Publications

We have an excellent reputation for producing high quality scientific publications from our research and also for having amongst the mostly highly cited papers in the environmental science community, both in the UK and internationally. This was borne out by two separate surveys conducted by Thomson Reuters and also by an analysis conducted by Scopus in 2013.

Recent journal publications

You will find a selection of recently published papers below. You can view more recent papers or search our database on our repository: Plymouth Marine Science Electronic Archive (PlyMSEA).

PML Publishing

Our in-house publishing enables us to produce outputs that may not suit the traditional publishing process. We believe it's vital that our stakeholders can freely access as much of our science as possible. We aim to publish reports, books, and other scientific literature that is of interest to those passionate about marine science.

Image of server GPU units in the PML server room

Improving the performance of National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) code using GPUs

Published: 2023

Author(s): Nicola Martin, Daniel Clewley, Steve Groom

<h2>Executive summary</h2> <ul> <li>The aim of this study was to investigate the advantages of different tools designed for running code on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and specify the types of code best suited for GPU acceleration.</li> <li>Three examples of code were obtained from NCEO scientists for three distinct applications and ported to GPUs on the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Earth Observation Data Acquisition and Analysis Service (NEODAAS) MAGEO computing cluster.</li> <li>Comparisons were made between the time taken to run the code on the original Central Processing Unit (CPU) and the MAGEO CPU and GPU.</li> <li>Accelerations of between x30 and x1800 were achieved: more details are provided below.</li> <li>In terms of energy saving this relates to an estimated 93.9% to 99.8% reduction in electricity usage.</li> <li>The study highlighted the value of expertise in GPUs and coding such as provided by NEODAAS</li> </ul>

Assessment of the environmental, ecosystem, and human activities in coastal Vietnam and Cambodia gathered from satellite remote sensing

Published: 2022

Author(s): Helen S. Findlay, Andrey Kurekin, Nick Selmes

The NERC-funded National Capability project: Addressing Challenges of Coastal Communities through Ocean Research for Developing Economies (ACCORD) is a consortium project that aimed to deliver high-quality science outcomes required to improve the environmental information available to support: 1) Sustainable growth of, and resilience to change for, the blue economies of partner countries, and 2) Resilience to natural hazards including impact-based, climate-proof coastal flood warning systems, in coastal states on the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) list of Official Development Assistance (ODA) recipients. As part of ACCORD, PML has been working with two communities, one in Vietnam and one in Cambodia (Figure 1). Over the period 2018 to 2021, research and capacity building was carried out in these two locations. One aspect of these programmes was to utilise Earth Observations as a tool for providing background data.

Dark room with separated pods with curtains across and one being opened by a scientist with a red headtorch

MARLAN: Plymouth Marine Laboratory’s Marine Artificial Light at Night Research Facility

Published: 2022

Author(s): Ana M Queirós, Liz Talbot, Chris Pascoe, Anthony Staff and Steve Widdicombe 
 

This document describes the design of, and infrastructure implemented, within the Light Pollution Research Facility at Plymouth Marine Laboratory. This is a bespoke light insulated seawater aquarium facility dedicated to the study of light pollution effects, located within the mesocosm laboratory at Plymouth Marine Laboratory. The facility is composed of three main components: the Holding System; the Lighting System; and the Tidal Lightscape Simulator. The document details each section and the technical information about the design of each component.

Image of a boat on a beach in the phillipines

Ecosystem service provision by marine habitats in Southeast Asia

Published: 2022

Author(s): Stefanie Broszeit, Caroline Hattam, Olivia Langmead, Radisti A. Praptiwi, Lota Creencia, Amy Yee Hui Then, Voon-Ching Lim, Tran Duc Hau, Andrew Edwards-Jones, Melanie C. Austen

This report provides an overview of the available evidence for the links between tropical marine habitats and the provision of ecosystem services. It forms one of the outputs of Project 3: Impacts on Ecosystem Services and Values of the Global Challenges Research Fund, Blue Communities Programme (grant number: NE/ P021107/1). GCRF Blue Communities aims to build capacity for sustainable interactions with marine ecosystems for the benefit of the health, well-being, food security and livelihoods of coastal communities in SE Asia. It focuses on four case study sites in SE Asia: Palawan, Philippines; Taka Bonerate Kepulauan Selayar, Indonesia; Cu Lao Cham, Viet Nam and Tun Mustapha Park in Sabah, Malaysia, the first three sites being UN Man and Biosphere Reserves, the latter being part of the largest multiple use marine park in Malaysia (Figure 1). The sites were chosen to reflect marine parks in which human use is limited by regional regulations aiming to achieve sustainable use. One site also contains some urban coastal space (Puerto Princesa City, Palawan).

Image of Da Nang Vietnam from above

Characterisation of the inshore marine sectors of Da Nang, Vietnam

Published: 2022

Author(s): Olivia R. Rendón1, Andrew Edwards-Jones1, Thi Kinh Kieu2 , Oceane Marcone1, Stefanie Broszeit1, Nicola Beaumont1
1Sea and Society Group, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, United Kingdom
2Da Nang University, Vietnam

Da Nang is a pioneer site in Southeast Asia for the implementation of Integrated Coastal Management and the first city in Vietnam to become an Environmental City in 2020. At the same time, the city of Da Nang in Vietnam is experiencing substantial changes in its urban landscape due to socioeconomic growth in line with three primary pillars: tourism, high-tech industry, and marine economy. These pillars are likely to bring negative environmental consequences, of which marine water quality is a key concern. Thus, this study carried out a characterisation of the inshore marine sectors and developed understanding of the impacts of poor water quality and Covid-19, with the aim of informing marine-coastal management.

Boats

Climate-smart spatial planning assessment in support of conservation and blue growth in Da Nang city's marine environment

Published: 2022

Author(s): Queiros, AM; Talbot, E; Kay, S; Sailley, SF; Vu Hoang Le, T; Thi Pham, C; Widdicombe, S

This study assessed ocean climate modelling datasets to establish what sensitivities to climate change could be identified for species of commercial and conservation value in the waters of Da Nang City, Vietnam, and what actions could be taken to support their adaptation to these pressures.

The RRS Discovery research ship in port

AMT 29 Cruise Report

Published: 2020

Author(s): Giorgio Dall'Olmo

The 29th Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) research cruise (DY110) set sail from Southampton on October 13th, 2019 aboard the Royal Research Ship Discovery and arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile, on November 25th, 2019. This cruise report gathers together the scientific information and data obtained from the cruise.