Role in the project
The Natural History Museum Vienna and its team is responsible for the coordination of all scientific and public communication, participation and outreach. Moreover, we work on the role of microorganisms in restoration efficiency, as well as the restoration of cold-water coral habitat in the North Atlantic.
Because there is only rudimentary understanding of the functional consequences of host-microbiome interactions in marine forests, we will be combining field and laboratory experiments to 1) characterize host-associated microbiomes of natural populations; 2) determine the influence of the microbiome on host performance under changing conditions; and 3) investigate host microbiome interactions in restoration experiments.
Team members
Pedro Frade, PhD
PI
Website: https://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/en/pedro_frade
Being curator of invertebrate zoology in a research museum in a land-locked country, I feel privileged that our institution can contribute to applied science leading to conservation and restoration of marine ecosystems.
In RESTORESEAS I will be directly involved in coordinating work about the role of microorganisms in the success of restoration of shallow and deep marine animal forests. I will also contribute to the coordination of the project’s scientific and public communication, participation and outreach, including the translation of scientific results into new communication tools (together with collaborators in Vienna) involving art as a vector for science.
Elisabeth Haring, Priv-Doz. Dr.
Molecular techniques and student supervision
Website: https://nhm-wien.ac.at/elisabeth_haring
As head of the Central Research Laboratories of NHMW, I supervise research projects dealing with molecular systematics, phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies of a broad variety of animal species, spanning birds, mammals, insects, molluscs and, more recently, cnidarians. In RESTORESEAS I am interested in exploring the species-specificity of microbial communities associated to coral hosts and how to best address the role of microbiomes in the context of conservation vs restoration.
Iris Ott, MSc
Coordination of participatory science communication
Website: https://nhm-wien.ac.at/iris_ott
As head of the Science Communication department at NHMW Naturhistorisches Museum Wien – Department of Science Communication (nhm-wien.ac.at), my team and I are involved in the coordination and conceptualization of how the museum communicates with the public. Using a variety of formats, locations, and activities, we want to inspire you, fascinate you, give you access to an extraordinary world and invite you to become part of it. We strive to reach a diverse audience in the most appealing and varied way possible and, above all, we want to be a museum open to everyone! In RESTORESEAS I am particularly interested in exploring a new concept of itinerant exhibition and workshop based on eBikes: Naturhistorisches Museum Wien – NHM Vienna on tour (nhm-wien.ac.at)
I believe this concept can be a great step to explain marine restoration to a broad public in a landlocked country and reaches all of those who cannot visit us in the museum.
Christian Pruckner, MSc
PhD student
Conservation biology, especially marine conservation, has been dear to me already since a young age and therefore I am excited to contribute to the protection and restoration of marine animal forests in RESTORESEAS.
Marcellina Rola
MSc student
Marine ecosystems have always fascinated me. By focusing on the evolution of photosymbiosis among Invertebrates for my bachelor thesis, I got entirely soaked up by the science behind it. Symbiosis generally leads to complex organismic interactions and precise evolutionary adaptions. Yet, facing irreversible tipping points in largely all ecosystems, doesn’t make the holobiont fine-tuning any easier. Humans also highly depend on their efficient coastal protection and the nursery ground that marine forests and other coastal ecosystems provide. In a nutshell, I am excited to be part of the RESTORESEAS project and to be able to contribute to the project by working on my master thesis. I am particularly interested in the role of coral microbiomes, how certain microbes maintain healthy marine forests and how microbial communities could be a key element to establish nature-based restoration strategies
Maria Pinto, PhD
Website & Media Communication Officer
I am interested in marine sciences and science communication, especially in bridging the knowledge gap between research and policy makers and the public. My passion has always been marine biology, and I use my academic education in the field, together with my passion for communication, to promote awesome and important science.
Latest blog posts
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....
Meet Jeanne, the Marine Forest Restoration eBike!
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...
Conservation and restoration of marine forests, from deep sea coral reefs to seagrass meadows
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....
Swimming amongst seagrasses
It’s mid-October in Sardinia, and the once packed beaches in the Summer, are bare and wild. It’s windy and not necessarily warm, but I can’t resist jumping in the water for a little snorkelling session in the crystalline turquoise waters Sardinia is known for. Me...
First steps to deep-sea coral restoration
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...
Colorful Coral Gardens that Flourish Entirely out of Our Sight
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...