糖心Vlog

Deep sea coral expert Dr Michelle Taylor from the 糖心Vlog has been awarded a prestigious Darwin Plus grant to study corals in the Southern Ocean.

The three-year project is among 17 innovative new projects around the globe to receive a share of around 拢3.5 million from the initiative, designed to support the preservation of international nature and achieve commitments in the UK Government鈥檚 to improve the environment within a generation.

The diverse array of projects to receive funding are focused on the UK Overseas Territories and include radar tracking of albatrosses in the south Atlantic, exploring the deepest parts of the Atlantic Ocean, and protecting wetlands in the Caribbean.

Dr Taylor, from the School of Life Sciences (formerly the School of Biological Sciences), will be working on her 拢278,000 project with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) - a world leader in marine science and technology, providing innovative solutions for the aquatic environment, biodiversity and food security.

The project will focus on corals, specifically a type called octocorals, which form octocoral gardens. The samples to be analysed have been collected over the past ten years from several Antarctic expeditions and from museums and institutes around the world.

Explaining her project Dr Taylor said: 鈥淭he South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Marine Protected Area (MPA) is one of the world鈥檚 largest protected areas, protecting vast deep-ocean areas that harbour diverse, vulnerable marine ecosystems.

鈥淯nderstanding the MPA鈥檚 role regionally is important for conservation management and this project investigates deep-sea diversity and the genetic connectivity of habitat-forming organisms within the protected area and the across the wider South Atlantic region.鈥�

Th茅r猫se Coffey, member of the Environmental Audit Committee said: 鈥淭hese 17 projects receiving funding through Darwin Plus will make a significant contribution to international conservation, demonstrating the UK's global leadership in this field.

鈥淧rotecting and enhancing nature in our Overseas Territories will help to make crucial activities such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry and tourism more sustainable.鈥