biology

Plymouth Marine Laboratory

Plymouth Marine Laboratory is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Plymouth Marine Laboratory rather than just read about it. In short: Plymouth Marine Laboratory (abbreviated as PML) is a marine research organization and registered charity based in the city of Plymouth, England. It is a partner of the UK Research & Innovation's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Key takeaways

Plymouth Marine Laboratory belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Plymouth Marine Laboratory to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Plymouth Marine Laboratory from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Plymouth Marine Laboratory (abbreviated as PML) is a marine research organization and registered charity based in the city of Plymouth, England. It is a partner of the UK Research & Innovation's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). PML's chair is Nigel Godefroy, its chief executive is Prof. Icarus Allen and its patron is the film-maker James Cameron.

Research and capability Research activity at PML broadly investigates global-scale issues of climate change and sustainability. PML's core capabilities are centred around biogeochemistry and systems science, ecosystem health and human health, and sustainable development and biodiversity. It has particular capacity around Earth observation, ecosystem modelling, microbial ecology, Blue biotechnology, socioeconomics and policy advice.

Specific research activities include the monitoring of ocean acidity and its effects on corals and shellfish, and this information is reported to the UK government. As part of its research into sustainability, PML uses technology such as photo-bioreactors to cultivate algae that could be used in the production of biofuels or in the treatment of waste water. Aside from its environmental research, PML also works alongside the Boots Group to investigate the use of algae in skin-care products, since these organisms utilise sunscreen-like compounds to protect themselves from the sun. Within its Seawater Hall, PML contains an in-house, fully contained, algal scale-up pilot plant. This contains a 550L biofence photobioreactor and a 1200L raceway pond system, as well as a range of smaller bubble column reactor systems at 3.5L and 11L capacity for smaller scale algal production. These facilities are regularly used to generate dried algal biomass on the scale of grams to hundreds of grams. This algal innovation centre also investigates a range of downstream processing techniques for algal harvesting. In addition to large-scale investigations, PML has a Single Cell Genomics facility: a dedicated clean room environment for single cell isolation, equipped with a high speed Atomic Force Microscope, cell-sorting flow cytometry capabilities and a number of liquid-handling machines. PML has a wholly owned trading subsidiary, PML Applications Ltd., which has been created to facilitate the exploitation and application of PML research and its products and to provide a more appropriate interface for working with end users, industrial and commercial partners.

History The Plymouth Marine Laboratory was founded in 1988, mainly due to the recommendations of a House of Lords report. It was formed by drawing some elements of the Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association (MBA) with the NERC Institute for Marine Environmental Research (IMER). On 1 April 2002, PML changed from being a wholly owned NERC research centre to an independent organisation with charitable status.

Affiliations Partner in the National Partnership for Ocean Prediction (NCOP) Member of the Peninsular Microbiology Forum Co-ordinator of the Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) Member and Secretariat host of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) Non-country partner of the Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA)

References

External links Plymouth Marine Laboratory

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Plymouth Marine Laboratory

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Plymouth Marine Laboratory claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Plymouth Marine Laboratory before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Plymouth Marine Laboratory ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Plymouth Marine Laboratory

In research: Plymouth Marine Laboratory appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Plymouth Marine Laboratory in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Plymouth Marine Laboratory is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1988 establishments in England, Biological research institutes in the United Kingdom, Natural Environment Research Council, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Plymouth Marine Laboratory outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Plymouth Marine Laboratory in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Plymouth Marine Laboratory means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Plymouth Marine Laboratory out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Plymouth Marine Laboratory in simple terms?

Why does Plymouth Marine Laboratory matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Plymouth Marine Laboratory?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Plymouth Marine Laboratory.