With the IUCN pushing for 30% of the worlds oceans protected by Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) by 2030, a deep understanding of the distribution of marine organisms in the open oceans is essential for turning the political will into effective conservation outcomes. By bringing together the environmental and biological data with cutting edge statistical techniques and high powered computing, I am able to identify distinct marine bioregions, areas with unique biological profiles, and estimate how these bioregions will change with global warming. I will use these bioregionalisations, and how the bioregionalisations change over time, to make recommendations about where we should place MPAs.

My research involves using mathematical and statistical techniques, and pulling together information from a wide range of marine surveys, to find the dominant environmental drivers of species communities. I am using datasets covering everything from microbes and plankton up to large fish like tuna, the latest maps of global environmental conditions gathered by satellites and autonomous vehicles and future environmental conditions predicted by the latest climate change models. Overall, the results of my research should help us take care of the amazing treasures we have in our oceans.