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Annual Science MEETINg

Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland

Aquatic Stressors Forum

Research

Welcome to the MASTS Aquatic Stressors Forum

This Forum promotes research, monitoring, training and an enhanced understanding of the effects of environmental (single or preferably multiple) stressors, both natural and anthropogenic, on aquatic organisms and communities. Investigations into stressor impacts range from empirical through to restoration and governance perspectives. The Forum is a centre for dialogue and networking and offers expertise, collaboration and advice. 

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Forum Activities

Open Forum Sessions

MASTS Open Forum Sessions aim at connecting the MASTS community with its diverse Research Forums and Steering Groups. At these online sessions, Forums “open their doors” to present their members’ work, network with the community and exchange ideas on Forum objectives and activities.

“Beyond the host: Integrating ectoparasites into multi-stressor ecotoxicological assessments” (2025)

A recording of this session is available on the MASTS YouTube Channel. Dr Beric Gilbert (University of the West of Scotland) describes the complexity of multi-stressor and species-specific dynamics.

“Physiological response & skeletal dissolution of cold-water corals to multiple environmental drivers” (2025)

A recording of this session is available on the MASTS YouTube Channel. Dr Kristina Beck (University of Edinburgh) is describing the combined effect of certain environmental drivers on cold-water coral species.

“Quantifying Levels and Intensities of Environmental Stressors across a wide range of pond types” (2024)

Dr Frances Orton (Heriot-Watt University) presented her study on small freshwater bodies, such as ponds, and the effect of six environmental stressors. This video was not recorded.

Annual Science Meetings

The MASTS ASM is a cross-disciplinary event that brings together the marine science community, with the aim of promoting and communicating research excellence and forging new collaborations. The event includes expert plenary speakers, general science and panel sessions, and e-posters.
Please see here for an overview of previous ASMs and programmes. 

The Forum hosted a Special Session on “Multiple Stressors”, chaired by Forum Convenors Dr Frances Orton and Prof Karen Diele and hosted a total of 8 talks, a list of which can be seen below. The Forum also hosted a full-day Workshop “Designing multiple driver experiments” which was organised and led by Forum Steering Group members Prof Sinéad Collins and Dr Matt Wale. 

Please see the full programme here.

Special Session Talks:

  • Khuong Dinh (University of Oslo): “Life and death of overwintering Arctic zooplankton under multiple stressors in the Anthropocene”
  • Susan Fitzer (University of Stirling): “Using biomineralisation responses to predict molluscan species-specific pathways for resilience to climate change”
  • Catriona Harris (University of St Andrews): “Understanding the cumulative effects of multiple stressors on marine mammals – An overview of the Population Consequences of Multiple Stressors (PCoMS) project”
  • Angus Taylor (SAMS): “Spined over matter: resilience and regeneration in a multi-stressor ocean of warming and acidification”
  • Júlia Olher (University of Sao Paulo): “Modelling the effects of climate and fishing on the ecosystem dynamics of South Mid-Atlantic Ridge islands using StrathE2E”
  • Elliot Sivel (University of Strathclyde): “Investigating anthropogenic intervention actions on Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) populations of the Bush River, Northern Ireland using a life cycle model”
  • Nele Thomsen (SAMS): “Multistress impacts of temperature and copper vary between two Arctic calanoid copepods”
  • Frances Orton (Heriot-Watt University): “Quantifying Levels and Intensities of Environmental Stressors in Ponds and how Stressor Intensity relates to Tadpole Body Condition”

The Aquatic Stressors Forum hosted a Special Session on “Multiple Aquatic Stressors”. Please see below a list of the presented talks and take a look at the programme for more details.

Special Session Talks:

  • Kristina Beck (University of Edinburgh): “Physiological response and skeletal dissolution of the cold-water coral Desmophyllum pertusum to multiple environmental stressors”
  • James Rimmer (University of St Andrews): “Investigating cumulative stressor impacts: challenges and approaches in the context of estuarine biofilms”
  • Ibrahim Lawan (Heriot-Watt University): “Combined Effects of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Microplastics on a Model Marine Amphipod, Parhyale hawaiensis”
  • Rachel Lennon (University of Glasgow): “Developing a Health Indices for Cetaceans as a Tool for Measuring the Impacts of Multiple Stressors”
  • Jake Smallbone (University of Essex): “Let there be Light: Marine Oil Snow formation and its associated Bacterial Communities”
  • Emily Moore (Apem Ltd): “Stressor Identity versus Stressor Burden as Drivers of Observed Effects on Life History Traits in Lymnaea stagnalis (Gastropoda)”
  • Sinéad Collins (University of Edinburgh): “What makes polar diatoms polar?”
Further Activities & Forum Resources

The Forum awarded 4 travel bursaries to representatives from Heriot-Watt University, the University of the West of Scotland, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Aberdeen.

Need an expert in an area related to aquatic stressors? Download the Forum’s database here or contact MASTS at masts@st-andrews.ac.uk

Forum Objectives

Environmental stressors include any physical, chemical or biological factor that negatively impact organisms at individual, population, community or ecosystem levels. The range of possible aquatic stressors encompass chemical (incl. oil and oilfield relates, nanoparticles, microplastics and litter), noise, electrical and light pollution as well as climate change-related parameters, such as water temperature, pH and salinity, furthermore fishery and changes in species interactions, such as predation and resource competition. Our knowledge of whether and how different stressors interact is minimal, which is a major obstacle to adequately considering multiple stressors in routine environmental risk assessments.  

