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My Research: Heather Goring-Harford

I am a chemistry graduate who has moved into the ocean and earth sciences for my PhD. As a chemist, I have some specialist skills and knowledge which are particularly useful for investigating how chemical elements behave in the oceans. For my PhD project I am studying how chromium stored in ancient rocks can be used as a tool to measure oxygen levels in past oceans. Chromium is weathered from rocks, transported by rivers into the sea and deposited in ocean sediments. Continue reading →

My Research: Cristian Florindo-Lopez

Hello everyone, My name is Cristian Florindo-Lopez and this autumn I will be part of the "Exploring our Oceans" MOOC’s mentors team. On a regular day, I am a PhD student on my third year at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. In today’s post I would like to share with you what my research is about. Briefly, I could say it is framed in the dynamics of Polar Regions, specifically the Arctic Ocean. Continue reading →

My Research: Helen Burns

Hi, I'm Helen and here I'm writing to tell you about my research. My work focuses on understanding the behaviour of the Southern Ocean. This ocean around Antarctica is a complex place; no where else in the world can an ocean current circumnavigate the globe, uninterrupted by the continents. The Southern Ocean allows all the worlds other oceans to communicate and this leads to complex physics that we're still trying to understand. Continue reading →

My research; Josh Allin

Hi MOOCers and ocean lovers. This here's a little short post about my area of research, which focusses on submarine landslides. I am currently working on two different research locations; the first of which is Nazaré Canyon, offshore Portugal. Nazaré Canyon is a large submarine channel, comparable in width to the Grand Canyon. At it's mouth (purple in the image below) the canyon is almost 5 miles across and is at a depth of over 5000 m. Continue reading →

Emma Cavan: My Research

My name is Emma Cavan and I have recently entered the 3rd year of my PhD at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. I would now class myself as a ‘Biological Oceanographer’ or a ‘Marine Biogeochemist’. I am currently exploring the biological carbon pump and so my PhD takes me all around the world on large research ships to sample the open ocean. Continue reading →

What does the ocean mean to you?

Hello MOOCers! Just a few short days until we get started with "Exploring our Oceans", the course is ready, the mentors and educators are excited and we cannot wait to get stuck into what promises to be an exciting course. Last time (our first run was in February) we asked staff at NOC (The National Oceanography Centre) and students on the course to share a picture with the rest of the course that shows what the ocean means to you. Continue reading →

My Research: Flic Williams

Hello Hello! I’m Felicity Williams and I study how sea level changes when the amount of ice on land either grows or melts. It is very tempting to think of our earth as one large bath tub in which the water level goes up and down uniformly across the entire surface. The real world is far more interesting! Every location around the world experiences a different sea level for the same amount of water being added to or taken away from the oceans. Continue reading →

My Research: Josie Robinson

Hi everyone, My name is Josie Robinson and I’m excited to be a facilitator on the “Exploring our Oceans” MOOC. I’m just entering the 3rd year of my PhD at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, where I’ve been looking at ocean iron fertilisation. By iron fertilisation I mean the addition of iron, which is a vital ingredient for life along with other essential nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Continue reading →

My Research: Christopher Bird

 The intensification and industrialisation of commercial fishing during the 20th century has caused depletions in many fish populations around the globe. As coastal and open water fisheries began to struggle, many fisheries expanded operations into deeper waters in search of new profitable fish stocks. Whilst most deep-water fishing operations only target a few species, such fishing gears are often associated with high levels of incidental by-catch of non-targeted species. Continue reading →

Heather Goring-Harford: How did I become involved in Ocean Sciences?

Let me share one of my most vivid memories with you. When I was ten years old, my dad took me to the British Museum, and waiting for the train back home at Charing Cross station we stopped in WH Smiths for something to read. Dad said I could have any magazine I liked. Of all of them, the one that inexplicably appealed to me sat on the bottom shelf, sporting two yellow fish on the front cover – Practical Fishkeeping. My dad thought it was funny but bought it for me anyway. Continue reading →