Projects
SeagrassTIME
project name: Trophic Cascades in Marine Ecosystems
initiating country: The European Union
Framework Programme: FP7 programme area: MC – People contract type: MCOIF – Marie Curie Outgoing International Fellowship
contract/proposal/call number: 221840
status: submitted proposal
start date: August 2008 duration: 36 months projected finish date: August 2011
Keywords
Fields of Research:
Environmental Science and Management
Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology)
keywords: eutrophication; coastal habitats; impact of herbivore grazers;
Project Budget
total budget: € 236,637
Participants
Note that the follow people may not represent the full extent of the consortium. FEAST has tried to identify the Australian participants, and their collaborators (or coordinator), within the project. Also note that Australian participation may not necessarily be on a formal level.
| name | organisation | state or country |
|---|---|---|
| Paul Lavery | ECU | WA, Australia |
| Ulrich Sommer | IFM-Geomar | Germany |
Further information
summary:
Eutrophication is one of the most serious impacts on coastal ecosystems worldwide. It is traditionally viewed as being controlled by light and nutrients availability. However, despite reduction of nutrient input alarmingly high loss of coastal habitats has been observed to endure. It is increasingly being accepted that bottom-up controls, such as abundance and diversity of herbivore grazers, may have a substantial role to play in an ecosystem’s susceptibility to eutrophication. Similarly, other unrecognised bottom-up controls (like ecosystem productivity and salinity) may directly influence ecosystem condition and responsiveness to eutrophication.
Through field experiments and field surveys we aim to evaluate the ability of herbivores under different abiotic conditions to mitigate the effects of nutrient enrichment. Moreover, a numerical model will be generated from field, monitoring and literature data to predict the synergistic effect of eutrophication and herbivory on seagrass communities. This will improve our understanding of ecosystem stability, giving a sound basis that can be applied for European coastal zone management efforts towards sustainable ecosystems.
The IOF will give the fellow the opportunity to perform high quality research within a worldwide leading scientific research-group in her field of research. Furthermore, the new techniques and methods will significantly enlarge her expertise and allow a significant step forward in her career. New methods like the pulsed amplitude modulated fluorometer (PAM), the stable isotope marking and modelling are in great demand and will give her new scientific tools which fit perfectly and support her current research focus. This project will foster new international contacts and build strong collaborations between scientific experts from Australia, the United States of America, the Netherlands and Germany.
