Research

“Seagrass ecosystems are shaped by tightly coupled biological and physical processes that determine their persistence, recovery, and response to environmental change”.

My research focuses on understanding how ecological processes and hydrodynamic forcing interact to shape the persistence, resilience, and recovery of seagrass ecosystems in coastal environments. By integrating field observations, experimental hydrodynamics, and applied restoration studies, this work identifies the mechanisms that control when seagrass meadows persist, collapse, or recover.

Rather than treating seagrass ecology as a purely biological problem, my research adopts a process-based approach that explicitly links biological traits, physical forcing, and ecosystem feedbacks across spatial and temporal scales. This provides a mechanistic foundation for predicting ecosystem responses to disturbance and for designing evidence-based seagrass restoration strategies that work with, rather than against, environmental constraints.

The research programme is organised around three interconnected Research Themes, each addressing a critical component of seagrass ecosystem dynamics.

Research Themes

 I. SEAGRASS RESTORATION

This Theme synthesises applied research on seagrass restoration, focusing on why restoration succeeds in some contexts and fails in others. Restoration is framed as a diagnostic challenge, where success depends on identifying and overcoming site-specific recruitment bottlenecks, hydrodynamic constraints, and ecological feedbacks.

The work integrates seed ecology, physical forcing, ecosystem recovery, and monitoring, providing a process-based framework for designing, evaluating, and scaling restoration projects. Explore this Research Theme

II. HYDRODYNAMICS-SEAGRASS INTERACTIONS

This Theme provides the physical foundation of the research programme, focusing on the two-way coupling between seagrass canopies and hydrodynamic processes. It quantifies how waves, currents, and sediment dynamics constrain seagrass persistence, resilience, or collapse, and how seagrasses in turn modify flow and sediment transport as ecosystem engineers.

By identifying hydrodynamic thresholds and feedbacks, this work supports predictive assessments of ecosystem vulnerability under changing wave climates and increasing physical disturbance. Explore this Research Theme

III. SEAGRASS SEEDS: Ecology, dispersal, and early life stages

This Theme examines recruitment processes that control seagrass recovery, from seed production and dispersal to settlement and early seedling survival. It identifies how biological traits, sediment conditions, and hydrodynamic forcing interact to filter recruitment success across coastal systems.

By focusing on seeds and very early life stages, this work explains why natural recovery often fails even when adult habitat appears suitable, and provides a recruitment-ecology foundation for seed- and seedling-based restoration. Explore this Research Theme

An integrated research programme

Together, these three Themes form an integrated framework linking mechanisms, constraints, and outcomes:

  • Hydrodynamics define the physical limits of seagrass persistence
  • Seed ecology determines recruitment success or failure
  • Restoration outcomes depend on aligning methods with ecological and physical constraints acting across scales

This integrated perspective connects fundamental hydrodynamics with applied conservation and restoration, supporting both scientific understanding and management decision-making.

Methods, collaboration, and scope

The research combines:

  • Field-based ecological and hydrodynamic measurements
  • Controlled flume and wave-mesocosm experiments
  • Seed ecology and early life-stage studies
  • Long-term monitoring of natural and restored meadows
  • Applied restoration trials and decision-support tools

Work is conducted in close collaboration with PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, technicians, and international partners, with a strong emphasis on training, interdisciplinarity, and translation to management and restoration practice.

Further reading