Gary Murphy
College: College of Life and Environmental Sciences
Discipline: Geography
Department: Geography
I have a background in marine biology and this has given me a broad range of interests in marine ecosystems, particularly in coral reefs. My first degree was in Zoology at the University of Aberdeen and subsequently I spent six months working on a coral reef fisheries project in Fiji. After some time I returned to university studying for an MSc in Marine Biology at Bangor University. In 2005 I began working on a coral reef biodiversity project in Borneo, where I trained groups of volunteers to survey coral reefs for fishes and corals. I endured the warm tropical seas, hot sunny weather and beach life for over a year until eventually i returned home. After this i swapped the Indo-Pacific for the Caribbean to work with the Cayman Islands Department of Environment on a fish biomass project.
In 2010 I started working as a Research Assistant on a Leverhulme Trust funded international research network which developed a census based methodology for assessing net rates of calcium carbonate framework production on coral reefs. Using this method, I am currently investigating the relationships between the net rates of coral reef framework production and the animals and plants that control them.
