Holly Jenkins

Role:

  • Member-At-Large, 2021-2022
  • Vice-President, 2020-2021
  • President, 2019 – 2020
  • Co-head of Education & Outreach, 2018 – 2019

Contacts:

Background:

I studied for both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in marine biology at the University of Southampton. Now I’m lucky enough to still be there, researching for my PhD – I just can’t seem to drag myself away from the place! Being based at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, I am constantly surrounded by some of the best marine scientists in the UK and it’s extraordinary.

My passions all relate to climate change, mainly the way it affects organisms. Seeing as these changes are most obvious at the poles, these are perfect places to focus on. I’m a great believer in making science accessible and fun to everyone. It’s never too complicated to be interesting to the public, and it’s only when our research is out there that positive changes can be made.

Current Research

I’m in my third year of studying for my doctorate as part of NERC’s Changing Arctic Ocean programme, a five-year programme to understand the effects of climate change on the ecosystems, biology and biogeochemistry of the Arctic Ocean. There are 32 project partners across the UK and Germany so it’s a really exciting project to be involved in.

My PhD focusses on a particularly important member of the Arctic zooplankton – the copepod – and how its phytoplankton diet influences its productivity. The timing, composition and magnitude of phytoplankton blooms in the Arctic are changing in response to warming and sea ice retreat, so I’m trying to work out how this impacts the growth of copepods. Happily, data collection has taken me to the Fram Strait twice, reaching 80oN.

I’m funded by SPITFIRE and Changing Arctic Oceans.