Claire Widdicombe

Claire is a plankton ecologist with over 20 years research experience and over 50 publications relating to plankton biodiversity, community structure and ecosystem function. Specifically, Claire is highly skilled in plankton identification and has studied planktonic communities in temperate (N&S Atlantic, North Sea), tropical (Indian Ocean, Mauritanian upwelling) and polar (Antarctica) systems.

In 2005, Claire took over the responsibility for maintaining the long-term phyto- and microzooplankton Station L4 time-series dataset within Plymouth Marine Laboratory’s Western Channel Observatory programme. This programme has been running for over 25 years and is a key resource in Plymouth Marine Laboratory’s efforts to identify and predict the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems. Her current research explores long-term trends in the diversity of phytoplankton communities so as to quantify the potential impacts of climate change (ocean acidification, rising temperatures and nutrient supply) on microbial communities.