SEMINAR: Who is processing the carbon? Microbes, biofilms and coastal sediment function with Dr Julie Hope

Please join us for a special guest seminar with Dr Julie Hope, Lecturer in Marine Biology at the Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews. The seminar will be held on Tuesday 3rd November from 12-1pm in the Ground Floor Auditorium, Oceans Institute (IOMRC), at The University of Western Australia. This seminar will be held in-person and online. If you cannot attend, then you are invited to watch a recording of this seminar on our YouTube following the event. Check out our channel here. About the seminar Microphytobenthic biofilms drive primary productivity, biostabilisation and carbon and nutrient cycling in coastal sediments. Positioned at the sediment surface, they interact with overlying water, sediments and fauna which mediates flow, traps particles, and processes carbon and nutrients. The contribution of microphytobenthic biofilms to coastal function is often overlooked due to their patchy, dynamic nature and because most of what they do happens at such small scales, that we usually average across them. In this talk, I will discuss how the Hope Lab is tackling this by combining experimental work, field process measurements, biogeochemical analyses and spatial mapping to understand how microbes and biofilms drive sediment function, in particular our understanding of carbon dynamics. I will draw on a recent Scottish mudflat campaign that combines CO2 flux measurements alongside UAV and handheld imagery to map carbon function at the habitat scale. I will also share ongoing PhD research on how restoration and disturbance can affect the vulnerability of carbon across soft sediments and salt marsh habitats, and the role microbes play in whether carbon is mineralised. I’ll finish with how biofilms and microorganisms can modulate contaminant transport, and what these approaches could offer for coastal systems in WA. About the speaker Dr. Julie Hope is Lecturer in Marine Biology at the Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews, where she leads the Hope laboratory. Her research sits at the interface of ecology-geochemistry with a focus on microphytobenthic biofilms, their interactions with fauna, sediment and water and how our benthic communities underpin biostabilisation, and carbon and nutrient cycling processes. Her interdisciplinary research team explores how benthic biota and biofilms mediate the flux of sediment particles, contaminants, solutes, gases and energy under global change and how the physical, chemical, and biological drivers that regulate sediment stability, carbon cycling and storage, shift under stress.