Environmental Research Institute

• Ecology and Ecosystems

• Determining the functional importance of peatland and lowland ecosystems.
• Investigating the ecological impact of renewable energy devices in the marine and terrestrial environment.
• Determining the functional role of parasitic and symbiotic associations in ecological systems.
• Understanding the ecological impact of disturbed environments.

• Upland geo-ecology: Understanding the relationship between the geomorphology and ecology of terrestrial and freshwater upland landscapes
• Marine ecology: The functional ecology of polar, temperate and tropical marine waters.
• Microbial ecology: Interactions between microbial communities in aquatic and terrestrial environments
• Ecosystem health: Determining the impact of man on ecosystem function at the individual, population and community level.

• Prof. Stuart Gibb
• Dr. Angus Jackson
• Prof. Barbara Brown
• Dr. Mark Shields
• Dr. Sarah Crowe
• Dr. Kathleen McDougall
• Dr. Martina Maria Burtscher
• Dr. François L. L. Muller
• Dr. Elizabeth Masden
• Dr. Eric Grist

Current Students

• Ms. Marcella Branagan
• Ms. Danishta Dumur
• Mr. Gongda Yang

Publications:

• Crowe, S. K and Warburton, J. (2007). The role of large peat blocks on channel sedimentation and the stream organic budget. Mires and Peat Journal, 2: 1-15 accessed online at http://www.mires-and-peat.net/map02/map_02_04.pdf
• Ford A.T., Martins, I., Fernandes, T.F. (2007). Population level effects of intersexuality in the marine environment. Science of the Total Environment. 374, 102-111.
• Ford A.T., Read, P.A, Jones T.L., Michino, F., Pang, Y., Fernandes, T.F. (2007). An investigation into intersex amphipods and a possible association with aquaculture. Marine Environmental Research, 64(4), 443-455.
• McDougall KE, Gibb SW, Boyd KG, Brown BE (2006) ‘Chlorophyll-like’ compounds as novel biomarkers of stress in corals.  Marine Ecology Progress Series 325:137-144
• Ford A.T., Fernandes, T.F. (2005). Notes on the occurrence of intersex in amphipods. Hydrobiologia. 548(1), 313-318.
• Muller FLL, Larsen A, Stedmon CA, Søndergaard M, 2005. Interactions between algal-bacterial populations and trace metals in fjord surface waters during a nutrient-stimulated summer bloom. Limnology and Oceanography 50: 1855-1871.
• Ford A.T., Fernandes T.F., Rider S.A., Read P.A., Robinson C.D., & Davies I.M. (2003) Reproduction in the amphipod, Echinogammarus marinus: a comparison between normal and intersex specimens. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. U.K., 83, 937-940.
• Muller FLL, Jacquet S, Wilson WH, 2003. Biological factors regulating the chemical speciation of Cu, Zn and Mn under different nutrient regimes in a marine mesocosm experiment. Limnology and Oceanography 48: 2289-2302.
• Ford A.T., Fernandes T.F., Rider S.A., Read P.A., Robinson C.D., & Davies I.M. (2003). Measuring sublethal impacts of pollution on reproductive output in marine crustacea. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 265, 303-309.
• Brown BE, Downs CA, Dunne RP, Gibb SW (2002) Exploring the basis of thermotolernace in the reef coral Goniastrea aspera. Marine Ecology Progress Series 242:119-129
• Brown BE, Downs CA, Dunne RP, Gibb SW
  Preliminary evidence for tissue retraction as a factor in photoprotection of corals incapable of xanthophyll cycling
  J. Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 277 (2): 129-144, 2002
• Brown BE, Downs CA, Dunne RP, Gibb SW
  Exploring the basis of thermotolerance in the reef coral Goniastrea aspera
  Marine Ecology Progress Series, 242, 119-129, 2002
• Tankéré SPC, Bourne DG, Muller FLL, Torsvik V (2002) Microenvironments and microbial community structure in sediments. Environmental Microbiology 4: 97-105.
• Gibb SW, Barlow RG, Cummings DG, Mantoura RFC, Irigoien X (2001) Pigment chemotaxonomy of the northeastern Atlantic. Deep Sea Research II 48: 795-823.
• Joint I, and 27 authors including Gibb SW (2001) Pelagic production at the Celtic Sea shelf break. Deep Sea Research II 48: 3049-3081.
• Brown, BE, Dunne, RP, Warner, ME, Ambarsari, I, Fitt, WK, Gibb, SW, Cummings, DG. Damage and recovery of Photosystem II during a manipulative field experiment on solar bleaching in the coral Goniastrea aspera. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 195, 117-124, 2000.
• Anning T, MacIntyre HL, Pratt SM, Sammes PJ, Gibb S, Geider RJ. Photoacclimation in the marine diatom Skeletonema costatum. Limnology and Oceanography 45 (8), 1807-1817, 2000
• Gibb, S.W., R.G. Barlow, D.G. Cummings, N.W. Rees, C.C. Trees, P. Holligan, D. Suggett. Surface phytoplankton pigment distributions in the Atlantic Ocean: An assessment of basin scale variability between 50°N and 50°S. Progress in Oceanography, 45 (3-4), 339-368, 2000 
• Colomban de Vargas, Richard Norris, Louisette Zaninetti, Stuart W. Gibb Jan Pawlowski. Molecular Evidence of Cryptic Speciation in Planktonic Foraminifers and their Relation to oceanic Provinces. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 96 (6), 2864-2868, 1999
• Brown BE, Ambarsari I, Warner ME, Fitt WK, Dunne RP, Gibb SW and Cummings DG. Diurnal changes in photochemical efficiency and xanthophyll concentrations in shallow water reef corals: evidence for photoinhibition and photoprotection. Coral Reefs, 18,99-105, 1999

