"Being a scientific researcher is not about knowing all the answers, it’s about knowing how to try to find the answer. This is what motivates me, the fact we don’t know everything yet; that what we are researching could help improve our interaction with the oceans, could lead us to sustainable solutions, or new innovations."
Helen Findlay first came to Plymouth Marine Laboratory in 2006 to do her PhD on ocean acidification and climate change impact on marine populations. She completed her PhD in 2009 and began a 2 year position at PML as the Lord Kingsland Fellow. She then continued on at PML after the fellowship and became senior scientist in 2013.
Helen is interested in understanding the effects of climate change and ocean acidification on marine ecosystems, and the application of this knowledge to maintain a healthy, sustainable ocean. She uses a combination of experimental, observational, and modelling tools to investigate the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on marine organisms and ecosystem functioning, with a particular focus on the Arctic.
She is a member of the Executive Council for the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) and lead coordinator for the North East Atlantic Ocean Acidification (NEA-OA) regional hub of GOA-ON, which aim to establish accurate global monitoring of acidification, share knowledge and build capacity, to underpin solutions. Helen also contributes to raising public awareness of ocean health and to training the next generation of scientists through school educational programmes, such as Encounter Edu’s ‘Arctic Live’; and to policy solutions through engagement with, for example, UNFCCC, the UK’s Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Arctic Council AMAP Working Group and the International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification.
- 2018 – 2020: AXA XL Arctic Live. Project partner together with Encounter Edu and University of Exeter.
- 2018 – 2021: European Space Agency: OceanSODA. Co-Investigator.
- Land PE, Findlay HS, Shutler JD, Ashton I, Girad-Ardhuin F, Reul N, Piolle J-F, Chapron B, Quifen Y, Salisbury J, Vandemark D, Bellerby RGJ, Bhadury P, Sabia R, 2019. Optimum satellite and in situ inputs to empirical algorithms for deriving carbonate system parameters in the Global Ocean, the Greater Caribbean, the Amazon plume, and the Bay of Bengal. Remote Sens. Environ. 235: 111469
- Mangan S, Urbina MA, Wilson R, Findlay HS, Lewis C, 2017. Fluctuating seawater pH/pCO2 regimes are more energetically expensive than static pH/pCO2 levels in the mussel Mytilus edulis. Proc. Royal Soc. B, 20171642.
- Hennige SJ, Wicks LC, Kamenos NA, Findlay HS, Roberts JM, 2015. Hidden impacts of ocean acidification to live and dead coral framework. Proc. Royal Soc. B.
- Findlay HS, Gibson G, Kedra M, Morata N, Orchowska M, Pavlov A, Reigstad M, Silyakova A, Tremblay J-E, Walczowski W, Weydmann A, Logvinova C, 2015. Responses in Arctic marine carbon cycle processes: conceptual scenarios & implications for ecosystem. Polar Res., 34: 24252.
- Queirós A, Fernandes J, Faulwetter S, Nunes J, Rastrick S, Mieszkowska N, Artioli Y, Yool A, Calosi P, Arvanitidis C, Findlay HS, Barange M, Cheung W, Widdicombe S, 2015. Quantifying ecosystem-level consequences of ocean acidification and warming by scaling up individual level responses of a predator snail and its trophic interactions. Global Change Biol., 21(1): 130–143.
- Lewis CN*, Brown KA, Edwards L, Cooper G, Findlay HS*, 2013. (*contributed equally) Sensitivity to ocean acidification parallels natural pCO2 gradients experienced by Arctic copepods under winter sea ice. PNAS 110: E4960-E4967.
Recent publications
- Land, PE; Findlay, HS; Shutler, JD; Piollé, J-F; Sims, RP; Green, H; Kitidis, V; Polukhin, A; Pipko, II; 2023. OceanSODA-MDB: a standardised surface ocean carbonate system dataset for model–data intercomparisons. Earth System Science Data.
- Findlay, HS; Kurekin, A; Selmes, N; 2022. Assessment of the environmental, ecosystem, and human activities in coastal Vietnam and Cambodia gathered from satelitte remote sensing. PML Publishing.
- Sims, RP; Bedington, M; Schuster, U; Watson, AJ; Kitidis, V; Torres, R; Findlay, HS; Fishwick, J; Brown, IJ; Bell, TG; 2022. Tidal mixing of estuarine and coastal waters in the western English Channel is a control on spatial and temporal variability in seawater CO2;. Biogeosciences.
- Cornwell, LE; Fileman, ES; Bruun, JT; Hirst, AG; Tarran, GA; Findlay, HS; Lewis, C; Smyth, TJ; McEvoy, AJ; Atkinson, A; 2020. Resilience of the Copepod Oithona similis to Climatic Variability: Egg Production, Mortality, and Vertical Habitat Partitioning. Frontiers in Marine Science.
- Kitidis, V; Shutler, JD; Ashton, I; Warren, M; Brown, IJ; Findlay, HS; Hartman, SE; Sanders, R; Humphreys, M; Kivimäe, C; Greenwood, N; Hull, T; Pearce, D; McGrath, T; Stewart, BM; Walsham, P; McGovern, E; Bozec, Y; Gac, J-P; van Heuven, SMAC; Hoppema, M; Schuster, U; Johannessen, T; Omar, A; Lauvset, SK; Skjelvan, I; Olsen, A; Steinhoff, T; Körtzinger, A; Becker, M; Lefevre, N; Diverrès, D; Gkritzalis, T; Cattrijsse, A; Petersen, W; Voynova, YG; Chapron, B; Grouazel, A; Land, PE; Sharples, J; Nightingale, PD; 2019. Winter weather controls net influx of atmospheric CO2 on the north-west European shelf. Scientific Reports.