Alex Nimmo-Smith

It's official: @alexnimmosmith.bsky.social & I have launched the HOLOtag for ocean observation on a micro-AUV! An ultra-compact plankton imaging sensor, the #HOLOtag is a real breakthrough in sensor innovation and now backed by the @royalsociety.org 🌊🦑🧪

🧪🌊🦑 #jobs #postdoc Last call for applications, deadline is this Sunday for a 42-months #Research Fellow post in Plymouth (Salary £39,355-£45,413). All things #plankton, #predators, remote #sensing & #autonomy
APPLY NOW 👇

sunfish near RIB on the water

🧪🦑From #plankton to predators 🌊 Out for sea trials testing our new #autonomy technology when this beauty surfaced right in front of us! #sunfish A timely reminder of how #ocean change is reshaping #biodiversity on our doorstep. @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social @alexnimmosmith.bsky.social

Advert for Research Fellow post including remote and AUV-based sensing of ocean dynamics to understand impacts of floating offshore wind on fronts and other key ecosystem drivers. It shows an AUV and underwater plankton imaging and other sensors.

🦑🌊🧪 Please share among your networks, a Research Fellow post in #Ocean Dynamics and Floating Offshore #Wind Consequences on Key Ecosystem Drivers in the Celtic Sea working with me, @alexnimmosmith.bsky.social & @peterimiller.bsky.social tinyurl.com/44x66b5z #PlanktonImaging #RemoteSensing #AUVs

Outside at ocean business

Looking at new eDNA samplers

Stalls at ocean business

Sonardyne Stall at ocean business

Through sustained collaborations with the maritime industries, we are building new directions and applications in science & technology - bringing these advanced directly into the classroom with @plymuni.bsky.social 🧪🌊🦑 An amazing week @ Ocean Business in Southampton with @alexnimmosmith.bsky.social

🧪🌊🦑 When Marine Science Gets Eel-y Interesting ;) After 4 months, our Sonardyne ADCP frame was due for recovery—but it had an unexpected resident! We @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social retrieved the frame only to find a large conger eel inside. Watch its dramatic escape! 👇

Had the pleasure this week to go out on the University of Plymouth' Falcon Spirit. Heading out with such engaged and experienced skippers & technicians with a can-do attitude, the University can really take pride as research & teaching always is a #team effort. @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social 🧪🌊🌍🦑

Beautiful boil!

Project students on the wavedance boat, Plymouth uni

Discussing drone mission

Reading off the CTD data

Sampling an urban upwelling

🌊🧪🦑 Another fine day to be out in #Plymouth Sound! This time with our MRes & MSc project students sampling urban oceanographic features and the salinity front.

Smooth operations and interesting science to be uncovered 👏 with @alexnimmosmith.bsky.social, Nicole & Scott!
@plymbiomarsci.bsky.social

Multispectral drone surveys launched from boat

Setting up the water sampler

CTD deployment

Seabird surveys

🌊 Hands-on marine monitoring with MSc students!

A fine day to be out in Plymouth Sound with @plymouthuniccc.bsky.social Master students in MSc Data Science and Environmental Intelligence on the Marine Environmental Monitoring module that @alexnimmosmith.bsky.social & I teach on, a thread! 🧵

🌊🦑🧪 #postdoc alert 🌍working with NERC's #BoatyMcBoatface (ALR 1500) equipped with cutting-edge #plankton imaging technology developed at @plymuni.bsky.social with @alexnimmosmith.bsky.social and me & #satellite remote #sensing with @peterimiller.bsky.social at @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social
#FRONTLINE

21 jellyfish. Don't ask me why - one moment they weren't there and then an armada arrived.

🌊 SUT Evening Seminar & Networking Event: Advances in Marine Renewables & Maritime Autonomy.
📍 University of Plymouth.
📅 March 6, 2025 @ 18:30.
🤩 Speakers: Becky Fowell (Regen) & Anahita Laverack (Oshen).
💰 FREE!
👉 Details & Registration: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sut-south-...

