Advances in Coccolithophore Research 2025

Colin Brownlee

Marine Biological Association

Colin is a Ray Lankester Fellow at the Marine Biological Association and Professor Emeritus in the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences at the University of Southampton, a former MBA Director and Senior Research Fellow. He studies algal cells in order to understand fundamental aspects of cell biology, including transport across cell membranes, cellular homeostasis and cellular signalling processes that determine how phytoplankton cells sense and respond to changes in their environment. This research is providing unexpected insights into the evolution of membrane transport and signalling mechanisms in eukaryote organisms more generally. My research addresses the cell biology of key marine organisms, such as the calcifying coccolithophores and silicifying diatoms that are of critical importance in global carbon and nutrient cycles. This work has recently uncovered a new class of cation channels that play important roles in cell signalling in diatoms and coccolithophores as well as novel proton channels that are critical components of the coccolithophore calcification machinery. I adopt a multidisciplinary approach combining comparative physiology, molecular biology and genomics together with new advances in microscopy to better understand how phytoplankton populations may respond or adapt to changing conditions in the oceans.

Alba Gonzalez-Lanchas

University of Oxford

Alba Gonzalez-Lanchas is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Oxford (Oxford, UK). Her research interests focus on coccolithophore calcification, morphology, and environmental adaptation. Her work integrates micropaleontological, morphometric, and geochemical approaches to study nannofossil records and explore the interactions between coccolithophores, climate and the carbon cycle.

Griet Neukermans

University of Ghent

Griet is a marine scientist with expertise in ocean observation and advanced technologies for studying marine carbon cycling and ecosystems. Her work includes development of bio-optical sensors and detection algorithms, biogeochemical and optical characterization of marine particles, autonomous ocean observation systems, and ocean colour satellite algorithm development and data processing.

Blanca Ausin

IRNA, Salamanca

Blanca Ausín is a Distinguished Researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (IRNASA-CSIC, Salamanca, Spain), interested in coccolithophore ecology and its application in paleoclimate research, with a special focus on the influence of hydrodynamic processes on coccolith-derived climate signals.

Kyoko Hagino

Kochi University

Kyoko Hagino is a specially appointed lecturer at Kochi University (Kochi, Japan) and is interested in the biogeography, diversity, and phylogeny of coccolithophores. She studies diversity of Braarudosphaera bigelowii, one of the important nitrogen-fixing organisms in the ocean.

Andre Scheffel

University of Greifswald (Greifswald, Germany)

Andre Scheffel is a professor at the University of Greifswald (Greifswald, Germany) with a long-standing interest in algal cell biology and physiology. His research aims to unravel the molecular basis of key aspects of coccolithophore biology, such as the mechanism of calcite morphogenesis.

 

Ros Rickaby

University of Oxford

Ros Rickaby is the Chair of Geology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford with a long-standing interest in the co-evolving carbon cycle and phytoplankton. Her research aims to use isotopes, enzymes and genes to interrogate adaptation and drivers of change in physiology and calcification in response to the environment.

Hongrui Zhang

Tongji University, Shanghai

Hongrui Zhang is an assistant professor at the Tongji University, Shanghai, China working in biogeochemistry and paleo-climate based on coccolithophores. His works refine biogeochemical proxies based on coccolithophores and trace the carbon cycle effects of coccolithophore productivity in the past

Boris Karatsolis

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Boris Theofanis Karatsolis is a EUTOPIA-SIF Marie Curie Fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Brussels, Belgium). His research interests are centered on modern and fossilized calcareous nannoplankton assemblages. The last years he has been working on multiproxy paleoclimatic reconstructions during warmer than present intervals of Earth's history, with a particular interest on the late Miocene and Pliocene

Catarina V. Guerreiro

MARE, Lisbon

Catarina V. Guerreiro is a marine researcher at the Marine and Environmental Sciences Center (Lisbon, Portugal), focusing on coccolithophores as proxies for modern and past ocean-climate processes. She studies species-specific responses to environmental variability across coastal, shelf and open-ocean settings—including aeolian dust deposition and ocean warming—and their impact on marine carbon cycling.