People > Professor Pennie Lindeque

Professor Pennie Lindeque

Head of Science - Marine Ecology and Biodiversity



Contact Details

+44 (0)1752 633100 (switchboard)

pkw01/03/2021 13:22:06@pml.ac.uk

Prof Pennie Lindeque is Head of Science for the Marine Ecology and Biodiversity (MEB) science area with more than 18 years expertise in the area of development, systematics and trophic interactions of eukaryotes, in particular zooplankton. Current focus includes investigating the bioavailability and impact of microplastics on marine biota combining laboratory experiments and field sampling. As a molecular biologist her research has also centred on using molecular techniques to help answer ecological questions; including developing molecular techniques for identification of holoplankton and meroplankton, including Next Generation Sequencing technologies, and investigating trophic interactions through molecular gut content analysis.

Pennie has published 34 peer reviewed papers with more than 1600 citations (h-index 17). She has led a number of field campaigns, most recently looking at the abundance and distribution of microplastics in coastal and open ocean areas. She has supervised a number of MSc and MRes students plus 8 PhD students (4 to completion and 4 current) with academic links to University of Plymouth, University of Exeter, University of Swansea, Queen Mary University of London and Stazione Zoological, Naples (Open University).

Projects

Removing marine microplastics with mussel power
Removing marine microplastics with mussel power

Contact: Dr Matthew Cole

Removing marine microplastics with mussel power is a one-year feasibility study funded by Waitrose Plan Plastic to develop an ecological solution...

OPTIMAL
Optical Methods for Marine Litter detection (OPTIMAL)

Contact: Dr Victor Martinez-Vicente

Marine litter consists predominantly of plastics and is an increasing global concern because of its worldwide distribution and its impacts on the...


Other key projects

In the last 5 years Prof Lindeque has been PI or Co-I on a number of UK and EU research grants currently including:

  • NERC Changing Arctic Ocean Programme 2017-2021; Mechanistic understanding of the role of diatoms in the success of the Arctic Calanus complex and implications for a warmer Arctic (DIAPOD). Lindeque PI.
  • NERC Highlight Topic Grant 2016-2020; SeA-DNA: Development and application of eDNA tools to assess the structure and function of coastal sea ecosystems. Lindeque PI.

Selected key publications

   

Nelms, SE; Galloway, TSG; Godley, BJ; Jarvis, DS; Lindeque, PK. 2018 Investigating microplastic trophic transfer in marine top predators. Environmental Pollution. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2018.02.016

   

Nelms, SE; Coombes, C; Foster, LC; Godley, BJ; Galloway, TSG; Lindeque, PK; Witt, MJ. 2017 Marine anthropogenic litter on British beaches: a 10-year nationwide assessment using citizen science data. Science of the Total Environmnet. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.11.137

   

Nelms, SE; Duncan, EM; Broderick, AC; Galloway, TSG; Godfrey, MH; Hamann, M; Lindeque, PK; Godley, BJ. 2016 Plastic and marine turtles: a review and call for research. ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil, 73 (2). 165-181. doi: 10.1093/icesjms/fsv165

   

Cole, M., Lindeque, P.K., Fileman, E., Halsband, C., Galloway, T. 2015. The impact of microplastics on feeding, function and fecundity in the copepod Calanus helgolandicus. Environmental Science & Technology, 49(2): 1130–1137. doi: 10.1021/es504525u

   

Cripps, G., Lindeque, P.K., Flynn, K. 2014. Have we been underestimating the effects of ocean acidification in zooplankton? Global Change Biology. 20(11): 3377-3385. doi: 10.1111/gcb.12582

   

Lindeque, P.K., Parry, H.E., Harmer, R.A., Somerfield, P.J., Atkinson, A. 2013 Next Generation Sequencing Reveals the Hidden Diversity of Zooplankton Assemblages. PLoS ONE 8(11): e81327. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0081327

   

Cole, M., Lindeque, P.K., Fileman, E., Halsband, C., Goodhead, R., Moger, J., Galloway, T.S. 2013. Microplastic ingestion by zooplankton. Environmental Science and Technology, doi: 10.1021/es400663f

Other activities

Highly Cited Researchers awardProf Pennie Lindeque received the Highly Cited Researcher award from Web of Science in 2019 in the field of Environment and Ecology.

Pennie held the post of Head of Postgraduate Studies at PML, including PML's involvement with the three Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs), GW4+, Spitfire and EnvEast, from 2014 - 2019.

Pennie is an invited chair of the Study Group on Integrated Morphological and Molecular Taxonomy (SGIMT).

Recent impact and outreach activities include:

  • Presentation to the Parliamentary and Scientific committee on the problem of plastics and plankton (London, 2016).
  • Contribution to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) briefing on public policy issues related to marine microplastic pollution (2016).
  • Popular science articles including International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) feature article on ‘Plastics and Plankton’ (August 2016); Marine Biologists article ‘Plastics, plankton and pollution’ (Oct 2016), ‘Microplastics, Major problem’, Pipeline magazine, Surfers against sewage 2015.
  • BBC Inside Out feature on microplastics in the marine environment, Oct 2015.
  • Involvement with the production of educational films and lessons plans for GSCE national curriculum based around microplastic research in the marine environment.