Sparkling Seas: Understanding Bioluminescent Plankton Dynamics in a Changing Sea

This PhD project investigates how environmental change influences bioluminescent plankton, microscopic organisms that produce light and play vital roles in marine ecosystems. While scientists know that warming, nutrient shifts, and changing salinity affect plankton blooms, we still don’t understand how these conditions alter their light production and ecological functions. By analysing long-term data from the North Sea, conducting laboratory experiments, running ecosystem-scale tests and using trait-based modelling, this project will uncover how bioluminescent species respond to environmental stress and how their light signals influence marine food webs. The findings will help predict how ocean changes affect both the beauty and the functioning of coastal seas on a global scale.