Paris Stefanoudis: my research

Hello MOOCers,

today I am going to tell you a little bit of what I am doing in my PhD and my main activities throughout the year!

 

My research

My study area is the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcupine_Abyssal_Plain), situated in the northeast Atlantic (Figure 1). This area has been investigated over the past 30 years and was initially chosen because scientists thought i) it was for most of its part flat and hence the water depth was thought to remain more or less constant throughout the area and ii) it is far away from the continental slope and thus it would have minimum terrestrial impact. While the second point is true, recent bathymetric data showed that the area is not as flat as previously thought.

Figure 1. The location of the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) in the northeast Atlantic.

The seafloor at PAP is populated by several small hills (<1000 meters in height). Today we know that hills are one of the most common landform in our oceans. They are ecologically similar to the better-known seamounts (>1000 meters in height) (Figure 3).

Figure 2. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the middle and several  hills and seamounts on both sides of it.

Figure 3. A collection of benthic foraminifera that I found on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain, NE Atlantic.

The aim of my research is to look at how this topographic variation (abyssal hills versus the “flat” abyssal plain) on the PAP seafloor affects benthic foraminiferal communities (Figure3) in terms of:

• abundance (How many individuals of foraminifera are present in each site?)
• diversity (How many different species are present?)
• community composition (What species are present in each site? Are some species present only on the hills and not on the plain and vice versa?)

At first, that might not seem as important to some people. However, knowing the effect of hills and seamounts on the diversity patterns of these common marine organisms can help us estimate their total abundance and diversity in the oceans. Many benthic foraminifera are calcium producers as their “tests” (shells) are made of calcium carbonate. As such, they are important to the global carbon cycle and thus can mediate the effects of rising CO₂ levels.

 

Lab

In order to give answers to those questions, I have to analyse sediment samples taken from my study area in 2011, and then analyse them back in the lab. This involves individually picking out all the benthic foraminifera present in the samples, counting their total numbers and identifying the different species.

 

Stats

With the help of statistical packages, my data on hill and plain foraminiferal communities is compared against environmental information from the study sites (sediment characteristics, food availability) and if any significant correlations are present, they will be identified.

 

Marine Life Talks

These are talks aimed for the public given the first Thursday of every month, covering various aspects of marine (or aquatic) science such as biology, ecology, archaeology, geology or maritime activities. They first started 10 years ago in the National Oceanography Centre (Southampton) (NOCS) and have been running since with great success. Now they are organised by me and other PhD students from NOCS. They are great fun and many a people turn up every month.

For information about upcoming talks please visit:

http://noc.ac.uk/news/marine-life-talks

 

Demonstrating and volunteering

Many PhD students have the option to demonstrate in lectures or practical sessions for undergraduate courses. The online course “Exploring our Oceans” is another example. I personally try to do it as much as possible. Regarding the online course, I thought it would be a great idea to interact with the public, make them aware of our work and give them useful information about our oceans.

 

Workshops, conferences

Of course, PhD-life would not be the same without participating in workshops (enhance my skills in certain areas e.g. statistics) and attending conferences (present your work, exchange ideas and/or make connections with researchers working on similar subjects).

If you want to know about what I am doing you can follow me on twitter: @Paris_St_V

 

Image credits:

Figure 1: http://www.classroomatsea.net/D341/about.html

Figure 2: http://oceansjsu.com/105d/exped_mapping/ridge.html