Pratyusha Madhnure

Marine calcifying organisms are the secret keepers of Earth’s oceanic history. As they construct their calcium carbonate shells, they encode a wealth of information about the ocean’s conditions into their geochemical makeup. These tiny builders are critical to the global carbon cycle, influencing how carbon is stored and cycled within marine environments. Yet, despite their importance, the fascinating process of biomineralisation—the way they form these intricate shells—is still something of a mystery!

As part of the “Building Shells: Towards a Mechanistic Understanding of Biomineralisation” project, my PhD research focuses on the geochemistry of the skeletal material produced by organisms, in response to extreme environmental conditions. By cultivating corals, foraminifera, and coccolithophores in both lab settings and field environments, I’ll explore how factors like temperature, pH, carbonate chemistry, and calcium concentration influence their shell-building processes.

With a comprehensive approach, I’ll be conducting in-depth measurements of a wide range of trace elements and isotopes within the same samples to create a detailed geochemical profile of biomineralisation. These measurements will help us unravel the mechanisms of biomineral formation, predict how these organisms will respond to future environmental changes, and refine our understanding of their shells as records of past oceanic conditions!