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 University of the Algarve, conducted in the BEE (Biogeographical Ecology and Evolution) lab. After a very warm welcome from Neusa Martins...
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 frequent storms often disturb newly transplanted seagrasses, making restoration efforts difficult and costly. But researchers...
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. However, since little is known about the role of bacteria in seaweed restoration, we have relied on the work of our partners, who study...
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 feeders. In this sense, black corals are sessile organisms which feed mainly on microscopic particles within the water column,...
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 environment: hunting Oomycetes in marine forests! Understanding the impact of these pathogens in marine ecosystems is of crucial importance...
As part of the task on communication and public dissemination of RESTORESEAS, the Natural History Museum Vienna has developed a new tool to bring the topic of conservation and restoration of marine forests into the spotlight in the landlocked country of Austria: our new marine restoration e-Bike “Jeanne”! “Jeanne” presents a rolling and interactive workshop directed at school classes in the ages...