Rachel Downey, MSc

What’s the work that you do?

I’m in the last year of my PhD researching our state of knowledge concerning marine genetic resources in extreme environments, specifically the deep-sea and polar regions. This type of biological data is eclipsing traditionally collected diversity and distribution data in terms of amounts and variety, and yet utilizing it is fraught with difficulties due to poor levels of data quality. I’m developing approaches and applications that demonstrate ways that we can improve this data for future research and conservation.

What keeps you going?

I’ve witnessed and been part of incredible changes in our ability to access data about all life on earth in the last ten years, and I want to continue helping to push this through, as new types of data become available. I’m actively involved in both deep-sea and polar communities, which keeps me integrated in our amazing international communities. Making sure that everyone has the same access to data means that we have better research and improved conservation and management decisions; and that keeps me going.

What’s your message to the world?

Working on a Greenpeace campaign for better protection of the Antarctic seabed habitats this year, I had the rare opportunity to directly witness our deep oceans in a submersible; environments that few will ever get the chance to see in real life. We’re witnessing incredible changes in our environment, and polar and deep seas are starting to show these impacts. The more knowledge we have, the better we can globally and nationally protect these fragile environments. We need to involve everyone better, so that they care about the planet around them.