  • Creating and maintaining an inter- and trans- disciplinary network across the MASTS community supporting MASTS members as partners for consortium bids, while engaging with external partners.
  • Providing the Scottish Government with a contact point for up-to-date advice on the impact of environmental stressors in Scottish waters to inform relevant policies

Forum Steering Group

Forum Convenor:
Frances Orton (Heriot-Watt University)

Associate Professor | School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society

Interests:

  • Freshwater (FW) ecotoxicology & protection of FW biota from threatening processes
  • Use of environmentally realistic exposure scenarios
Forum Convenor:
Karen Diele (Edinburgh Napier University)

Professor of Marine Ecology | Head of the ENU Centre for Conservation and Restoration Science (CCRS)

Interests:

  • Coastal ecosystems
  • Benthic marine invertebrates
  • Responses to environmental change
Beric Gilbert (University of the West of Scotland)

Dr | Zoology Lecturer

Interests:

  • Effects of environmental change on parasite ecology, biology, physiology and the host-parasite interface
  • Effect of pollution on ectoparasites and comparing their capacity to bioaccumulate and regulate burdens of pollutants in their bodies
  • Applicability of using parasites in biomonitoring applications
Catriona Harris (University of St Andrews)

Principal Research Fellow, Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling (CREEM)

Interests:

  • Impact of anthropogenic noise on marine mammals and the development of methods for modelling the distribution of marine mammals across space for risk mitigation purposes, for quantitatively assessing cumulative risk associated with noise exposure, and for analysing behavioural responses to sound
  • Population consequences of disturbance and of multiple stressors modelling frameworks, particularly in relation to marine mammals
Gianlucca Gerich (Ampeak Energy Limited)

Environmental Engineer

Interests:

  • Intersection of tidal energy development, environmental management, and academic collaboration, with a focus on environmental assessment and monitoring in the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters. 
  • Interaction between marine renewable industry, particularly tidal stream, and environment through stressors such as mechanical (e.g. moving turbine components), acoustic (underwater noise), and electromagnetic (EMF) factors.
Hannah Anderson (Scottish Government)

Marine Directorate | Senior Environmental Toxicologist | Climate Change, Biodiversity and Ecosystems (CCBE) delivery area of the Science, Evidence, Data and Digital (SEDD) portfolio | Lead of the biological effects of contaminants work in CCBE

Interests:

  • Advice and monitoring of the marine environment, including the measurement of contaminant concentrations in sediment and biota (fish and shellfish)
  • Effects of contaminant exposure upon wildlife, and assessments of environmental status
  • Environmental monitoring and assessments for OSPAR and the UK Marine Strategy (MS)
Kristina Beck (St Abbs Marine Station)

Interests:

  • Effect of climate change on cold-water corals
  • Aquarium experiments with multiple environmental drivers
  • Coral physiology, skeletal structure and composition
Sinead Collins (University of Edinburgh)

Professor of Microbial Evolution

Interests:

  • Prediction of how primary producers in the ocean will respond to global change in the coming decades
  • Use of microbial evolution experiments and simulations to link short-term responses such as phenotypic plasticity and epigenetic changes, to evolution
  • Work on how different patterns and numbers of environmental changes affect organismal responses to them
  • Marine diatoms
Matt Wale (Edinburgh Napier University)

Lecturer in Life Sciences | School of Applied Sciences | Member of the Centre of Conservation and Restoration Science

Interests:

  • Interactions between aquatic invertebrates and humans, and reducing human impacts on the environment
  • Effects of anthropogenic stressors, including noise and artificial light, on marine and freshwater invertebrates across multiple levels of biological organisation
  • Work with adult and juvenile stages of several invertebrate species to investigate stress induced changes in behaviour, physiology, biochemistry, and genetics (Crustaceans, molluscs, echinoderms, and cnidaria)
  • Investigations of anthropogenic stressors in multi-variable systems alongside other stressors, such as temperature, ocean acidification, and chemical pollutants
Noël Juvigny-Khenafou (Stirling University)

Lecturer in Aquatic Environmental Science

Interests:

  • Biodiversity & environmental changes
  • Multiple stressors in aquatic systems
  • Aquaculture production and concepts of stressor ecology
  • Ecotoxicology
  • Modelling & Simulation
  • Sustainable development of communities and land-water interactions
Puja Kumari (SAMS/Scottish Association for Marine Science)

Lecturer in Macroalgal Research

Interests:

  • Algal abiotic/biotic stress physiology
  • Algal diseases and climate change adaptions and how to generate climate-resilient seaweed cultivars by priming environmental stresses
  • Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biotechnology
  • Salinity, metal, desiccation, nutritional, chemical, oxidative, heat and osmotic abiotic stresses along with oomycetes and algal endophytic pathogens in seaweeds
  • Use of traditional biochemical, molecular, applied omics technologies (metabolomics, lipidomics, transcriptomics) and multi-stressor experiments
MASTS Resources

We’re working behind the scenes to bring you a suite of useful, and updateable, resources including: 

  • Find an expert
  • Find facilities & equipment
  • MASTS Publications

 

If you would like to be updated when the resources section is live please let us know.

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