[The studentship is supported for 3.5 years and includes Home rate tuition fees plus a stipend of £19,215 per annum (2025-26 rate; 2026-27 rate to be confirmed).]

This 3.5-year PhD studentship at the University of Plymouth, in partnership with Marine Research Plymouth, the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and the Marine Biological Association, offers an exciting opportunity to advance our understanding of plankton biodiversity and ecosystem change using cutting-edge machine learning techniques. The project is designed to address critical gaps in current plankton monitoring by leveraging recent advancements in imaging technologies and machine learning classifiers, with the goal of improving biodiversity assessments and informing marine policy under the UK Marine Strategy and OSPAR frameworks.

Plankton are vital to marine food webs and global carbon cycles, serving as sensitive indicators of environmental change. However, traditional monitoring methods are insufficient for detecting biodiversity shifts and modeling ocean responses to climate stressors. This studentship will apply existing biodiversity policy indicators to new, high-resolution plankton image data, significantly expanding available datasets and directly enhancing policy-relevant biodiversity assessments.

The successful candidate will collect plankton images using an innovative benchtop flow-through imaging sensor and integrate these with existing datasets from established platforms. Fieldwork opportunities include collaboration with Cefas at sea and a visit to the University of British Columbia to field test the new instrument. A novel machine learning image classifier tool will be used to classify plankton taxa and quantify essential ecological traits such as size and biovolume—traits often missing from traditional datasets but critical for biodiversity analysis and policy evaluation. The combined data will be used to characterize spatio-temporal ecological changes in the Northeast Atlantic.

Throughout the project, the student will develop expertise in machine learning, plankton taxonomy, ecological trait analysis, and biodiversity indicator development. They will also actively contribute to the UK and OSPAR Pelagic Habitats Expert Groups and benefit from professional development opportunities through the University of Plymouth’s Plankton and Policy Research Unit and the Marine Research Plymouth early career network.

Eligibility: Applicants should hold a first or upper second class honours degree or a Masters qualification in ecology, marine biology, data science, environmental sciences, or related fields. Interdisciplinary backgrounds and strong quantitative skills are particularly encouraged.

Funding: The studentship covers Home rate tuition fees and provides a stipend of £19,215 per annum (2025-26 rate; 2026-27 rate to be confirmed) for 3.5 years.

Application Process: Applications must be submitted by 12 noon on Monday, 2nd February 2026. For further information and to apply, visit the University of Plymouth studentship webpage. Informal project discussions can be arranged with Professor Abigail McQuatters-Gollop.