Professor Stephen Maberly

Current work

I work on the ecology of lakes and rivers. This includes the long-term monitoring of Cumbrian lakes and the Ribble Source-to-Sea observatory. Laboratory work involves studies on macrophyte and algal eco-physiology as a way of producing a mechanistic understanding of ecological success and distribution. I am also leading the NERC-funded EHFI project on the impact of climate change on "whole-lake responses to species invasion mediated by climate change". Another distinct area relates to the factors controlling CO2 in freshwaters and their flux to the atmosphere.

My work contributes mainly to WA2.3 (assessing responses of river, lake and wetland ecosystems to ecohydrological drivers) and WA2.4 (food webs, trophic interactions and freshwater ecosystem functions and services) and I am the CEH champion for the latter objective.

Research interests

I am the head of the Lake Ecosystem Group at Lancaster and have worked in aquatic ecology for about 30 years, specialising in the ecophysiology of aquatic plants with a particular interest in inorganic carbon as an ecological factor. I also analyse long-term datasets to understand the effects of climate change and nutrient enrichment on lake function, research into the effect of nitrogen as a limiting nutrient in freshwaters, the link between catchment processes and lake function and understanding how the behavioural ecology of flagellates control ecological distribution.

Brief CV

• BSc Botany and Zoology joint honours (First class, Reading University, 1978)
• PhD: "The nature of competition between macrophytes and phytoplankton in freshwaters" (St. Andrews University, 1981)
• I have worked in laboratories in Italy, USA and Denmark at Aarhus University, where I spent six months as a visiting professor
• I was a visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Botanic Garden at Wuhan, PRC from 2004 to 2006
• Received the Luigi Provasoli Award from the American Phycological Society in 1992 for the best paper published in Journal of Phycology in 1990
• I have been involved in a number of national thematic programmes (TIGER, LOIS, GANE, M&FMB and RELU) and EU-funded projects including CLIMFRESH- studying the effects of CO2 increase on freshwater and projects concerning the effect of climate change on lakes: REFLECT, CLIME and Euro-limpacs
• I serve on the editorial boards of Aquatic Botany and Freshwater Biology and am an associate editor for the new SIL journal Inland Waters, and have served on the advisory boards of a number societies and charities
• I have been appointed a Chinese Academy of Science Senior International Visiting Professor for two years from January 2011
• I am also Visiting Professor in the School of Biological & Chemical Sciences at Queen Mary, University of London

Selected publications

See also the NERC Open Research Archive and a fuller list here.

Maberly S.C. and Madsen T.V. (2002). Aquatic freshwater angiosperm carbon concentrating mechanisms: processes and patterns. Functional Plant Biology 29: 393-405.

Maberly S.C., King L., Dent M.M., Jones R.I. & Gibson C.E. (2002). Nutrient limitation of phytoplankton and periphyton growth in upland lakes. Freshwater Biology 47: 2136-2152.

George D.G., Maberly S.C. and Hewitt D.P. (2004).The influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation on the physics, chemistry and biology of four lakes in the English Lake District. Freshwater Biology 49: 760-774.

Suggett D.J., Maberly S.C. and Geider R.J. (2006). Gross photosynthesis drives lake community metabolism during the spring phytoplankton bloom. Limnology and Oceanography 51: 2064-2076.

Clegg M.R., Maberly S.C. and Jones R.I. (2007). Behavioural response as a predictor of seasonal depth distribution and vertical niche separation in freshwater phytoplanktonic flagellates. Limnology and Oceanography 52: 441-455.

Erales J., Gontero B. and Maberly S.C. (2008). Specificity and function of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase in a freshwater diatom, Asterionella formosa (Bacillariophyceae). Journal of Phycology 44: 1455-1464.

Thackeray S. J., Jones I. D. and Maberly S. C. (2008). Long-term change in the phenology of spring phytoplankton: species-specific responses to nutrient enrichment and climatic change. Journal of Ecology 96: 523-535.

Klavsen S.K. and Maberly S.C. (2009). The contribution of Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) to the in situ carbon budget in a population of the invasive aquatic macrophyte Crassula helmsii. Freshwater Biology 54: 105-118.

Diaz M.M. and Maberly S.C. (2009). Carbon concentrating mechanisms in acidophilic algae. Phycologia 48:77-85.

Maberly S.C., Ball L.A. Raven J.A. and Sültemeyer D. (2009). Inorganic carbon acquisition by chrysophytes. Journal of Phycology 45, 1052-1061.

Raven J.A., Beardall J., Flynn K.J. and Maberly S.C. Carnivorous plants: Phagotrophy in the origins of photosynthesis in eukaryotes and as a complementary mode of nutrition. Journal of Experimental Botany 60, 3975-3987.

Noges P., Adrian R., Anneville O., Arvola L., Blenckner T., George G., Jankowski T., Jarvinen M., Maberly S.C., Padisak J., Straile D., Teubner K. and Weyhenmeyer G. (2010). The impacts of variations in the climate on seasonal dynamics of phytoplankton. pp.253-274. In: G. George (Ed.) The Impact of Climate Change on European Lakes. Springer Dordrecht, 507pp.

Maberly S.C., Courcelle C., Groben R. and Gontero B. (2010). Phylogenetically-based variation in the regulation of the Calvin cycle enzymes, phosphoribulokinase and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, in algae. Journal of Experimental Botany 61, 735-745.

Groben R., Kaloudas D., Raines C.A., Offmann B., Maberly S.C. and Gontero B. (2010). Comparative sequence analysis of CP12, a small protein involved in the formation of a Calvin cycle complex in photosynthetic organisms Photosynthesis Research 103, 183-194.

Klavsen S.K. and Maberly S.C. (2010). Effect of light and CO2 on inorganic carbon uptake in the invasive aquatic CAM-plant Crassula helmsii. Functional Plant Biology 37, 737-747.

Hunter P.D., Tyler A.N., Carvalho L., Codd G.A. and Maberly S.C. (2010). Hyperspectral remote sensing of cyanobacterial pigments as indicators for cell populations and toxins in eutrophic lakes. Remote Sensing of Environment 114, 2705-2718.