Research Themes

Research to inform policy: Joyce's research broadly aims to conduct and facilitate science that informs policy. Policy decisions at national and international scales often involve trade-offs such as climate, human health, and economics; locally, policy trade-offs may include jobs, healthy ecosystems, and funding.

She works to find and fill data gaps that are most pressing for understanding tradeoffs and unknowns, particularly as they pertain to changes in marine environments.

Image (c) Paul Caiger, WHOI

Role of marine animals in the global carbon cycle

Mesopelagic fish play a role in the global carbon cycle. What does the potential development of a commercial fishery mean for the global climate?

We're looking at how a commercial fishery could potentially provide more food for people or more feed for aquaculture.

How do we balance the need not to further disrupt the global carbon cycle while taking into account the need to feed everyone?

Marine carbon dioxide removal

We are blowing the global carbon budget! Ideally, we’ll all pitch in to reduce CO2 emissions, but until then, people are looking at ways to enhance natural geochemical cycling in the ocean. Some of these techniques are called ‘marine carbon dioxide removal’.

We want to know how different proposed methods for marine carbon dioxide removal impact marine life, who these projects will benefit, and when, where, and at what scale these projects can be responsibly deployed.

See an EDF report on mCDR methods here.

Community data collection for marine science

How do we build collaborative, community-driven projects that collect high-quality data and help drive policy? I lead the Whakaraupō Fauna project in Lyttleton Harbour as a case study for creating community-led science projects.

I think more accessible and actionable science starts at the data collection level.

Investigating changing ocean chemistry

Ocean chemistry is closely tied to climate change. In Earth's past, many mass extinctions occurred when volcanic CO2 was released into the atmosphere.

We study how the ocean chemistry changed during past periods of dramatic climate change and how they can help us understand the future.

My work largely focuses on the Triassic–Jurassic boundary.

Changes in climate and productivity (global carbon cycle).

Mercury and mercury isotopes as a possible volcanic signal.
Changes in marine oxygen concentrations and plankton communities (nitrogen cycle, trace metals, biomarkers).
Marine silicon isotopes from sponge spicules as a potential record of the global silica cycle.