We still have 1 fully funded PhD project available this year. Please click on the links below for more details and go to GSNOCS (our graduate school) for details on how to apply. The deadline is 16th June 2021. Please contact Gavin through this website (here) or email: gavin.foster@noc.soton.ac.uk if you want to chat about them.

How do corals make their skeletons? Insights from boron geochemistry

Tropical coral reefs are diversity hotspots and provide many ecosystem services that sustain important economic activities. Both of these depend on the 3D framework of the reef that is constructed within a micron-sized space sandwiched between the coral animal and its existing skeleton. If we are to better predict what the coming decades have in stall for corals and the reefs they make we need to understand this calcification process better. One way to do this is with the boron based proxies that reveal the state of the carbonate system in the calcifying space.

In this project you will use laboratory experiments to grow aragonite (the CaCO3 polymorph corals use) under controlled conditions to better understand exactly how boron geochemistry reflects the carbonate system. The improved understanding you will develop will then be tested using careful measurements of the calcifying fluid using micro-electrodes and pH sensitive dyes and will feed into mechanistic models of calcification that can be used to understand how environmental change influences how corals build their skeletons.

For more details go here. Gavin is the lead supervisor for this PhD project is funded by the European Research Council as part of Prof Gavin Foster’s recently funded Advanced Grant Microns2Reefs. The project includes an extended stay in the laboratory of Prof Jonathan Erez in Jerusalem and potentially field work in the Red Sea to collect suitable coral species for culturing.