A new economic analysis has shown that sequencing the DNA of all complex life in the UK and Ireland could deliver up to almost £3 billion in benefits to the economy over the next 30 years, with wide‑ranging impacts across agriculture, conservation, and research and innovation.
Our oceans contain a vast community of calcifying algae, known as coccolithophores, that play a critical role in the global carbon cycle through their ability to produce calcium carbonate in huge quantities. Coccolithophores are particularly abundant in the Southern Ocean, an area known as the Great Calcite Belt, but we know little about these communities due to their remote location.
Scientists at the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and the University of Exeter have uncovered a key mechanism that helps diatoms – the microscopic algae that underpin marine food webs – survive when one of life’s essential nutrients runs low.
The Marine Biological Association (MBA) proudly marks its 142nd birthday, celebrating more than a century of world‑leading marine research, pioneering discoveries, and a growing international community dedicated to understanding and protecting our ocean.
The Marine Biological Association (MBA) recently welcomed a group of students from the University of Essex to Plymouth for a day of immersive fieldwork, lab exploration, and rocky shore discovery in an experience that they variously described as “inspiring”, “eye‑opening”, and “transformative” for their ambitions to pursue a career in marine science.
A new report led by the Marine Biological Association (MBA) in collaboration with Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), the University of Plymouth and an independent consultant has revealed that a dramatic population bloom of the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) off the Southwest coast of the UK is having significant effects on fisheries and marine ecosystems.
Scientists at the Marine Biological Association have used a pioneering technological approach in individual diatom cells to uncover how these microscopic ocean organisms rapidly adjust their carbon uptake strategies to cope with changing conditions in the ocean.
Exeter University student and MBA Student Member, Jasmin Orak, joined the Marine Biological Association (MBA) this summer as a Spooner-Parke Summer Studentship awardee, spending 6 weeks immersed in hands-on marine microbiology research.
December always brings with it one of the highlights of our calendar, the Annual General Meeting, and with it an invaluable moment to reflect on our science, our community and our impact. Despite what has been an undeniably challenging period for the wider world, the ocean and the academic sector, the MBA has continued to … Read more
A new study co-authored by the Marine Biological Association’s Senior Research Fellow Dr Dan Smale, Lankester Research Fellow Professor Stephen J. Hawkins, Postdoctoral Research Assistant Dr Nathan King, and former PhD student Harry Teagle, has revealed how the loss of kelp forests at their southern range edge could dramatically reshape marine ecosystems. Dense patches of … Read more
The Marine Biological Association
The Laboratory,
Citadel Hill Plymouth,
Devon
PL1 2PB, UK
The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom is a registered charity in England and Wales (1155893), and is a company limited by Royal Charter (RC000865). The Marine Biological Association conducts, promotes and supports scientific research into all aspects of life in the sea.