Emma A. Ward - Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Portsmouth

I began my PhD at the University of Portsmouth in October 2020e my research here focuses on the carbon storage capacity of seagrass in the UK. I was fortunate that during the first year of the PhD my supervisor Dr Joanne Preston approached me to act as a Co-Investigator on the Solent Seagrass Restoration project, alongside a fantastic team of researchers including Dr Ian Hendy (UoP) and Dr Tim Fererro (HIWWT). As such I have had the fantastic opportunity to work on the project since the planning stages when we were setting the seeds for a project that would culminate in my recent poster presentation at the World Seagrass Conference 2022.

Back in August and September 2021, the project got underway on the ground with some fantastic seed collection sessions supported by staff and volunteers from; UoP, HIWWT and Boskalis Westminster. These seed collection sessions were undertaken using pattens (mud shoes) and waders, to hand pick spathes (seed-bearing shoots) thereby ensuring we collected ripe seagrass seeds which look like tiny green capsules. These seed-bearing shoots were taken back to the Institute of Marine Sciences where they were housed in flow through tanks to begin the rotting down stage, which separates the leaf material from what we were after the seeds. Together we collected over 21,000 seeds!

In October 2021 the team was joined by two MRes students Bronwen Paxton and Hannah Stead. Together we have undertaken sediment coring and biodiversity assessments in three reference seagrass meadows off Farlington Marshes, Hayling Island and Ryde, which we will use to compare to the restoration site as it gets underway. Surveys were also completed at the restoration site before seed deployment in December 2021 and again this year.

These scientific surveys were summarised at the pinnacle of seagrass research; the World Seagrass conference and this year’s 14th international seagrass biology workshop (7-12th August) in Annapolis, Maryland, USA. This was the first opportunity to attend and present at an international conference in person during my PhD, due to covid restrictions! Alongside other work from my PhD, I presented the active intertidal seagrass restoration work we have been undertaking with HIWWT and Boskalis Westminster in the poster session. The poster focuses on the stages of seagrass restoration undertaken and the potential ecosystem services provided by restoring intertidal seagrass in the UK, such as our Solent seagrass. I would like to thank the organisations which provided me student travel grants to attend the conference which include; the British Phycological Society, Challengers Marine Society and British Ecology Society. But most importantly I would like to take the time to thank all our partners and collaborators including those at the University of Portsmouth, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, Boskalis Westminster and Wightlink ferries, whom without I would not have had the fantastic opportunity to present this project’s progress at the World Seagrass conference 2022.