Dr Lavenia Ratnarajah

Marine Biogeochemist

Heard Island, sub Antarctic Southern Ocean

Welcome! 

I’m endlessly fascinated by how organisms—tiny microbes to zooplankton—interact with each other and with the environment around them, and how those interactions are shifting as our climate changes. Since 2007, I’ve had the privilege of working across six countries—Australia, Malaysia, Ecuador, France, the US, and the UK—and doing fieldwork in some of the most incredible places on Earth: from tropical rainforests and coastal seas to the icy wilderness of Antarctica.

These days, I’m based in London as a Lecturer in Climate Science at the Department of Earth Sciences at University College London (UCL), where I get to combine my love of research, teaching, and outreach to better understand our changing planet.

Scroll through to explore where I’ve been, what I’m working on now, and the directions I’m excited to grow in from here at UCL!

Research interests

  • Understand the processes underpinning current and future patterns of nutrient and carbon cycling

  • Examine how changes in nutrient cycling drive changes in ocean productivity

  • Investigate how changes in ocean productivity influence fisheries and higher trophic levels