🌍🌊🦑🧪Hot off the press @theguardian.com: "The researchers will attach holographic plankton imaging devices, integrated with artificial intelligence, to container ships, new underwater robots and to filter-feeding ocean giants, such as whales."

tinyurl.com/yck6h5sy

@alexnimmosmith.bsky.social

🧪🦑🌊🌍 How can we forecast climate tipping points? By capturing the pulse of our #ocean.

@alexnimmosmith.bsky.social & I are jointly leading on sensor innovation and new platform deployments to provide low cost, sustainable & scalable #plankton observations in the #Arctic👇@aria-research.bsky.social

MRP gathering in the Box, Plymouth

MBA Chief Executive Willie Wilson giving a speech at the MRP event

Alex, Lilian and Peter at the MRP event

Planet Ocean Exhibition at the Box, Plymouth

Last night's celebration of the Marine Research Plymouth Alliance—the UK’s largest cluster of marine scientists & researchers! We also took the opportunity to toast to our MRP Work Package within NERC's ECOFLOW Frontline project with @alexnimmosmith.bsky.social & @peterimiller.bsky.social 🧪🌊🦑🌍

Lab set-up, with Alex taking an holographic image of hair.

Hologram of human hair

Hair in front of a lens

Working away in the lab

What an absolute joy being back in the lab with @alexnimmosmith.bsky.social. As you do, we used our hair to create our first holograms with our new #plankton imaging prototype! Thrilled to be pushing the limits of #sensor technology to capture the pulse of our #ocean, from plankton to predators 🧪🌊🦑🌍

Yes please :)

Sheared turbulent flows and wake dynamics of an idled floating tidal turbine - Nature Communications Ocean energy extraction is on the rise, but complex flows still challenge reliable tidal stream energy generation. Here, using aerial drones and boat-based surveys, authors map out the turbulent flows...

Chuffed that our #OA paper addressing the energy-environment nexus is still high up on the @natureportfolio.bsky.social focus page,
driving innovation in our energy transition! Check it out if you use #drones & ADCPs in your research: doi.org/10.1038/s414...
🧪🌊🦑 @alexnimmosmith.bsky.social

🧪🌊🦑Excited to be starting our newly funded ECOFLOW project Frontline, working with @alexnimmosmith.bsky.social & @peterimiller.bsky.social to explore the consequences of floating offshore wind on Celtic Sea #ecosystem dynamics, spanning ocean physics, #plankton & forage #fish! #oceanography

I'm very excited to offer this #PhD on the majestic Atlantic bluefin #tuna in Southwest UK waters using #drones, remote sensing, #ocean profiling & eDNA! Working with #anglers & this fantastic team: @bd-stew.bsky.social @peterimiller.bsky.social @marinemicrobes.bsky.social 🧪🌊🦑 tinyurl.com/mrxyh62t

@plymbiomarsci.bsky.social

Frontiers | Monitoring low-oxygen-adapted subsurface phytoplankton distribution in a changing ocean Recent decadal trends of deoxygenation in the global ocean interior have resulted in the expansion and shoaling of oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). When the OMZs...

🌊 Oxygen Minimum Zone Chlorophyll Maximums 🌊

🚀🛰️🦠When the upper boundary of an OMZ approaches the euphotic depth in stratified regions, an OMZ-chlorophyll maximum can form at depths of 68-160m in extremely low-light and low oxygen.🚀🛰️🦠

Learn more about this community here → doi.org/10.3389/fmar...

Lots of features on display in #Plymouth Sound today. It's been 2 yrs since we published a study on slicks & #seabirds - I was on a postdoc in Bangor! This month I've taken on my 1st MRes student to look at predators & physical features in the Sound. #reflection with @alexnimmosmith.bsky.social 🧪🦑🌊

No idea who to follow? 🧪🌊🦑
Try these starter packs & Follow All or some:

Marine Ecology: go.bsky.app/4PTX62K
Ocean Technology: go.bsky.app/VgpFR6B
Shark scientists : go.bsky.app/Q1x1gJB
Ocean Women: go.bsky.app/7MdiLgo
Ocean Women II: go.bsky.app/4wMsfX4
Plankton Ecology: go.bsky.app/8fAUg8j

🧪

TARDIS :)

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