Dr Stephen Watson
Senior Ecosystems Services Scientist
stw@pml.ac.uk | +44 (0)1752 633100 (switchboard)Dr Stephen Watson is Deputy Lead of the Value of Marine Artificial Structures (VALMAS) project (2025–2029) and leads PML’s Just Transition portfolio within PML’s Ocean Challenge: Climate Change. He leads this portfolio with a vision to understand how the UK (and other countries) can sustainably deploy marine renewable energy technologies, decarbonise its energy supply and meet its climate targets in harmony with nature and society.
He was Deputy Co-Director of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) – Energy, Environment and Landscapes theme (2020–2025) and remains a member of UKERC. He currently leads ecosystem-service-related work across a range of marine-energy projects, including MOET (Managing the Environmental Sustainability of the Offshore Energy Transition), ECOWind PELAgIO (Physics-to-Ecosystem Level Assessment of Impacts of Offshore Windfarms), Ecoflow (Establishing a Framework for Quantifiable Evidence and Impact of Ecosystem Change Throughout the Lifecycle of UK Floating Offshore Wind Farms – EQUIFy), and Econex.
He also specialises in applying the Natural Capital approach to coastal, marine and terrestrial systems. Stephen is currently engaged in three collaborative research projects the Sea the Value project, Transformative Research Actions for Resilient Coastal Communities (TRACC) and the Blackwater-Colne natural capital projects.
His research utilises systematic reviews, ecological indicators, GIS, ecosystem models (e.g., Ecopath, InVEST), coastal natural capital approaches, and methods of monetary and non-monetary evaluation to better understand how human activities affect marine and coastal ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide.
Stephen conducted his PhD on the “impact of multiple stressors on coastal biodiversity and associated ecosystem services” at PML and the University of St Andrews from 2013-2017. Prior to his return to PML in 2020, he was a Senior Research Associate on the Solent Natural Capital Project at the University of Portsmouth. Other projects he has contributed to include the Valuing Nature (VNP) and Biodiversity & Ecosystem Service Sustainability (BESS) research programmes.
Key Projects
- UKERC Energy, Environment and Landscapes programme
- DREAMS – Decommissioning – Relative Effects of Alternative Management Strategies
- INSITE Overall Synthesis Project
- PELAgIO – Physics-to-Ecosystem Level Assessment of Impacts of Offshore Windfarms
- EcoNex – The marine energy, biodiversity and food nexus
- MOET- Managing the Environmental Sustainability of the Offshore Energy Transition
- ORIES – Offshore Renewable Impacts on Ecosystem Services
- Sea the Value – Economics of Biodiversity
- Solent Natural Capital Study
Selected Publications
- Watson, S. C. L., Szostek, C. L., Edwards-Jones, A., Wills, B., Watson, G. J.,& Beaumont, N. J. (2025). Assessing, monitoring and mitigating the effects of offshore wind farms on biodiversity. Nature Reviews Biodiversity. SharedIt link: https://rdcu.be/eBrZ4
- Watson, S.C.L, Beaumont, N.J. Nutrient Recycling and Waste Remediation as a Service from Estuarine and Coastal Ecosystems Treatise on Estuarine and Coastal Science, Second Edition (2023 In Press)
- Watson, S.C.L, Watson, G.J., Beaumont, N.J. and Preston, J., (2022). Inclusion of condition in natural capital assessments is critical to the implementation of marine nature-based solutions. Science of the Total Environment, 838, p.156026.
- Lemasson, A.J., Somerfield, P.J., Schratzberger, M., McNeill, C.L., Nunes, J., Pascoe, C., Watson, S.C.L, Thompson, M.S., Couce, E. and Knights, A.M., (2022). Evidence for the effects of decommissioning man-made structures on marine ecosystems globally: a systematic map. Environmental Evidence, 11(1), pp.1-29.
- Watson, S. C.L, Preston, J., Beaumont, N. J., & Watson, G. J. (2020). Assessing the natural capital value of water quality and climate regulation in temperate marine systems using a EUNIS biotope classification approach. Science of the total Environment, 744, pp.140688.
- Watson, S.C.L., Grandfield, F.G.C., Herbert, R.J.H. and Newton, A.C., 2018. Detecting ecological thresholds and tipping points in the natural capital assets of a protected coastal ecosystem. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 215, 112-123.
- Watson, S.C.L., Paterson, D.M., Queirós, A.M., Rees, A.P., Stephens, N., Widdicombe, S. and Beaumont, N.J., 2016. A conceptual framework for assessing the ecosystem service of waste remediation: In the marine environment. Ecosystem Services, 20, 69-81.
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