News Release

Major award to NOC marine geoscientist

Grant and Award Announcement

National Oceanography Centre, UK

Dr. Veerle Huvenne, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK)

image: Dr. Huvenne is a senior research fellow at the United Kingdom's National Oceanography Centre. view more 

Credit: NOC

Marine geoscientist Dr Veerle Huvenne of the United Kingdom's National Oceanography Centre has been awarded a major research grant worth around 1.4 million Euros over five years to map complex habitats in the deep ocean and study the biodiversity they support.

The European Research Council (ERC) 'Starting Grant' scheme aims to fund young, early career scientists wishing to start up their own research groups. The grants are highly competitive, and this is the first ever such award to a laboratory managed by the UK's Natural Environment Research Council.

The ERC award secures funding for a five-year project entitled 'Complex Deep-sea Environments: Mapping habitat heterogeneity As Proxy for biodiversity' (CODEMAP), which Huvenne will lead. It will bring together scientists and engineers from different groups across the National Oceanography Centre.

The aim of the project is to use state-of-the-art three-dimensional surveying methods to map complex deep-sea environments such as submarine canyons. Such environments are home to many marine creatures whose ecology is at present poorly understood, and are highly likely to host species new to science.

One important question that the project will address is how patterns of biodiversity are related to habitat heterogeneity at different spatial scales across deep-sea terrains.

Expressing her delight at receiving such a prestigious grant, Huvenne said:

"I am very happy to see support for integrated and multidisciplinary research in the marine environment. Human exploitation of the deep sea is increasing rapidly, and our understanding of the deep ocean is as yet far too limited to predict potential impacts and set up sustainable approaches. Integrated research combining traditional disciplines such as geology and ecology, and linking those with the latest developments in underwater vehicle technology, is the only way to approach this challenge."

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Notes for editors

1. Further information about the ERC Starting Grant scheme and the application process can be found on the ERC website at http://erc.europa.eu/.

2. Veerle Huvenne studied bio-engineering at the University of Gent, where she also qualified as a teacher. She then moved to the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) where she was awarded a Masters of Science in Oceanography for sonar imaging studies in the Porcupine Seabight of the northeastern Atlantic. Having moved back to her native Belgium in 1999, Huvenne received a PhD in Geology (2003) from the University of Gent's Renard Centre of Marine Geology for work on cold-water coral mounds in the Porcupine Seabight. This was followed by a postdoctoral position at the University of Southampton (2003-2004) and Postdoctoral Fellowships with the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders (FWO) and the EU Marie Curie Fellowship Scheme (2004-2007).

Huvenne is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, where her research covers submarine canyons, habitat mapping, cold-water corals and sediment transport. She has more than 20 peer-reviewed papers to her name and has participated in several international projects, including HERMES and HERMIONE, funded under EU Framework Programmes 6 and 7, respectively. She has also participated in 20 international scientific cruises, including once as Chief Scientist aboard the RRS James Cook.

3. The National Oceanography Centre (NOC; www.noc.ac.uk) is a new national research organisation that went live on 1 April 2010. NOC works in partnership with the UK marine research community to deliver integrated marine science and technology from the coast to the deep ocean. It was formed by bringing together into a single institution Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)-managed activity at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton and the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory in Liverpool.

NOC works in close partnership with the wider marine science community to create the integrated research capability needed to tackle the big environmental issues facing the world. Research priorities will include the oceans' role in climate change, sea-level change and the future of the Arctic Ocean.

The University of Southampton and the University of Liverpool are hosting partners of NOC. The University of Southampton's School of Ocean & Earth Science shares a waterfront campus with the NERC-operated elements of NOC, and a close collaborative relationship is maintained at both Southampton and Liverpool.


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