Current:

• Upland geo-ecology: - The geo-ecological recovery and historic development of degraded UK peatlands (Dr Sarah Crowe with funding by British Ecological Society)
• Marine Ecology: -
  • Modelling the consequences of intersexuality in Echinogammarus marinus (Dr Alex Ford with funding British Council).
  • The ecology of intersex cave shrimps (Dr Alex Ford with funding from British Ecological Society and the Carnegie Trust for Scottish Universities)
  • Determine sex specific genes in normal and intersex crustaceans (Dr Alex Ford with funding from NERC 454 Genomics Grant)
  • The ecological impact of marine renewable devices in the Pentland Firth [in collaboration with Heriot-Watt] (Drs Mark Shields & Alex Ford - workpackage in joint Heriot Watt (Jon Side) - UHI (Stuart Gibb) - EMEC programme ADVANCING MARINE RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH CAPACITY IN SCOTLAND with funding from Scottish Funding Council, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise)
• Microbial Ecology: -
  • Microbial Responses to Erosion and Recent Vegetation Recovery of Blanket Peatlands in the UK (Marcella Branagan with funding from ARC)
  • Using phytoplankton and bacterioplankton to assess the ecological status of freshwaters in Scotland. (Danishta Dumur, Stuart Gibb, Martina Burtscher, Angela Squier, Kenny Boyd and Alan Youngson with funding from ARC)
• Ecosystem Health: -
  • Dragonfly distributions in an afforested, post-felled and pristine blanket bog gradient. Mike Tyrell & Sarah Crowe with funding from Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise CASE.
  • Seabird ecology (fulmar diet studies) in collaboration with the Cromarty Lighthouse Group (Dr Kathleen McDougall, Kenneth Boyd, Stuart Gibb) with funding from University of Aberdeen.
• Interests:
  Upland geo-ecology: -
  • Palaeoecological evidence of fire and recovery trajectories in North Scotland bogs (Dr Sarah Crowe with Richard Lindsay, UEL)
  • The Cross-Lochs project: recovery of carbon fluxes in post-felled peatland (Dr Sarah Crowe with CEH, Edinburgh)
• Interests:
  Marine Ecology: -
  • Ecoepidemiology of coral diseases: links between environmental contamination, bacterial loads, and coral health" (Craig Downs, Martina Burstcher).
  • Gradients in benthic community structure and bioturbation potential in the deep Nordic Seas (Mark Shields with David Hughes and Kenny Black, Scottish Association for Marine Science)
  • Coral Zooxanthella Systematics: classification by molecular genetic, photosynthetic pigment, metabolite, and electron microscopic methods  (Drs Boyd, McDougall, Gibb and Burstcher)
  • Pigment polymorphisms in intertidal amphipods (Xiaoyan Su, Alex Ford & Angela Squier)
• Interests:
  Ecosystem Health: -
  • Biomarkers of environmental stress in warm water corals in collaboration with University of Newcastle and Haereticus Environmental Laboratory, USA. (Dr Kathleen McDougall)
  • Restoring areas of forestry to open peatland: effects on aluminium remobilization and export from blanket bog habitats (François Muller, with cooperation from RSPB Forsinard)

• Monitoring/Sampling Projects: Loch Rannoch freshwater ecology field programme in collaboration with FRS Danishta et al + Alan Youingson and Eric Verspoor at FRS