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SEACS Lab (UNSW)

@seacs.bsky.social
88 followers 148 following 43 posts

We are a lab of passionate marine ecologists at CMSI UNSW, conducting solutions-based research on human stressors in estuarine and coastal ecosystems.

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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
New paper alert! Check out this awesome new paper, from our PhD student Dana Lanceman, on the temporal trajectories of developing functional traits in coastal wetlands of different restoration ages 🌿 🌊 🦀🌐 doi.org/10.1002/eap.... #saltmarsh #restoration #marineecology #ecosystemservices
doi.org
Restoration transforms coastal wetland ecosystem services over time
Habitat restoration is increasing globally, aiming to recover biodiversity and ecosystem services. To assess the success and value of such restoration projects, we need to understand how and when the....
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Ideas Exchange: Nighttime Ecology brings together UNSW researchers from various disciplines to examine how human activity is reshaping life after dark. Speakers include Milly Caley, from the SEACS lab 🌊🌐 Held Wed, 2 Sep, 12:30pm, register for free on Humanitix. events.humanitix.com/ideas-exchan...
events.humanitix.com
Ideas Exchange: Nighttime Ecology
UNSW researchers explore the effects of lights on nighttime environments, from marine ecosystems and cities to the night sky.
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Check out Seeds of the Sea, a citizen science project started by our PhD student Natalie Coy, tracking seagrass flowering and fruiting in endangered Posidonia australia along the Australian Coast! 🌐🧪🌊 www.seedsofthesea.org
Image of seagrass growing from sand. In the centre of the photo is a seagrass flower.
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
A recent article from SBS on how light pollution threatens cultural connections, human health and ecology. This article features Kai Lane, Mariana Mayer Pinto (our lab leader), Dr Ken Wishaw and Marnie Ogg (Australasian Dark Sky Alliance). #lightpollution 🌐🧪 www.sbs.com.au/news/article...
sbs.com.au
The night sky is fading. What happens when we lose the stars?
As the night sky grows brighter, some Australians are fighting to save what's disappearing from above them.
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Our coastal marine habitats are suffering from climate change. But we have the tools to restore these environments. Tune in to learn from PhD student Ann Flemming Nielsen on how we can use human engineering to build back our coastal environments 🧪🌐 open.spotify.com/episode/0X9r...
open.spotify.com
Grand Designs for our Oceans' Habitats with Ann Flemming Nielsen | One Big Idea
UNSW Centre for Ideas · Episode
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Reposted by SEACS Lab (UNSW)
Living Seawalls @livingseawalls.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
🌊 Marine science students: applications for our 2027 vocational placements open July 1! Gain hands-on experience in fieldwork, lab research, data analysis and project management while contributing to marine conservation. Find out more: livingseawalls.com.au/voc-placement
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Kara is our newest honours student, working on the Living Boulders project in Yamba on Yaegl Country! 🌊 This project is a collaboration with Living Seawalls and Birrigan Gargle Local Aboriginal Land Council, to improve habitat for marine life and reconnect cultural knowledge with the landscape 🌐🧪
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
We are pleased to announce our project, “ALAN and Warming Impacts on Marine Interactions” is a newly endorsed project of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development! 🌊🌐🧪 This project will look at the combined impacts of light pollution and warming #OceanDecade #ArtificialLightAtNight
Turquoise circle logo that reads in white text "Endorsed by the Ocean Decade" at the top of the circle. There is a wave logo inside the circle, and below that it reads "2021-2030, United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development".
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
The outer #SydneyHarbour coastal management plan is now open for community submissions. If you can, please submit on key sites for #biodiversity, #pollution or #heritage around Sydney Harbour. www.sydneycoastalcouncils.com.au/program/oute...
sydneycoastalcouncils.com.au
Outer Sydney Harbour Coastal Management Program - Sydney Coastal Councils Group Inc
Have Your Say Input from local communities who value and use outer Sydney Harbour is vital to the success of the Coastal Management Program (CMP). To address current and emerging threats and protect t...
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Last night, Dana and Milly spoke at the #CooksRiverValleyAssociation meeting. We had great discussions about #lightpollution and #saltmarsh restoration. Niki Bañados (@stickwriter on Instagram) sketched these amazing illustrations of our talks! Check out more here www.nikibanados.com 🌊🧪🌐
Sketch in notepad by Niki Bañados from Dana Lanceman's talk, in green, detailing their work on saltmarsh and wetlands, with illustrations of trees and birds.Sketch in notepad by Niki Bañados of Milly Caley's talk, in purple, with illustrations of turtles, birds, fish and streetlights and information on marine impacts of light pollution.
