Dr. Janina Büscher is a marine biogeochemist with an interest in ocean change impacts on benthic ecosystems. She has studied ocean acidification effects on maerl (calcareous red alga Lithothamnion glaciale) in her Bachelor’s and continued with laboratory experiments on ocean acidification and warming effects on the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa in her Master’s and PhD. During a Post-Doc position in collaboration with the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) in Bergen, Norway, she followed up on her PhD’s research to expand the knowledge to a broader scale including associated key species under more natural, but still controlled lab conditions as PI of one of the project’s work packages. To understand the corals’ response to ocean change in their natural environment, Janina decided to focus on the actual surrounding the organisms live in and moved research fields to study the variability and trends in biogeochemical parameters around Ireland and the vulnerability of marine ecosystems to changes in the biogeochemistry due to ocean acidification in the department of Chemical Oceanography in the School of Earth & Ocean Sciences at the University of Galway. With her new role at Ulster University, Janina is looking forward to combining both research fields and meeting the challenges of teaching various disciplines of oceanography.

• Impacts of ocean acidification and warming on cold-water ecosystems 
• Natural variability of environmental conditions in benthic ecosystems and physiological adaptations of cold-water corals to different ranges of physical and chemical water properties
• Biogeochemistry of water masses in the Northeast Atlantic at present and future trends in the light of ongoing ocean acidification

Janina contributes to a variety of modules in the marine science and environmental science degree programmes at Ulster University in Coleraine, including:

• Marine Systems (EGM117),
• Hydrography (EGM115),
• Marine Science Field School (EGM351),
• Dissertation Module (EGM503).

She will also develop and co-ordinate a new module in Final Year starting from January 2024:

• Applied Oceanography (EGM536)