GloFouling Webinars
Ecological engineering of marine infrastructure for biosecurity
Date:
Thursday, 20 August 2020
Webinar closed, recording available here
11
Summary:
Coastal populations around the world are rapidly increasing and will further increase in the future. The urbanisation of coastal areas has resulted in modifications of the shoreline, with natural habitats being replaced by artificial structures. These artificial structures have a big impact on the surrounding environment and change the composition of the resident biota. Multifunctional ecological engineering designs seek to reduce the impact of artificial structures on the environment, while providing useful ecosystem services. The presentation will outline the results of a literature review and will explain a large scale field experiment on the factors that influence the settlement of invasive aquatic species on marine infrastructure.
Presented by:
Nina Schaefer, Research Associate, Sydney Institute of Marine Science
Dr Nina Schaefer is a research associate affiliated with Macquarie University and the Sydney Institute of Marine Science. She completed her PhD in marine biology in 2019 at the University of New South Wales. Her research focuses on natural and artificial habitats in urban environments, with a focus on informing eco-friendly marine infrastructure designs. She is interested in how artificial structures can be designed to increase the diversity of associated communities, while minimising negative impacts such as the establishment of invasive species. In her research she is using existing literature, and a combination of large-scale surveys and small- and large-scale field experiments to provide a rigorous scientific basis and testing for these designs.