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Professor Linda Medlin has been awarded a Yasumoto Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding contributions to the study of marine phytoplankton.

The prestigious award was granted by the International Society for the Study of Harmful Algae (ISSHA) in recognition of Professor Medlin’s long and outstanding record of contribution to harmful algal research.

Professor Medlin said: “I am honoured to receive this award which I never thought possible because I haven’t devoted my career to the study of one genus but rather to the entire phytoplankton community and from a molecular point of view.”

Professor Medlin has worked for over 20 years in marine biodiversity and has applied her vast knowledge and skills of molecular biology to fundamental and applied research and monitoring of harmful algae.

In 2008 Professor Medlin became a Research Fellow at The...

A new open access paper reveals that a species of marine lichen hosts a range of additional photosynthetic partners, which according to researchers could be vital for survival in the harsh conditions of the rocky shore.

Marine Biological Association (MBA) Senior Research Fellow Dr Michael Cunliffe and Postdoctoral Research Associate Dr Nathan Chrismas are co-authors of the research paper featured in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (JMBA) .

For a long time, people thought that lichens were mostly a two-way symbiosis between a fungus and single photosynthetic partner, but modern molecular biology methods are starting to show that several different photosynthetic partners or ‘photobionts' are sometimes involved.

The study showed that some samples of Lichina pygmaea - also known as black pygmy lichen - host a range of...

Almost 150 people from across the globe took part in an online conference to celebrate 90 years of world-class science.

Marine Biological Association (MBA) is home to The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) Survey , the longest running and most geographically extensive marine survey in the world.

Now in its 90th year, the Survey has helped shape scientific understanding about the health of our ocean, and how marine life is changing in response to pressures like climate change.

September 15, 2021, marked the 90th anniversary of the first CPR tow, and to celebrate this milestone anniversary, the MBA hosted a free online conference to share the highlights and achievements of the CPR Survey from over the last 9 decades.

The conference, which featured talks and live Q+A sessions with experts from around the world, delved into the secrets and successes of the...

The Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) which is funding the expedition as a whole is an initiative that seeks to define the present state of the Arctic Ocean and understand the major ongoing transformations, with an emphasis on water masses, the marine ecosystems and the carbon cycle.

Our project, called ProMis, complements this program. We are focused on understanding how particles interact with fungi and impact the carbon cycle in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO). This is why we're collecting water and ice samples on IB Oden.

Once we have collected our water and ice, we take our samples to our lab container which is at the front of the ship. We have a nice view of the ice in front of the ship and of the CTD winch collecting our water. Inside our container, we have a sink, a freezer and work benches where we have set up all our filtration equipment. We use two six funnel...

Since we have last checked in with you, we have done our first ice station! Before we could get started, we needed training on how to use the equipment and what we needed to take on the ice to complete our sampling. Initially we helped out one of the other coring teams, but now we are fully trained and even teach others who join us on the floe.

Before the ice sampling can start, the ship needs to find an ice floe that is safe for us to stand on. Depending on whether the ship can moore to the floe or not, we can take the gangway down to the ice or we are lifted onto the ice with a basket on a crane. After the crew has checked that the ice is safe to walk on, we can go out and find a suitable coring site that isn't too wet or too thick and representative of the ice in the area. To get an ice core with a 9 cm diameter, we use a plastic corer which can be attached to a normal...

Applications are invited from individuals with relevant professional expertise and an interest in the ocean environment for a Trustee of the Marine Biological Association (MBA). The preferred candidate will also be expected to take on the role of Chair of the Finance and Management Committee of MBA Council after one year in post. The MBA ( www.mba.ac.uk ) is a learned society of scientists and members in over 40 countries, across 5 continents. Its in-depth scientific research into the interconnected marine environment is carried out from its prestigious laboratory HQ in Plymouth, UK.

It has a Royal Charter that recognises its world-leading status in marine biology. Since 1884, the MBA has worked as a voice for the ocean and in the interests of the global marine biological community.

This is an exciting opportunity to become a Trustee and help oversee the delivery of...

A report on the state of the marine environment and of marine species in 2020 in south-west England has just been published by the Plymouth-based Marine Biological Association (MBA). One of the report editors, MBA Associate Fellow Dr Keith Hiscock, thanked the editors of eleven different sections for bringing-together observations made during 2020 and summarized that, as always, they included 'highlights' and 'lowlights'.

Colleagues at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory had recorded an exceptionally widespread bloom of coccolithophores (a type of plankton that has beautifully ornamented calcareous plates) in June and early July, which developed after a period of very warm, dry, settled, sunny weather whilst also recording that phytoplankton biomass was low overall, part of an ongoing, long-term declining trend which is particularly prevalent in the summer months. Many...