Dr Karen Tait
Microbial Ecologist
"Every litre of seawater and every gram of sediment contains a hidden biological record of the ecosystem around it. I use environmental DNA and genomics to unlock that information, revealing how marine communities respond to climate change, disturbance and other environmental pressures. "
Dr Karen Tait is a molecular ecologist whose research uses environmental DNA (eDNA), genomics and bioinformatics to understand how marine ecosystems respond to environmental change. Her work spans microbes, plankton, fish and benthic communities, with particular expertise in developing molecular approaches for biodiversity monitoring, ecosystem assessment and long-term marine observation.
Karen leads research that integrates biomolecular and conventional observations to improve understanding of ecosystem structure, functioning and resilience across coastal, shelf-sea and open-ocean environments. Her interests include marine biodiversity change, ecosystem functioning, microbial ecology, blue carbon and biogeochemical cycling, and the application of molecular tools to environmental management and policy.
She leads the AMT-omics programme within the Ocean Biomolecular Observing Network (OBON) and contributes to national and international efforts to develop biomolecular observations as part of global ocean observing systems. Through projects spanning marine biodiversity, carbon cycling and ecosystem health, her research aims to deliver the evidence needed to support sustainable management of marine ecosystems in a rapidly changing world.
Key Projects
- AgZero+:Towards sustainable, climate-neutral farming (NERC)
- ECO-Pelagic: Gelatinous zooplankton monitoring in the NorthEast Atlantic using eDNA (DEFRA)
- C-FLOOR: Managing shelf sea carbon cycles and greenhouse gas release from physical disturbance of the seafloor (NERC)
- FOCUS: Future States of the Global Coastal Ocean: Understanding for Solutions; eDNA tools for marine monitoring (NERC)
- PEL-CAP – mNCEAP: Pelagic; from physics to sharks; zooplankton eDNA/microscope comparison (DEFRA)
- Go-eFISH: Generating best practise for the use of eDNA for marine fish biodiversity analyses (Innovate UK/DEFRA)
- The carbon and biodiversity value of offshore, co-located seaweed farming (Amazon Right Now Climate Fund)
- Bio-Plastic-Risk: Biodegradable Bioplastics – Assessing Environmental Risk (NERC)
- AtlantEco – Atlantic ECOsystems assessment, forecasting & sustainability (H2020-BG-2019-2)
- BIO-PLASTIC-RISK: Biodegradable plastics – assessing environmental risk; NERC (2021 – 2025)
- MARINe-DNA: Development and application of eDNA tools to assess the structure and function of coastal sea ecosystems; NERC (2016 – 2020).
- Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry: Biogeochemistry, macronutrient and carbon cycling in the benthic layer; NERC (2013 – 2017).
Selected Publications
- Tait K et al. (2026). eDNA and microscopy reveal traits underlying long-term zooplankton community change. Communications Biology in press.
- Szostek et al. (2026). Science challenges and solutions to support implementation of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement. Npj Ocean Sustainability 5:22.
- Holland MM et al. (2025) Mind the gap: The need to integrate novel plankton methods alongside ongoing long-term monitoring. Ocean & Coastal Management 29:107542.
- Raes EJ et al. (2024) Seasonal patterns of microbial diversity across the world oceans. Limnology and Oceanography Letters. 9:512-23.
- McEvoy AJ et al. (2023) The Western Channel Observatory: a century of oceanographic, chemical and biological data compiled from pelagic and benthic habitats in the Western English Channel. Earth System Science Data Discussions. 16:1-42.
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