News - Seachange

Dartington Hall Hosts the SEACHANGE Annual Meeting 2026

The SEACHANGE consortium gathered once again for its yearly project meeting, this time at the historic Dartington Hall Estate near Totnes in Devon. Hosted from 31 May to 3 June 2026, the meeting brought together researchers and collaborators from across the consortium to review progress, discuss emerging results and plan the next phase of this ambitious ERC Synergy project.

Where are they now?

Since the project started in 2020, the SEACHANGE team has changed, with researchers coming and going from the project. Many of the researchers who have left the project, are still associated with the research being conducted through SEACHANGE alongside their new lives outside of the project. This article highlights what a few of the team and gone to do in their lives post-SEACHANGE.

Zoe finishes her PhD and reflects on her time working with SEACHANGE

After successfully defending my PhD thesis in November, I reflect here on my incredible journey as a PhD student with the ERC funded Seachange project. This project allowed me to pursue my core research interest: the drivers and impacts of long-term fisheries exploitation on marine ecosystems, fisheries productivity, and dependent communities.

New study into the transformation to the UK’s seafood supply over the last 120 years gains interest from UK media

A new study published by SEACHANGE researchers at the University of Exeter, highlights a profound transformation to the UK’s seafood supply over the last 120 years- from local resilience to global dependence.

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Compilation of research studies show how humans have impacted marine ecosystems through time.

A newly published theme issue in the scientific journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B reveals the long and complex history of human interaction with the ocean and challenges our understanding of seas across thousands of years.

JGU Mainz hosts the SEACHANGE annual meeting 2025

This year, it was the turn of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz to host the SEACHANGE annual meeting. Bernd and the team did a fantastic job at organising the venue, booking everyone into the Wasem Kloster Engelthal on the outskirts Ingelheim.

SEACHANGE researchers embark on fieldwork campaign in Brazil

During the first two weeks of April 2025, SEACHANGE researchers from the Universities of Exeter, York, Mainz, Copenhagen and Barcelona embarked on a fieldwork sampling campaign in the Babitonga Bay area of Southern Brazil.

CORDIS journalists cover SEACHANGE research in recent article.

The CORDIS article highlights the eDNA work conducted by the team at the University of Copenhagen as well as a recent paper on past oyster reef bed habitats and fisheries published by the project partners at the University of Exeter.

Sidmouth Science Festival and British Science Festival

The Exeter group took part in the Sidmouth Science Festival in Devon on 5th October 2024. This event started as a weekend festival back in 2012 and has now grown into a 10-day annual autumn celebration of science and education. This year, the Geology Day at the Sidmouth Science festival extended invitations to several organisations to exhibit, including the universities of Southampton and Exeter.

SEACHANGE Annual Meeting 2024

This year, it was the turn of the University of Exeter to host the SEACHANGE annual meeting which took place during at the end of June. The dramatic north Cornish coast at Mawgan Porth was a perfect location for the project partners to meet and discuss the research completed within the last year.

Metagenomic hybrids - new art-science collaboration

How can new life emerge in the future? What forms might new species embody? Can we speculate on novel biology by merging the DNA from current species?

The SEACHANGE Copenhagen team collects new sediment cores from the Danish North Sea

At the end of September 2023, members of the Copenhagen SEACHANGE team (Giulia Zampirolo and Luke E. Holman) embarked on a new sampling campaign in the Jutland Peninsula to collect new sediment cores from the North Sea.

Analysing historical bone specimens of Antarctic whales and seals

The SEACHANGE team undertake essential sampling in order to examine the effect of whaling on Antarctic ecosystems.

University of Copenhagen hosts annual SEACHANGE meeting in Denmark

The SEACHANGE project partners meet in Hornbaek for the annual project meeting

Clams reveal how the North Atlantic tipped into the Little Ice Age

A guest news piece by Beatriz Arellano-Nava who writes about revelations from her new published study.

SEACHANGE partners from Exeter, York, Copenhagen and Mainz visit Orkney

This summer on a crisp and bright July morning the SEACHANGE team boarded a ferry to the Orkney Islands for the annual meeting and archaeological fieldwork trip

Marine Science work placement with SEACHANGE

Thalassophile is a Greek-derived word meaning a lover of the seas and oceans. I was lucky enough to be able to fuel my thalassophile passion by undertaking my first-year Marine Science work placement with SEACHANGE.

Analysing the sediment cores from the RRS Discovery research vessel

Analysing sediment cores at the British Oceanographic Sediment Core Research Facility (BOSCORF), the UK’s largest marine sediment repository and research facility

North West European Research Cruise, Week One

All aboard the RSS Discovery - quarantine, petri dishes and sea sickness tablets!!

Inaugural in-person Project Meeting

SEACHANGE project members gather together for the first time at the University of Exeter Penryn Campus, Cornwall.

On the hunt for marine microfossils

Research has begun on the Iceland Work Package palaeoecology

SEACHANGE UNEXE team sample Antarctic cores

The University of Exeter SEACHANGE team have completed their first sampling of marine sediment cores collected from the Antarctic continental shelf.

Iceland the land of fire and ice, and core samples

Exploring field study sites in Northern Iceland and extracting eDNA from exsisting core samples.

Using Environmental DNA to understand how biodiversity of the oceans has changed over time

Using a range of powerful and novel techniques to learn about how humans have affected marine life through time.

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