IMBRSea Master students studying the impacts of bund walls and tidal reinstatement on greenhouse gas emissions have graduated!

In January 2020 we welcomed Rebecca Morrow and Amanda de la Rosa into the Blue Carbon Lab to undertake a 6-month research project to complete their Masters degree.

Upon their arrival, they started to build their experimental mesocosm setup in the laboratory. In February 2020, they both headed out to their field sites to collect the sediment cores that they would incubate in the lab.

Amanda was looking at the impacts of the construction of bund walls on saltmarsh habitat, while Becca was looking at the impacts of tidal reinstatement in an industrial saltworks. Both were focussed on the impacts of their scenarios on carbon cycling and greenhouse gas emissions.

Unfortunately as Becca and Amanda were half way through their 30-day laboratory experiments, countries began to close their borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately Becca was able to finish the experiments, while Amanda helped analyse data remotely.

Both Becca and Amanda recently defended their theses and graduated magna cum laude! You can check out Becca’s and Amanda’s defense presentations to learn more about their research project and findings!

Both are currently in the process of turning their thesis into a peer-reviewed publication.