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Curious about #lightpollution impacts underwater and in our urban ecosystems? Join this free webinar tomorrow, 10.30am Sydney time with A/Prof Mariana Mayer Pinto 🌊🌐🧪😊💡
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Can seagrass restoration be more successful when we mimic existing seagrass beds? 🌱 Another talented PhD student of ours, Ann Nielsen spoke at the UNSW Big Ideas festival late last year. Watch here! 🌊🌐🧪 #marineecology #seagrass #posidonia www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mJJ...
youtube.com
Grand designs for our oceans' habitats with Ann Flemming Nielsen | One Big Idea
YouTube video by UNSW
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
What do light pollution and saltmash have in common? They are both found along the Cooks river! Milly Caley and Dana Lanceman will give a talk on Feb 17th on light pollution in marine environments and saltmarsh and mangrove restoration for the Cooks River Valley association 🌊🧪🌐😊💡🌱
Three aquarium tubs containing sea urchins and terracotta pots, with a scientist leaning into a tub.Person walking away in a field carrying buckets and wearing a hat, with saltmarsh and dead trees in the foreground and mangroves in the background.
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
We have very talented PhD students! PhD student Natalie Coy founded Seeds of the Sea, to record flowering of endangered #Posidonia australis #seagrass. Check out the video she made about it (and website) below. vimeo.com/1136638387?f... www.seedsofthesea.org #marineecology #oceanoptimism 🌊🌐🧪
vimeo.com
Our Mission
This is "Our Mission" by Seeds of the Sea on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Light pollution is an underappreciated and growing threat to marine #biodiversity. It already affects ~22% of global coastlines and can reach the seafloor. This video, made with #UNSW, #ADSA, and #DCCEEW, highlights why marine #lightpollution matters 🌊🌐🧪 #ALAN 💡 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtd7...
youtube.com
Light pollution and the marine world
YouTube video by UNSW Science
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
A short film by PhD student, Dana Lanceman, on restoring coastal wetlands. This video depicts the emotional journey of a mangrove crab, moving from wetland degradation to ecosystem restoration. Watch and learn how to support wetland restoration! 🌊🧪🌐🦀 #marineecology #crab youtu.be/PWhoiMt0fCM?...
youtu.be
Restoring Coastal Wetlands
YouTube video by Dana Lanceman
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Reposted by SEACS Lab (UNSW)
UNSW Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences @unswbees.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
www.smh.com.au/interactive/...
smh.com.au
Diversity, history and overlooked beauty: The fight to revive Sydney’s forgotten second harbour
Despite the ravages of industry and urban development, Botany Bay has retained pockets of surprising beauty with biodiversity to rival Sydney Harbour. Now a revival is under way, as an Indigenous-led ...
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
A recent video feature on the Living Seawalls project in Sydney Harbour, @livingseawalls.bsky.social , featuring Mariana Mayer Pinto and Alex Goad 😊🧪🌐🌊 www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...
abc.net.au
Living seawalls bringing life back into harbours
Sarah Ferguson presents Australia's premier daily current affairs program, delivering agenda-setting public affairs journalism and interviews that hold the powerful to account. Plus political analysis...
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
The latest (and largest) Living Seawall installation to date! 🌊🧪🌐🌎 #marineecology #ecoengineering #naturebasedsolutions
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Upcoming free webinar on marine impacts of light pollution! A/Prof Mariana Mayer Pinto will present an online webinar on the impacts of #lightpollution on #marineecology on the 17th February 2026 at 10:30 am AEDT, organised by the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance 🧪💡🌐🌊 tinyurl.com/light-webinar
tinyurl.com
WEBINAR - The Impacts of ALAN on Marine Environments - Australasian Dark Sky Alliance
Scientia Senior Lecturer at UNSW and 2025 Eureka Prize winner for her seawall research. Marine ecologist, Impact Ambassador for the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance, and featured speaker at Valuing Dark...
