People > Dr Glen Tarran

Dr Glen Tarran

Marine Ecologist



Contact Details

+44 (0)1752 633100 (switchboard)

gat15/11/2019 01:59:56@pml.ac.uk

Dr Glen Tarran is interested in the use and development of technology to automate the analysis of plankton community structure through flow cytometry. He manages the PML flow cytometry facility and has a great deal of experience of using flow cytometry in a wide range of marine, freshwater and other applications involving plankton and many other particles suspended in water. He currently characterises and quantifies microbial communities with the NERC National Capability programmes of the Western (English) Channel Observatory and the Atlantic Meridional Transect and is involved in the commissioning of the Single Cell Genomics Facility at PML.

His published papers relate to plankton community composition and dynamics, particularly in the open ocean, as well as a range of papers associated with the application of flow cytometry in aquatic ecology.

Flow cytometry is a generic technique for optically analysing and quantifying particles suspended in a medium. The analysis is multi-parametric, each particle can have two light scattering and 3 fluorescence properties measured simultaneously at rates up to 5000 particles per second. The PML's flow cytometers can also pick out (sort) sub-populations from samples to give pure samples, either for culturing, verification or rate measurements on specific components of a community. The flow cytometers at PML have been used to analyse phytoplankton, bacteria, viruses, silt, blood, beads, paint particles, squid ink, detergent bubbles, metazoan tissue cell suspensions, milk, oil and so on. Basically, if it's in suspension it can be measured.

Glen has over 70 peer-reviewed research papers and book chapters.

Projects

PETRA

Pathways and emissions of climate-relevant trace gases in a changing Arctic Ocean (PETRA)

Contact: Dr Andy Rees

The Arctic Ocean is a rapidly changing environment, with rising temperatures leading to an ongoing decline in sea ice and shifting conditions for...

S-3 EUROHAB - Sentinel products for detecting EUtROphication and Harmful Algal Bloom events

S-3 EUROHAB - Sentinel products for detecting EUtROphication and Harmful Algal Bloom events

Contact: Dr Gavin Tilstone

S-3 EUROHAB will use the latest satellite technology to improve the way water quality and harmful algal blooms (HABs) are monitored in the English...

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Recent publications

  • Instrument and Data Technician 

    £23,630 per annum 

    Full Time - 3 year Fixed Term Appointment 

    Do you have a background in building/developing scientific instrument systems and providing specialist technical support? Do you want to further your career in one of the UK’s leading marine research laboratories, making crucial steps to understanding how the oceans and marine atmosphere influence air pollution and climate?

    Plymouth Marine Laboratory has a strong track record in world leading Air-Sea Exchange (ASE) research. In recent years, the ASE group has had considerable success establishing a coastal atmospheric research station at Penlee Point (https://www.westernchannelobservatory.org.uk/penlee/) and developing the capability to make autonomous direct measurements of air/sea CO2 exchange from ships (e.g. https://www.westernchannelobservatory.org.uk/autoflux/discovery/). We require a Junior Technologist to help us to build upon these successes.

    As a key member of the ASE team your role will be to maintain and improve remote instrumentation at Penlee and on ships fitted with air/sea flux systems. You will drive forward the automation of remote instrumentation and develop novel methods of data acquisition and delivery using embedded PC technologies (e.g. Raspberry PI) and Python scripting. You will be responsible for data processing and quality control and will contribute to scientific interpretation and research outputs. You will be jointly responsible for the day-to-day running of the ASE laboratory and Penlee facility.

    This post is available immediately and for a fixed term of three years. To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact the air/sea exchange group lead (Dr Tom Bell) via careers@pml.ac.uk 

    For this role we are open to discuss the possibility of reduced hours, flexible working or possible job share.

    Please see the link for our  Employee Benefits

    Closing date: 5pm on Tuesday 10th December 2019

    Interviews will take place on Tuesday 4th February 2020


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Selected key publications

Tarran, G.A. and Bruun, J.T. (2015). Nanoplankton and picoplankton in the Western English Channel: seasonality and variability from 2007-2013. Progress in Oceanography (Part B), 137,446-455. doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2015.04.024

Schattenhofer, M., B.M. Fuchs, R. Amann, M.V. Zubkov, G.A. Tarran & J. Pernthaler (2009). Latitudinal distribution of prokaryotic picoplankton populations in the Atlantic Ocean. Environmental Microbiology, doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2009.01929.x.

Mawji, E., Gledhill, M., Milton, J.A., Tarran, G.A., Ussher, S., Thompson, A., Wolff, G.A., Worsfold, P.J. and Eric P. Achterberg, E.P. (2008). Hydroxamate siderophores: occurrence and importance in the Atlantic Ocean. Environmental Science and Technology 42 (23), 8675-8680.

Zubkov, M.V. and Tarran, G.A. (2008). High bacterivory by the smallest phytoplankton in the temperate North Atlantic Ocean. Nature, 455, 224-226. doi:10.1038/nature07236

Tarran, G.A., Heywood, J.L. and Zubkov, M.V. (2006) Latitudinal changes in the standing stocks of eukaryotic nano- and picophytoplankton in the Atlantic Ocean. Deep-Sea Research II, 53(14-16): 1516-1529.

Zubkov, M. V., Sleigh, M. A., Tarran, G.A., Burkill, P. H. and Leakey, R. J. L. (1998) Picoplanktonic community structure on an Atlantic transect from 50oN to 50oS. Deep-Sea Research I, 45: 1339-1355.

Other activities

ICES Working Group on Phytoplankton and Microbial Ecology