The world is undergoing rapid change and we urgently need to get a deeper understanding of the consequences of this change. Ecological communities are composed of species and their traits. Traits affect the assembly of communities and how species respond to environmental change. Seagrasses are foundation species that form vast submerged meadows and are biodiversity hotspots. Together with my team, I will study how diverse seagrass communities are assembled, how different species respond to fresher seawater and heatwaves and how seagrasses may be distributed in a future Baltic Sea. The results will reveal how traits are distributed in seagrass communities, how stable species are during environmental change and which species and traits might dominate future Baltic seagrass communities. Increasing our knowledge of how traits are linked to seagrass community structure and species' ability to withstand global change will contribute to more targeted conservation and management actions.

2023

2027