Seagrass meadows: a natural solution for sustainable coastal protection?

Coastal protection measures are increasingly required as coastal zones are under stress of climate change (sea level rise, intensification of storms, increasing beach erosion, etc.) and under increasing anthropogenic pressure (demographic evolution, loss of habitats, economic expansion, etc.). This combination threatens coastal ecosystems and significantly reduces their resilience.

Ecosystem engineers can play an important role in coastal protection by dissipating energy from waves and currents while supporting a wide array of important ecosystem services. One of the most productive marine ecosystems are seagrass meadows. Seagrasses grow on every continent except Antarctica and fulfill countless functions in their ecosystem: providing shelter and nurseries to marine animals, supporting fisheries, attenuating waves and currents, and mitigating the effects of climate change by sequestering CO2.

In this project, we aim to develop an innovative, resilient, coastal protection system with a dual purpose: protecting the coastlines and provide long-lasting ecosystem services. To do so, we target the early stages of seagrass plant development through innovative bio-technologies and breakthrough incubation tests. The student will actively participate in the research activities, and contribute to: setting up (lab) experiments, monitoring them, and analysing the results. Amongst these activities, we foresee: seed multiplication and enhanced rooting experiments, analysis of field samples of fauna and flora associated with seagrass beds, data analysis and assistance in the preparation of technical reports. If traveling restriction allows assistance in fieldwork in The Netherlands will be probable. With this internship, we would like to offer an interesting and engaging experience for an early career scientist, in order to be trained in a broad range of scientific skills.

Language requirements: 
English
Specific competences required : 
The student should be ready to be flexible to assist the work, is keen on performing hands-on lab work with living organisms, has an eye for details.
Safety issues: 
Standard lab safety rules apply as the student will be involved in the set-up of aquaria experiments and will enter in the chemical lab of the research group.
Accommodation possibilities : 
Ghent University offers different stay possibilities. We suggest to have a look at the website -> ugent.be/en/facilities/housing or to check autonomously for solution on the social media (e.g. FB-kot te huur etc)
Additional costs to be covered by the student: 
No
COVID-19 contingency plan: 
The internship will be conducted at the Marine Biology department of UGent, in compliance with the latest regulation and appropriate protection devices, to limit the diffusion of Covid-19. If, for extreme circumstances the internship cannot be conducted on-site, an interesting on-line alternative is foreseen, where the student can virtually follow the experiments and support the research activities from home. The student can also assist in analysis of the broad range of literature that is available in the preparatory phase of the experiments and in the analysis phase when the research data are available. In order to ensure a broad-skillset experience, eventual extra activities will be evaluated in a later stage.
format: 
on-site