Sophie Pitois

Sophie Pitois is an Honorary Lecturer at the University of East Anglia’s School of Environmental Sciences and a Plankton Ecologist at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas). Her work focuses on zooplankton dynamics, climate change impacts on marine ecosystems, and gelatinous plankton invasions. She co-supervises PhD student Rebecca Wright, exploring climate-driven jellyfish blooms. Sophie leads Defra-funded projects optimizing zooplankton monitoring and contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals through ecosystem modeling and policy integration.

Research Interests:

• Zooplankton ecology and fisheries interactions
• Long-term environmental time series analysis
• Climate change effects on marine biodiversity
• Non-native species ecological impacts
• Plankton monitoring program design

Grants & Collaborations:

• MEMO Project (Interreg IVa 2seas, 2010–2013): Socio-economic analysis of gelatinous plankton
• SAHFOS Associate Researcher Grant (2005): CPR data expertise development
• Defra contract: Zooplankton monitoring optimization

Labs/Teams: Pelagic Science Team (Cefas), Collaborative Centre for Sustainable Use of the Seas (UEA).