Diversity strikes back

Exploring the role of functional diversity of aquatic plants for the resilience of benthic vegetated habitats.

This project is a collaboration between Tiina Salo (Åbo Akademi University), Laura Kauppi (University of Helsinki) and Camilla Gustafsson.

In this project, we study the resilience of underwater vegetation and associated seafloor animals. The project was intiatied in 2017, when we coverered vegetated seafloor with 2 x 2 m tarpaulin mats to mimic drfiting algal disturbance. 

We have followed the recovery of both vegetation and infauna (animals living inside the seafloor) and visited our field sites once-twice per year until 2022.