Currently recruiting PhD Students for the following projects.  Applications must be submitted by 23:59 GMT on Wednesday 6th January 2027:

2027-OU15 The cruellest spring: did seasonal asymmetry shape extinction and recovery across the Cretaceous-Palaeogene mass extinction event?

2027-OU01 Reconstructing Climate and ecosystem variability across the Plio-Pleistocene

2027-OU13 The Polycomb Gatekeeper: PRC2-Mediated Genome Defence and Allele-Specific Expression in the Polar Diatom Fragilariopsis cylindrus

My research focuses on understanding how marine biodiversity responds to environmental change through geological time. I use the exceptionally well-preserved fossil record of marine microplankton, particularly planktonic foraminifera, to investigate the processes that drive evolution, extinction, biogeographic change, and ecological restructuring.

I combine approaches from micropalaeontology, palaeoceanography, macroevolution, macroecology and data science to investigate how marine communities respond to changes in the Earth system. My research spans timeframes from individual climatic events to multi-million year scales, allowing the fossil record to provide a long-term perspective on the biological consequences of climate change.

A major component of my research is the development and analysis of large-scale fossil datasets. I am a co-creator of Triton, a global species-level database of Cenozoic planktonic foraminiferal occurrences, which brings together millions of fossil occurrence records. These data allow us to examine changes in biodiversity, biogeography, ecological structure, and evolutionary dynamics at a global scale.

I am particularly interested in how the rate and magnitude of environmental change influence extinction and evolutionary responses, and in identifying the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that determine whether marine organisms persist, adapt, migrate, or become extinct. By comparing biological responses across past climate transitions, my research aims to improve our understanding of how marine ecosystems may respond to ongoing and future environmental change.

I have participated in international scientific ocean drilling expeditions as a shipboard micropalaeontologist and foraminiferal biostratigrapher, including IODP Expeditions 375 to the Hikurangi Subduction Margin and 398 to the Hellenic Arc Volcanic Trough, and continue to use scientific ocean drilling archives to investigate the evolution of marine ecosystems and the Earth system.

I am the Principal Investigator and Co-Chief Scientist on IODP3 Expedition 505S: ENIGMA: ExploratioN Into a Global early Miocene Anomaly, which seeks to identify the mechanisms behind global changes in the marine biosphere ~19 million years ago that may have primed ocean evolution for the biodiversity patterns that govern the modern world.

Key Publications:

Woodhouse, A. and Kasbohm, J., 2026. IODP3 Expedition 505S “ENIGMA: ExploratioN Into a Global early Miocene Anomaly” Scientific Prospectus. Proceedings of the International Ocean Drilling Programme, 505, p.1.

Lamyman, G.S., Fordham, B.G., Pearson, P.N., Wade, B.S., Woodhouse, A., Young, J.R. and Aze, T., 2026. Phylogeny of the Cenozoic planktonic foraminifera. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 24(2), p.2669255.

Villa, A., Sepúlveda, J., Śliwińska, K., Kasbohm, J., Woodhouse, A. and Sibert, E., 2026. Strengthening the TIMES Community: Who we are and what we want to become. PAGES Special Volume 34

McCoy, A.J., Jamson, K.M., Woodhouse, A., Fraass, A.J., Renaudie, J., Pälike, H., Young, J.R., The past, present and future of scientific ocean drilling databases. PAGES Special Volume 34

Hönisch, B., Anagnostou, E., Borrelli, C., Sosdian, S., Taylor, V. and Woodhouse, A., Tiny fossils track oceanographic secrets of geologic time. PAGES Special Volume 34

Tangunan, D.N., Henderiks, J., Guballa, J.D., Kasbohm, J., Si, W. and Woodhouse, A., Uncertainties behind Earth’s timelines. PAGES Special Volume 34

Woodhouse, A., Wade, B.S., Dunkley Jones, T., Hoorn, C. and Edgar, K.M., 2025. Low-latitude biostratigraphy and diversity of planktonic foraminifera from the middle Eocene to early Oligocene. Journal of Micropalaeontology, 44(2), pp.601-632.

Woodhouse, A., Wade, B.S., Dunkley Jones, T., Hoorn, C. and Edgar, K.M., 2025. Low-latitude biostratigraphy and diversity of planktonic foraminifera from the middle Eocene to early Oligocene. Journal of Micropalaeontology, 44(2), pp.601-632

Larina, E., Woodhouse, A., Swain, A., Lowery, C., Martindale, R., Myers, C. 2025.
Regional restructuring in planktic foraminifera communities through Pliocene-early Pleistocene climate variability. Nature Communications, 16(1), pp.1-11.

Woodhouse, A. Palaeobiology: Emergence of the Southern Ocean. Current Biology, 35 (3), 104-107.

Woodhouse, A.*, Swain, A.*, Smith, J.*, Sibert, E.C.*, Lam, A.R.*, Dunne, J.A.*, Auderset, A.* 2024. The Micropaleoecology Framework: Combining microfossils and paleoenvironmental proxies provides unique insights into ecological response to global change. Ecology and Evolution. *co-first authorship

Westacott, S., and Woodhouse, A. 2024. Multi-million year deep sea sedimentary data compilations: Opportunities and challenges. PAGES Special Issue: Achievements of scientific drilling in the field of paleosciences, 32 (2), 110-111.

Swain, A., Woodhouse, A.*, Fagan, W.F., Fraass, A.J., Lowery, C.M. 2024. Biogeographic response of marine plankton to Cenozoic environmental changes. Nature *co-first authorship

Preine, J., Karstens, J., Hübscher, C., Druitt, T., Kutterolf, S. and the IODP Expedition 398 Scientists. 2024. Hazardous explosive eruptions of a recharging multi-cyclic island arc caldera. Nature Geoscience, 17, 323-331.

Woodhouse, A., Swain, A.*, Fagan, W.F., Fraass, A.J., Lowery, C.M., 2023. Late Cenozoic cooling restructured global marine plankton communities. Nature, 614, 713-718. *co-first authorship

Woodhouse, A., Procter, F., Jackson, S.L., Jamieson, R.A., Newton, R.J., Sexton, P.F., and Aze, T., 2023. Paleoecology and evolutionary response of planktonic foraminifera to the mid-Pliocene Warm Period and Plio-Pleistocene bipolar ice sheet expansion. Biogeosciences. 20, 121-139.

Woodhouse, A., Barnes, P., Shorrock, A., Strachan, L.J., Crundwell, M.P., Bostock, H.C., Hopkins, J., Kutterolf, S., Pank, K., Behrens, E., Greve, A., Bell, R., Cook, A., Petronotis, K., Levay, L., Jamieson, R.A., Aze, T., Wallace, L., Saffer, D., Pecher, I. 2022. Trench floor depositional response to glacio-eustatic changes over the last 45 ka, northern Hikurangi subduction margin, New Zealand, New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 1-24.

Woodhouse, A., Jackson, S.L, Jamieson, R.A., Newton, R.J., Sexton, P.F., and Aze, T. 2021. Adaptive ecological niche migration does not negate extinction susceptibility, Scientific Reports, 11, 15411. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-94140-5

Fenton, I.F., & Woodhouse, A.*., Aze, T., Lazarus, D., Renaudie, J., Young, J., Dunhill, A., and Saupe, E.E. 2021. Triton: a new database of Cenozoic Planktonic Foraminifera, Scientific Data, 8, 160. DOI: 10.1038/s41597-021-00942-7 *co-first authorship