Dr Helen Findlay
Dr Helen Findlay is a biological oceanographer at Plymouth
Marine Laboratory whose research involves using a combination of
modelling, observational and experimental data to investigate the
impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on marine
organisms and ecological functioning. As the first recipient of the
Lord Kingsland Fellowship at PML, Helen is actively involved in
research with a current interest in the Polar Oceans. She is
involved in the European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA) and
has contributed to the UK government Marine Climate Change Impacts
Programme. Helen also has research interests in understanding the
relative contributions of biological and physical processes to
controlling important biogeochemical dynamics and feedbacks with
ocean chemistry. Helen is involved several outreach events
including communication workshops, projects with schools and
websites.
Helen has most recently worked in the Arctic
investigating climate change (both temperature and ocean
acidification) impacts on benthic invertebrates, focussing in two
areas, firstly on assessing the impacts at different stages across
an organism’s life-cycle: fertilisation, larval development,
settlement, juvenile and adults; and secondly to compare
populations at the northern limit of their biogeographic range to
populations at the southern limit of their range. Organisms are
most vulnerable to change at their range edges and therefore
investigating how populations have acclimated to their local
environment, as well as how they respond to changes in these areas,
will help us to predict how they might adapt to future changes in
climate.
In the Benthic UKOARP consortium Helen is
overseeing the set up and running of the CO2 exposure
systems, particularly the intertidal system at Plymouth Marine
Laboratory, but also providing advice and guidance to all the
experimental groups. She is also involved in integrating the
experimental results into models to provide model parameters and
validation.