What does the ocean mean to me?

Growing up near the Jurassic Coast means the sea features quite frequently in childhood memories. We are very lucky in the UK that for the most part you are never very far away from a coastline. Coastlines represent a striking physical example of how powerful and dynamic the oceans are and provide a continually changing yet persistently important environment.

Studying at the University of Southampton, however, has given me the opportunity to see and learn about the oceans from many different perspectives, whether that be whilst on a sunny fieldtrip to Tenerife…..

…..or on Callista, one of the teaching vessels, in the Solent on some rather wet and windy November days!

Right now, the oceans provide me with an insight into the past climate of the Earth. My PhD involves working on marine sediment cores taken from the seafloor and looking at the geochemistry of both the sediment and the foraminifera (calcium carbonate microfossils) contained with the sediment. From this I can reconstruct what the climate and oceans were like throughout the last 66 Ma (Cenozoic).

If you are interested in learning more about marine sediment cores and how they are collected, check out this video filmed on board the Joides Resolution during a recent Integrated Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) cruise to Newfoundland. The University of Southampton’s very own Professor Paul Wilson was one of the co-chief scientists for this cruise (IODP Expedition 342) and sailed alongside other scientists from Southampton and universities around the world. I got the opportunity to work on some of this sediment for my masters project and continue to work on it within my PhD.