Research group

Healthy Oceans

Shoal of herring swimming in the ocean

Ocean health links researchers and practitioners in all aspects of marine biology. This includes resilience, biodiversity, conservation, evolution, and the impacts of pollution and anthropogenic activities on marine ecosystems.

About

The Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI) Healthy Oceans Special Interest Group promotes cutting-edge research and engaged industry expertise to address the critical environmental, ecological and conservation challenges facing our oceans. 

Our collaborative approach aims to bridge the gap between academia, policy, industry, and the public. This enables us to develop and communicate innovative solutions that contribute to the health of our oceans.

We are particularly interested in key areas such as: 

  • monitoring marine biodiversity
  • investigating the impacts of marine pollution
  • understanding anthropogenic impacts on marine life
  • exploring marine resilience  

Our interests span spatial scales from studies of individual organisms to those covering whole ecosystems and the communities that depend upon them.  

To find out more about the Healthy Oceans Special Interest Group and what we do, get in touch with group champion Christopher Goatley.

Join the SMMI Community to sign up to this group and our other special interest groups.

People, projects and publications

People

Dr Cathy Lucas

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • The role of gelatinous zooplankton in ecosystem structure and function.
  • Causes and consequences of jellyfish blooms.
  • Jellyfish and ecosystem servives in the coastal zone.

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Cecilia D'angelo

Associate Professor
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Emeritus Professor Charles Banks

Research interests

  • Controlled anaerobic and aerobic biodegradation of municipal and industrial solid wastes
  • Concepts for an integrated farming system for non competitive food and fuel production
  • Energy production from digestion of crops and agricultural wastes
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Professor Charles Keevil

Professor In Environmental Health Care
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Dr Charlie Thompson

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Coastal Monitoring
  • Coastal Processes
  • Sediment Stability, Resuspension and Exchange processes
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Professor Chris Armstrong

Professor of Political Theory

Research interests

  • Global justice
  • Climate justice
  • Ocean justice and ocean politics

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Chris Hauton PhD, FRSB, FMBA

Head of School

Research interests

  • Hauton has worked extensively with colleagues in India and Bangladesh since 2015 and has developed an international profile in shrimp health research, including contributing to the development of a mobile phone app, the 'Chingri Shrimp App', to support shrimp farmer training in Bangladesh.
  • Research has also included quantifying the potential toxic risk of deep sea mining of mineral resources. He was part of the leading team of the EC FP7 MIDAS Project, exploring the ecological risk of deep-sea mining, outputs from which led to contributions to the Royal Society Foresight Future of the Sea report (2016/17), to presentations at the UN International Seabed Authority in Jamaica, and expert contributions to the UN ISA ISA Legal and Technical Commision ISBA/27/C/11 'Guidelines for the establishment of baseline environmental data.'
  • Other activity

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Chris Hill

Professorial Fellow-Enterprise
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Professor Christer Petley

Professor of Atlantic History

Research interests

  • Atlantic History
  • Caribbean History
  • Slavery and Abolition

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Christopher Goatley

Lecturer in Marine Biology

Research interests

  • Fish ecology, evolution and biogeography
  • Impact of sediments on coral reef ecology
  • Palaeoecology of reef ecosystems

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Christopher

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Connect with us

Enquiries

If you're interested in joining us or collaborating, get in touch with the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute.