Research updates
Stay up-to-date with our latest research.
2025
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Seeds of the Sea Citizen Science Project Launched
Seeds of the Sea is a UNSW-led citizen science and research project that’s uncovering when and where the endangered seagrass Posidonia australis flowers and produces seeds across New South Wales.
With help from community members, Indigenous Rangers, divers, and scientists, the project is building the first statewide dataset on seagrass reproduction — crucial knowledge to guide future seed-based restoration and help bring back lost meadows.
CMSI UNSWKelp collections for Experiments at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science
PhD student Annemie Rose is investigating whether kelps in the inner harbour are more adapted to urbanisation. Yesterday we collected kelp from site in the inner and outer harbour, in Sydney Harbour, for experiments at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science where she will test responses to copper and nutrients.
This work follows on from experiments testing responses of inner and outer harbour kelp to copper as a single stressor, and from Annemie Rose's Masters project, where she found inner harbour kelp had higher lead and lower nitrogen concentrations, while outer harbour kelp had thicker stipes and longer and narrower laminae with spines.
Read here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2024.106572
Photos by Aliah Banchik
Photos by Aliah BanchikInteractions between light pollution and habitat complexity
PhD student Lena Holtmanns recently concluded a 6 week experiment, in which she worked to determine how marine organisms react to artificial light at night (ALAN), and how these effects are mediated by habitat complexity. Light pollution is a growing global pollutant, however the majority of studies are lab-based and short term, and tend to focus on a single species. In contrast, this experiment aimed to quantify impacts on ecological communities, including species composition, interactions and functioning. Lena used concrete artificial habitats with two different complexity levels and attached low intensity lights to half the units of both complexities, and took samples to assess fish communities and behaviour, microbial composition, algae concentrations and photosynthetic efficiency. Lena now has alot of data to process, and we hope to share more results with you soon!
Lena Holtmanns
2024
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April 2024
Two new honours students, Jenna Beyer and Josh Hamilton, have joined us this year as part of the Living Seawalls project. Jenna is interested in finding ways to reduce human impacts on our local ecosystems, particularly through habitat restoration and eco-engineering as tools to combat biodiversity loss. They will be evaluating the impact of the new Living Pilings installed at Sawmillers Reserve to see how seaweed, invertebrates and fish communities can be enhanced by providing habitat structures to smooth wharf pilings. Josh's research interests are investigating fish feeding behaviour around different artificial structures and how habitat providing modules such as Living Seawalls can benefit fish communities in the long term. His Honours research will center on investigating biodiversity survey of seaweed, invertebrates and fish communities inhabiting in the first Living Seawall, 5 years after its installation.
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Habitat modules from Reef Design Lab have been deployed for trials in Chowder Bay by PhD student Lena Holtmanns, which will be used to test the interactive effects of light pollution and habitat complexity on fouling and fish species assemblages. We also have a new paper out in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences on the effects of artificial light at night and warming on a sea urchin, Centrostephanus rodgersii. You can read the article here: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.0415
