, "I hadn't seen many sea slugs over all the summer, so I wasn't expecting to find one, but its unmistakable color popped out at me the moment I flipped the rock over.