SAMS news room

NERC award to genotype the benthic foraminifers of the North Atlantic shelf seas

A team led by Kate Darling (Edinburgh) as principal investigator with co-investigator Bill Austin (St Andrews), researcher co-investigator Magali Schweizer (Zurich), Dr Martin Sayer (National Facility for Scientific Diving, SAMS) and four further project partners from Norway and Iceland have been awarded £486k to study the benthic foraminifera of the North Atlantic shelf seas.

Using techniques pioneered at Edinburgh in genetic and morphological characterization, the team aims to reduce uncertainty (using modern analogue transfer function methods) in the palaeoclimate reconstructions based on the benthic foraminifers found in the regional habitats of the present day northeast Atlantic. Magali Schweizer will join the team to work at the University of Edinburgh from January 2010. A tied-PhD studentship will be available from October 2010, under the supervision of Bill Austin (St Andrews) and Kate Darling (Edinburgh); the student will develop a practical, morphologically-based taxonomic scheme guided by the new genetic characterization.