Creating coolspots: eco-engineering heat-resistant intertidal communities. This project aims to identify structural characteristics of marine intertidal habitat patches, formed by seaweeds and shellfi

Description

Creating coolspots: eco-engineering heat-resistant intertidal communities. This project aims to identify structural characteristics of marine intertidal habitat patches, formed by seaweeds and shellfish, that protect associated species from thermal extremes. This project will generate new knowledge about how thermally sensitive intertidal species can persist in stressful environments. Expected outcomes of this project include new approaches for building heat-tolerant ecological communities on coastal infrastructure, and improved tools for predicting the response of intertidal seaweeds and animals to environmental change. The results of this project will benefit coastal management by identifying conservation and rehabilitation strategies that maximise the resilience of coastal ecosystems to environmental change.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3103 - Ecology. Lead: Prof Melanie Bishop