Cohort 5

Charlotte Jennings

Project Title:

Seagrass recovery and restoration in a bay of international conservation importance

Bio:

I enjoy nothing more than being underwater, my love of these environments spurs on my interest in marine conservation, I spend my free time out or under the water. During my undergraduate degree I had the opportunity to work in Spain for a year, here I gained experience in seagrass conservation and decided that this is what I wanted to do. After leaving university I worked in the pharmaceutical industry, while still volunteering on marine projects, I then moved onto working in an aquarium which realigned my work values to what I wanted to do. I am now looking at macroalgal bloom removal and seagrass restoration in the north east.

Supervisors:

  • Pippa Moore - Newcastle University
  • Heather Sugden - Newcastle University
  • Holly East - Northumbria University
  • Catherine Scott - Natural England

Research Questions:   

1.What are the impacts of opportunistic macroalgae on seagrass productivity and morphology

2.What methods can be used for removing nuisance macroalgae without harming seagrass beds

3.What methods are suitable for restoring seagrass in Budle bay

Techniques:

To fully investigate my research aims I will be spending a lot of time in the field, undertaking algal removal and trialling methods of intertidal seagrass restoration. The study site is located in Northumberland and falls under the Lindisfarne national nature reserve, it is also a special protection area (SPA), special area of conservation (SAC) and  is a designated site of special scientific interest (SSSI) . Budle bay is an important home to many species of overwintering birds, which makes the aim to remove the opportunistic macroalgae ever more important to aid in the conservation of these species using the mud flats. These field days will be couples with desk-based research to assess other successful attempts at removal and restoration have taken place around the UK. This project is part of the EU Life WADER project which aims to improve the condition of the river, intertidal and marine habitats of the Northumberland coast for the species who depend on them.

 Skills:

Intertidal/subtidal fieldwork, GIS, R

Education:

MSc Marine Environmental Protection, Bangor University 2020-2021

BSc Applied Marine Biology, Bangor University 2016-2020

Publications:

Ruiz‐Frau, A., Martin‐Abadal, M., Jennings, C.L., Gonzalez‐Cid, Y. and Hinz, H., 2022. The potential of Jellytoring 2.0 smart tool as a global jellyfish monitoring platform. Ecology and Evolution, 12(11), p.e9472.

Hobbies:

SCUBA, paddleboarding, swimming, sewing, board games