In a short research project, Kaïn van Calcar, a BSc student at the University of Amsterdam, investigated the role of oomycetes in the decline of seagrass meadows. Seagrass meadows are essential for providing various ecosystem services, including acting as habitats for marine organisms and effectively storing carbon. Unfortunately, these meadows have been experiencing a rapid worldwide decline....
What are marine forests? Marine forests are biodiverse-rich ecosystems engineered by key structural taxa of macroalgae, seagrass and corals. Depending on the keystone taxa, we can separate them in three main ecosystems: seaweed banks, seagrass meadows and coral reefs. Seagrass meadows Seagrasses are marine flowering plants rooted to the seafloor. They can grow over large areas, creating...
Hello! I am Sofie, a PhD student at the University of Ghent, currently working on unravelling the role Laminaria ochroleuca’s microbiome plays in its growth and development. Laminaria ochroleuca, also known as the golden kelp, is a temperate brown seaweed species, mainly found in the coastal waters of Europe ranging from the UK to Morocco (1,2). It plays an important role in rocky shore...
When people think of coral reefs, they usually imagine warm, shallow tropical waters; not cold, dark deep ocean waters. But there are coral reefs living in the dark at the bottom of the ocean as well. They are hard to access and not as vibrant as their warm-water relatives, still they harbor almost as many species and serve as nursery grounds for many commercially important fish [1]. These...
With the ability of building complex 3D habitats, corals as sessile animals harbor high levels of biodiversity, similar to plants on land. While iconic ecosystems like tropical coral reefs and seagrass meadows occur in light-flooded zones of the ocean, deep coral assemblages populate oceanic regions where light is scarce or even absent, and therefore remain entirely out of sight. Together with...
To discuss efficient methods to analyze DNA, several RESTORESEAS partners got together to exchange expertise and foster cooperation.