Protecting cold-water corals

Описание: DIG DEEPER at Norwegian SciTech News:
https://norwegianscitechnews.com/2022...

Lena van Giesen, an associate professor at NTNU’s Department of Biology, was awarded EUR 1.7 million by the European Research Council (ERC) to study larval development of the coral Lophelia pertusa as well as its environment.

This cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa is common in the Trondheim Fjord and is a reef-forming deep-sea species that is found worldwide.

Van Giesen will investigate how the sensory organs of the coral’s larvae function and react to signals from the outside world and will study the animal’s behaviour more generally. She will investigate how the coral and the ecosystem in which it lives are affected by changes in water temperature, salinity and pH levels.

Lena van Giesen is in the Animal Physiology research section at the Department of Biology.
“I feel incredibly honoured to receive this award,” she said. “The ERC starter grant will help me to establish my new lab and pave my path as an independent investigator.”

Corals play an important role in the oceans. Some, like Lophelia pertusa, build reefs. Coral reefs are formed by colonies of coral polyps held together by a calcium carbonate skeleton produced by the coral.

The reefs form the basis for some of the most diverse marine ecosystems on the planet. All species in an ecosystem are interdependent. That means that any negative impacts on one species can have consequences for all other species in the ecosystem.

DIG DEEPER at Norwegian SciTech News:
https://norwegianscitechnews.com/2022...