Miss Yi Mei Tan1, Mr Oliver Dalby1, Dr Stacey Treavthan-Tackett2, Professor Peter Macreadie2, Associate Professor Emma Jackson3, Dr Rhys Coleman4, Dr Adam Miller4, Associate Professor Craig Sherman1
1Deakin University, Geelong, Australia, 2Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, 3Central Queensland University, Gladstone, Victoria, 4Melbourne Water, Melbourne, Australia, 5Deakin University, Warrnambool, Australia
Seagrasses are coastal marine plants found throughout the world’s oceans, providing a wide range of ecosystem services to humans and other marine organisms. Despite their clear importance, they are facing accelerated rates of decline and management practices are urgently needed to stem further losses. It is widely accepted that microbiomes are essential for human health, and that the same relationship can also be found in natural environments. The plant microbiome is intrinsically linked to plant health and productivity, and understanding the microbial communities associated with healthy and degraded seagrass communities can have important implications for conservation. Here we characterise microbial community composition and diversity of sediment-associated microbiome across Western Port Bay, Victoria. We test for association between the presence of healthy seagrass habitats and areas of seagrass loss on the composition and diversity of microbial communities. The knowledge gained from this study has important consequences for the restoration of seagrass habitats, where manipulation of the plant-associated microbiome could be essential to restoration success. Furthermore, the delineation in microbial communities could potentially also be used as early warning indicators of seagrass decline in the region.
Biography:
In her previous life, Yi Mei was an environmental consultant in her native country, Singapore. These days, as part of her PhD candidature at Deakin University, she walks (but mostly crawls) through mud with the aim of developing the tools and knowledge required for successful restoration of the intertidal seagrass, Zostera muelleri, in Western Port Bay. This has seen her carry out both large-scale field and mesocosm experiments involving the transplantation of thousands of adult plants, and germination of thousands of seeds. Additionally, Yi Mei is interested in the seagrass-associated microbiome, and how they could potentially be manipulated to enhance restoration success. Prior to her candidature, she completed her MSc at the University of Aberdeen, and her BSc at the University of Melbourne. Yi Mei’s lifelong dream is to swim with orcas but not be eaten alive.