About Restoreseas
Marine forests are biodiversity-rich ecosystems engineered by key structural taxa of macroalgae, seagrasses and corals. They provide many ecosystem services for humanity, however, they are disappearing at unprecedented rates.
The loss of these marine forests is a catastrophic event, causing loss of ecosystem services that are essential for humanity, including 1) nursery and feeding grounds for many marine species, 2) coastal protection against erosion, 3) counteracting climate change by carbon sequestration.
Yet, out of sight and challenging to reach, below the ocean surface, marine forest restoration is rare, despite massive scales of degradation.
RESTORESEAS aims to improve the resilience of marine habitat restoration in the Atlantic coasts, by applying novel nature-based solutions.
Corals
Coral reefs are home to about one fourth of all known marine species.
Seagrasses
Seagrass meadows are more efficient in carbon sequestration (per area) than terrestrial forests.
Seaweeds
Seaweeds are the base for several marine ecosystems, providing food and energy to numerous marine species.
With RESTORESEAS we will bring novelty on how to protect and restore marine forests. We will test, for instance, critical restoration efforts needed to reverse tipping points; we will work on a global scale with real data from many partners and use modelling approaches to create unprecedented predictions of restoration and conservation needs for adaptive traits to be considered in policy planning. We will widely integrate citizens and stakeholders in marine restoration to add educational value and ensure upscaling in space and long-term results.
Ester Serrão, coordinator of the RESTORESEAS project
is a full Professor at the University of Algarve and leads a research team at
CCMAR (Centre of Marine Sciences, in Faro) working on Biogeography, Evolution and Conservation of Marine Biodiversity
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Latest News
Jeanne, our marine forest workshop e-bike won an award!
Well, this was unexpected! A couple of months ago I applied for the MakeEUBlue awards, on behalf of our Jeanne team. Normally when I apply for these types of things, my brain automatically excludes any thoughts of their existence after pressing the “submit” button,...
Probiotics, pastéis, and Portuguese sun: my scientific exchange in Faro
On the 1st of September, a date symbolically known for the start of the school year in Belgium, I boarded a plane at Brussels Zaventem Airport to begin my own academic adventure: my exchange in Faro. This exchange is part of my thesis in collaboration with the...
A hopeful seagrass restoration story in a changing ocean
Based on: Mourato, C. V., Padrão, N., Serrão, E. A., & Paulo, D. (2023). Less Is More: Seagrass Restoration Success Using Less Vegetation per Area. Sustainability, 15(17), 12937. Efforts to restore seagrass meadows have been increasing, however strong currents and...
A look behind the scenes of the Natural History Museum in Vienna
One of the key aspects of the RESTORESEAS project is fostering collaboration among partners. This approach has proven invaluable for sharing insights from different ecosystems. At UGent, we focus on using microbiomes to enhance the restoration success of kelp....
Exploring the importance of underwater currents for the survival of Black Coral Forests
Black corals create extensive animal forests in the Canary Islands, providing habitat, food and shelter for a myriad of organisms. These keystone habitats are intricately linked to flow intensity, shaping the presence, morphology and distribution of these suspension...
Fantastic Oomycetes and where to find them!
The Phytophthora Research Centre team based at Mendel University in Brno has a long history of uncovering Oomycete diversity on terrestrial forest ecosystems all over the world… and now, within the RestoreSeas project, we are taking this challenge to another...
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