This blog has been created to help bring knowledge and awareness of seabed habitats to the general public. It is aimed at a general non-scientific audience who have a marine interest. It presents views from a range of stakeholders of the marine environment, including scientific researchers studying the seabed, conservation groups, industry, policy making organisations, governments and recreational tourists. It has evolved into a video blog and tries to provide an international perspective of seabed-related sciences. I hope it helps to link the outreach activities related to seabed habitats.
The blog contains four main sections, which are Science, Technology, Management and Research. Additionally, we have endeavored to produce a “Habitats” series of posts, which cover many different seabed habitats. Guest posts from researchers who specialise in different marine science disciplines and interviews can also be found listed under the What’s New section. We also have the “Conference” series of posts and the new Marine Science Book Club. I generally try to include as much visual content as possible, such as videos, images and sometimes audio, as a medium for science communication. It is the home of the Seabed Habitats Seminar Series- an exciting series of talks by scientists from around the world held on the last Tuesday of every month.
About the author
Just so you know who is writing this! Siddhi Joshi started this blog in 2011 whilst studying for a PhD at the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences in the National University of Ireland, Galway. I was based in the Biogeosciences group, working on the “Understanding the seabed” project. My project was entitled “Sediment mobility modelling and hydrodynamic properties of maerl beds.” It was my ideal PhD within the discipline of marine science. I have found the blog also helps me on a personal level to share my experiences as a new researcher and also to express myself! Hence, at times it is quite informal and reflective.
A little bit about my PhD project:
My work is an interdisciplinary study of the sediment dynamics in Galway Bay. It links aspects of physical oceanography, marine geophysics, sedimentology and benthic ecology in the shallow water environment. Multibeam and LiDAR data from the INFOMAR national seabed mapping programme are being used as part of coupled hydrodynamic-wave-sediment transport models to increase understanding of the oceanographic forcing factors driving maerl habitat distribution. Experimental work to determine the fundamental physical properties of maerl has been carried out and integrated with the results of the modelling work by modelling the mobility of the seabed. The thesis leads on to consider the wider implications of seabed mobility modelling for habitat studies and conservation management.
UPDATE: I have now successfully finished my PhD project post-doctoral research and will continue blogging as long as possible. An abstract of this work can be found here with the full thesis available here.
UPDATE 2021: More info about the author Dr Siddhi Joshi at my personal website https://siddhijoshi.com
and as a committee member of the Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering Network website
