A 100-year record of changing toxic algae in Scottish coastal waters related to change in land use and temperature

MAST PhD Studentship at SAMS UHI
The potential for the further expansion and development of marine aquaculture in Scottish coastal waters, together with changes in the incidence of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins deriving from marine algae are cause for concern when it comes to adopting a successful strategy in locating such activities. Marine diatoms and dinoflagellates, which can cause harmful algal blooms (HABs), are known to have responded to climate change (increasing sea surface temperature and increasingly windy summers) over the past fifty years across much of the northeast Atlantic region. However, monitoring for the presence of PSP toxins in the UK only began along the northeast coast of England in 1968 and was not expanded along the Scottish coasts until 1990. In 1996 monitoring for the dinoflagellate genus Alexandrium was initiated and showed the occurrence of ‘hotspots’ for both the detection of Alexandrium cells in the water column and PSP toxicity in shellfish. The current challenge is to extend the Scottish record prior to 1990 to understand what happens in these environments over longer time-scales. The sedimentary record, particularly in the sheltered and restricted exchange environments of Scotland’s sea-lochs where marine aquaculture is concentrated, holds the potential to inform our understanding of natural climate variability and to preserve a good record at the species-level.

Project Aims and Outputs: The main aim of this project is to produce a quantitative reconstruction of dinoflagellate cysts and diatom frustules preserved in sediments in order to allow changes in species composition of the phytoplankton community to be studied in a historical context; studies focused on the occurrence and abundance of harmful species are rare and there are none from Scottish waters. With this new understanding in the link between long-term phytoplankton, climate and land use change, the project will develop a new framework within which advice on the location of marine aquaculture activities can be set in light of current and predicted future climate and land use changes.

Research Training: in sediment and algal recovery methods will be integral to the project and will include small boat work, access to mooring data (where modern algal monitoring is maintained by Marine Scotland Science as part of their Coastal Ecosystem Monitoring Programme) and its interpretation within the framework of the Hadley Centre Global Sea Ice Coverage and Sea Surface Temperature (HadISST) dataset, which is produced by the UK Met Office. Laboratory based training in sedimentology and microscopy will be an important element of the project to build 100-year long records of environmental change; these will be complimented by work on modern algal samples, with significant scope to work with colleagues at Marine Scotland Science in developing policy-relevant advice in, for example, the location of shellfish farms in Scottish coastal waters.

Applicants should apply by submitting an application form, CV and referees comments to Fiona Wallace, Academic Registry Officer Postgraduate, The Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban, Argyll, PA37 1QA or by email to [Email Address Removed]. Please visit SAMS website for application procedure http://www.sams.ac.uk/education/postgraduate

Closing date for applications is 14th July 2014.
Interviews are expected to take place week beginning 21st July 2014.