fish and metazoan diversity in seagrass beds

Research Project | 2021

Using Environmental DNA to Assess the Community Composition of Eelgrass Meadows in Santa Monica Bay and Catalina Island

fish and metazoan diversity in seagrass bedsAwardee: Tanner Waters

Department: Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Bio: Tanner Waters (he/him) is a third-year doctoral student at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability studying marine genetics. His work uses environmental DNA (eDNA) to understand landscape scale conservation and restoration efforts.

Project Summary: Seagrass provides dozens of ecosystems services to California’s coastlines, but their decline has been exponential within previous decades. This project uses eDNA to study the fish and metazoan diversity that is supported by seagrass beds. This is a critical step in helping to recognize the ecological importance of Southern California’s seagrass.