Matt Cato

Lancaster University

Matt is an ECORISC CDT NERC funded PhD student at Lancaster Environment Centre. His internal supervisory team consists of Dr Imke Grefe, Prof Nick Graham and Prof Crispin Halsall. Externally, Matt is also supervised by Prof Pete Kille (Cardiff University), Dr Hannah Epstein (University of Essex), and Dr Naomi Greenwood (Cefas). After graduating with a BSc in Environment, Economics and Ecology at the University of York, Matt sought out gaining experience in marine research initiatives with NGOs across the globe. This took him to undertaking sea turtle conservation in Sri Lanka, coral reef health surveys in Thailand, investigating MPA effectiveness in the Philippines, artificial reef construction in Indonesia, and monitoring manta ray populations in the Maldives. During this 20-month stint of travelling and witnessing the various impacts our global society is having on marine ecosystems, Matt took a large interest in the anthropogenic pressures on our underwater world, and the consequence of these pressures on aquatic life. His current research explores the influence of chemical stressors on the coral microbiome, the potential for chemically-induced microbial shifts to disrupt nitrogen cycling function, and how these changes impact coral physiology and overall health. Alongside this work, Matt also hopes to investigate the use of coral microbial communities in monitoring as sensitive and rapid biomarkers for ecosystem stress; removing dependence on visual surveys where most visual cues (e.g. bleaching or mortality) often only become evident once the ecosystem health and resilience have already been compromised.

Research Interests

Matt’s broad research interest involves the ecotoxicological effects of chemicals on coral reefs. Specifically, his PhD hopes to uncover how chemical mixtures influence microbial communities that are important for key ecosystem functions, including nitrogen cycling. The project will determine potential shifts in microbial compositions resulting from heavy metals, pesticides and nitrogen enrichment, in combination with changes in temperature and pH. It is Matt’s hope that his project can contribute to advancing monitoring strategies through assessment of microbial compositions and becoming less reliant on visual surveys, boosting conservation efforts for coral reefs and the aquatic life that inhabits them.

Through a combination of lab-controlled experiments and fieldwork, Matt seeks to answer 4 key research questions:

What changes in microbial composition occur when coral microbiomes are exposed to environmental concentrations of heavy metals, pesticides, and nitrogen enrichment, and how does this shift differ alongside temperature and pH gradients
Do community shifts in the coral microbiome correlate with changes to (i) microbial functional potential in nitrogen cycling, (ii) key nitrogen transformation rates and (iii) the trophic status within the coral holobiont
To what extent do changes in coral microbiome composition and disruption to nitrogen cycling in the coral holobiont trigger a physiological response in the corals and influence their overall health status
Can analysis of coral microbiome communities be utilized in coral reef monitoring projects to indicate chemical pollution, and as a pre-cursor to coral bleaching or mortality.

Matt Cato

Lancaster University

Research Interests

Selected Publications