Research
Dr Nova Mieszkowska is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Earth, Ocean & Ecological Sciences, and Research Fellow in impacts of climate change and multiple stressors on marine biodiversity & ecosystems at the Marine Biological Association. Her research interests include responses of marine biodiversity to climate change, ocean acidification, microplastics and multiple stressors; biogeography, macroecology, underlying physiological mechanisms. Species Distribution Modelling, Dynamic Energy Budget modelling, mechanistic functional traits modelling. Experimental ecophysiology. Reproductive physiology and phenology. Invasion biology and impacts of invasives on native biodiversity. Physiological stress responses to environmental parameters and synthetic compounds. Maintaining long-term time-series of intertidal species and communities around Britain and Europe. Impacts of anthropogenic pressures on the coastal zone. Field and mesocosm experimental investigations of physiological impacts of climate drivers on marine ectotherms and macroalgae. Science-policy knowledge transfer; assessments of ecosystem status, planning of MCZs, compliance to national and international policy drivers. Adaptational mechanisms underpinning changes in marine environments.
Nova's research includes the MarClim project; the most spatio-temporally extensive time-series for rocky intertidal ecosystems globally, UK Ocean Acidification Benthic Consortium & Velocity of Climate Change Project. She is a member of the international group INSHORE comprising international experts in climate change, macroecology & physiology. She has a significant field-based component to her research programme & extensive taxanomic skills, experimental & survey design & implementation experience, habitat mapping & status assessments for Special Areas of Conservation, Marine Conservation Zones, European Marine Sites & government assessments. She has established time-series projects in Europe & New Zealand and developed MarClim protocols as a standard for EU MSFD indicators of Good Environmental Status & the EMBOS network.
Marine Biodiversity & Climate Change
My research programme focuses on detecting and forecasting responses of marine biodiversity to climate change. The MBA has some of the most extensive time-series globally, including data on the abundance and distribution of rocky intertidal invertebrates and macroalgae dating back to the 1950s. These time-series were continued or re-started under the MarClim marine biodiversity and climate change programme from 2002-2005 and are still surveyed on an annual basis. This work has been extended to other temperate regions around the world including Europe and New Zealand.
As a physiological ecologist I am interested in identifying the biological mechanisms in invertebrates and macroalgae that underpin the macroecological responses to climate warming and ocean acidification. Current research using combined laboratory and field experiments is investigating how increasing temperatures are altering reproductive cycles and impacting recruitment and the effects of climate change on invasive capabilities of non-natives.