Ann Nielsen

I am a curiosity-driven environmental engineer with a passion for and background in marine research, science communication, diving, and ocean conservation. I started my PhD in February 2024, and my aim is to conduct ocean restoration research in marine habitats who need to have their stressors removed and rewilding facilitated. Working with applied restoration research allows me to combine my knowledge as a researcher, skills as an engineer, experience as a diver, and passion as an ocean conservationist.

Title: Overcoming barriers to restoration of marine biogenic habitats by a hybrid restoration approach.

Description: Biogenic reefs are incredibly important, severely declining, and in urgent need of restoration. Degraded sites may, however, be unsuitable for restoration due to local stressors working as barriers to restoration, e.g. sediment movement and wave action (physical barriers) or pollution and eutrophication (chemical barriers). At sites with physical stressors, combining artificial reefs with active restoration in a hybrid approach has been used to overcome barriers, improve restoration success, and even simultaneously remediate the stressors. I aim to investigate whether a similar hybrid approach can be used at sites with chemical barriers to restoration. This could improve restoration success, further expand the amount of sites suitable for restoration, and allow for remediation alongside restoration.

Supervisors: Mariana Mayer-Pinto and Adriana Vergés.