PLEASE NOTE: Application deadline date 08 Jan 2024. Applications are no longer being accepted for this project
Project Overview
Dietary biomolecules, such as vitamins, fatty acids and minerals are vital for marine organism health. Anthropogenic activities (pollution, nutrient input including biomolecules, climate change) alter the abundance and distribution of these essential elements in prey items. A gap in our knowledge is how the changes in dietary biomolecule spatial and temporal distribution affects marine ecosystem functioning.
Project Description
Vitamins, fatty acids and minerals are vital for health. Animals are unable to synthesize these biomolecules and are reliant on dietary intake. Thus, the distribution and abundance of dietary prey items is of great importance for all organisms higher up the food chain. For example, omega-3 fatty acids, which are critical for cell membrane formation and cognitive development and influence basal metabolic rate, are synthesized in the oceans by algae and accumulate in prey items [1]. The vitamin B complexes are also vital constituents of the diet. Thiamine, or Vitamin B1, availability, for example, is shaping ecosystems in both marine and terrestrial environments [2]. Anthropogenic alterations of the marine chemical environment are constantly affecting the distribution pattern of prey items and thus dietary biomolecules which has been hypothesized to affect ecological, evolutionary, developmental (eco-evo-devo) dynamics [1]. The importance of these essential micronutrients has been long recognized as multiple human health issues were associated with fatty acid, vitamin or nutrient deficiency. Today, the importance of dietary supplements is illustrated by the market size, with an estimate global worth of $72 billion. However, many of us take these micronutrients in excess and, therefore, significant amounts of these active biomolecules are excreted back to the environment. The consequences of this type of nutrient input into the marine environment has received very little attention, given the lack of ‘safety concerns’ to higher vertebrates and potential impact to many taxa and across the globe The project aims to evaluate the reliance of organisms higher up the food chain (crabs, echinoderms and fish) on natural dietary biomolecules and estimate the effects of abundance or absence on marine ecosystem health.
All doctoral candidates will enrol in the Graduate School of NOCS (GSNOCS), where they will receive specialist training in oral and written presentation skills, have the opportunity to participate in teaching activities, and have access to a full range of research and generic training opportunities. GSNOCS attracts students from all over the world and from all science and engineering backgrounds. There are currently around 200 full and part-time PhD students enrolled (~60% UK and 40% EU & overseas).
Specific training will include, but not restricted to, an analysis of global data to identify knowledge gaps, algal and zooplankton cultures to generate different diets, analytical chemistry for analysis of biomolecule concentrations, whole organism physiology and behavioural experiments to identify impacts of abundance or absence of dietary biomolecules, enzymatic analysis and gene expression profiles, as well as evaluating the impacts on ecosystem functioning.
- Závorka et al 2023. The role of vital dietary biomolecules in eco-evo-devo dynamics, Trends in Ecology & Evolution 31, 71 – 84. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2022.08.010
- Kraft & Angert, 2017. Competition for vitamin B (thiamin) structures numerous ecological interactions. The Quarterly Review of Biology 92, 151 – 168. DOI: 10.1086/692168.
- Miller, TH., Ng, K.T., Lamphiere, A., Cameron, T.C., Bury, N.R., Barron, L.P. 2021. Multicompartment and cross-species monitoring of emerging contaminants in an estuarine habitat. Environmental Pollution, 270: 116300. DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.116300
