eDNA: The final frontier for marine conservation

My name is Dina-Leigh Simons and I’m a PhD student in the School of Environmental Sciences. I am a marine biologist and molecular ecologist, meaning I use a range of different tools to monitor the health of our animals and plants in coastal environments.

I completed my integrated Masters degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Sheffield in 2020, where I also lived in Singapore and Hong Kong for a while. Then, I moved to Liverpool in 2021 to complete my PhD. Outside of the PhD, I enjoy science communication across social media platforms as No Ordinary Biologist and participate in many sports.

My research

I’m based within the Mieszkowska Research Group which focuses generally on species and ecosystem-level responses to environmental change and multiple stressors in the marine environment. My PhD project specifically explores if marine environmental DNA (eDNA for short) is an effective tool for detecting changes in intertidal biodiversity in light of climate change (funded by the ACCE DTP). The project is in collaboration with the University of Sheffield and the Marine Biological Association, and has involved fieldwork around the UK, lab work at the NERC Environmental Omics Facility, and data analyses at my laptop.

I focus on detecting climatically important groups in coastal ecosystems, like invertebrates and seaweed. Visual surveys used to locate these important species are difficult to scale-up and often miss hard-to-see species. eDNA has become a revolutionary method to detect species without even visually spotting them. However, eDNA-based methods have been explored far less in dynamic intertidal environments due to complex water movements making it difficult to predict where the DNA might be coming from. So, I’m testing how well eDNA-based methods work in a practical setting.

Fundamentally, my work feels important, like I’m playing a part in changing the world for the better. Being on the frontier of knowledge is both exciting and daunting – there’s always something new to discover and understand. I thrive on the diversity and variety in research, and continually embrace the challenges! Collaborating with passionate and inspiring individuals adds another layer of fulfilment to working in this field.

What are your next steps?

As a third year PhD student, I don’t have that much time left before I need to submit my thesis! So that’s my number one priority right now. I’m also completing a three-month placement within the government as part of the PhD to get a taster of research outside of academia. I plan to stay open-minded and adaptable as I navigate my journey in STEM. But ultimately, my current plan is to stay within academia and continue my research journey as a post-doc. Although academia can be challenging and frustrating at times, change is most effective when it comes from within.

My three-minute thesis

It’s easy to get caught up in the details of your own work, so participating in outreach and engagement activities, like three-minute thesis, really brought me back to reality. I was forced to focus on and disseminate the key messages of my research. I needed to make people care (which I hope I succeeded at doing)!

Performing my presentation in front of a live audience was definitely one of the most nerve-wracking things I’ve done so far, but it’s really pushed me outside of my comfort zone to develop my public speaking skills. The whole competition was an extremely valuable experience that I’d recommend to any PhD student.

I was so excited to win the University of Liverpool 3MT competition and represented the University at the UK quarter finals hosted by Vitae.

Watch my 3MT presentation and Vitae Quarter final submission.