My research aims to identify the diversity, activity and potential role of understudied microbial communities, largely eukaryotes (including marine fungi), in the biological carbon pump, carbon cycling and wider ecosystem services. I am also interested in how the life history of particulate organic matter or particles in the coastal and open ocean influence microbial community structure. To do this I undertake sea-going fieldwork and shipboard incubations with high-throughput sequencing technology to identify and understand the ecology of microbial organisms. My research locations include locally here in Plymouth Sound, but also further afield including the North Atlantic and Southern Ocean. I also have a keen interest in using novel ways to communicate my research including stop motion animation.