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Wonderful illustration by Hyunh Kim from Mariana's talk at the Valuing Darkness Symposium. Over 20% of the world’s coastlines experience #lightpollution, yet we have limited knowledge of its impacts on #marineecology and key habitat-forming organisms 🧪🌊💡🌐 Read more here: tinyurl.com/ADSA-conf
A hand drawn image in black and white pen showing a cross-section of a  coastal landscape illuminated by light pollution. The top of the image shows vertical light lines extending into the sky, above five semi-circles that look like hills. Below these hills are horizontal lines and circles that are emitting yellow texta light lines downwards. Moving down the page, under these yellow lines is the sea surface and small boats. Under the waters surface are schools of fish outlined, and at the bottom of the page are seaweeds extending up to the surface.
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
Great article, featuring our PhD student Ann Flemming Nielsen talking about work she is involved in with the Gamay Rangers and UNSW, and her PhD research, testing the best ways to restore endangered Posidonia australis seagrass in Gamay/Botany Bay 🌐🌱🌊🧪
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
New paper alert!! Repetition and order of exposure to salinization and nutrient enrichment drive freshwater microbial community responses, led by PhD student Rose Fuggle with supervisors Mariana Mayer Pinto, Miguel Matias and Ziggy Marzinelli. 🧪🌐🦠 Read here: doi.org/10.1002/ecy.... #microbes
doi.org
Repetition and order of exposure to salinization and nutrient enrichment drive freshwater microbial community responses
Biological systems face multiple stressors that impact biodiversity and ecosystem functions, with complex interactions that vary spatially and temporally leading to unpredictable outcomes. In freshwa...
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
🚨 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘁! PhD candidate Annemie Rose Janssen exposed kelp populations to copper contamination to see whether kelp from the inner harbour would respond differently to outer harbour kelp. Results indicate local adaptation to contamination in the inner harbour! 🧪🌊🌐 doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Annemie Rose discussing her recent paper on kelp genetic differentiation and local adaptation in Sydney Harbour 🌊🧪🌐 doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
New paper from PhD student Annemie Rose Jannsen, who found distinct #kelp genotypes in the inner and outer parts of #SydneyHarbour. Genotype-environment analyses suggest adaptation to local conditions. Super cool results, great work Annemie Rose & coauthors!! 🌊🌐🧪 #marine doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
PhD student Natalie Coy spoke on Radio National this morning about the Seeds of the Sea citizen science project. This project asks citizen scientists to report sightings of Posidonia seagrass flowers in NSW, to inform future restoration of this endangered species. 🌊🌐🧪 www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
abc.net.au
Call for beachgoers to snap pics for science - ABC listen
If you've ever been swimming or diving along the south coast of Australia, you might be familiar with the stunning array of colours and textures that make up our native seagrass meadows. But did you ...
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
A new citizen science project, Seeds of the Sea, run by one of our PhD students Natalie Coy has launched, helping to map seagrass flowering of #Posidonia in south-eastern Australia. Check out the website and map of sightings here: www.seedsofthesea.org 🧪🌍🦤🦑🌐🌊
Close up image with Green Posidonia seagrass buds in the foreground, and seagrass and sand in the background.
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Seaweed-associated microbial communities show limited responses to light pollution and warming 🌱💡 New paper assessing the independent and combined effects of #lightpollution and #oceanwarming on microbial communities associated with two habitat-forming #seaweed species 🧪🌐🌊 doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...
Graphical abstract showing two plots illustrating distance to centroid (degree of dispersion), with the left plot showing values for Ecklonia radiata (picture of Ecklonia below, with symbol showing microbes) and right plot showing values for Sargassum (picture of Sargassum below, with symbol showing microbes). The Ecklonia plot shows greater dispersion with warming, while the sargassum plot shows no effect of treatment.
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Congratulations our lab leader, Mariana Mayer Pinto and to the whole Living Seawalls team, who won the 2025 Eureka Prize for Environmental Research! A wonderful achievement. Watch the short video for this project at  www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yrR... #MarineEcology 🧪🌊🌐🌱
The Living Seawalls team standing on stage at the Australian Museum Eureka Prize Awards 2025. From left to right: Janine Ledet, Aria Lee, Mariana Mayer Pinto, Melanie Bishop, Maria Vozzo and Kyle Hilliam.
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Light pollution caused by excessive Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) has harmful effects on wildlife. This petition calls for legislation to limit light pollution, to reduce impacts on wildlife and people. www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/...
aph.gov.au
e-petitions
e-petitions
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Another recent paper from our lab on the impact of #bushfires on sediment quality in #estuaries, led by Thayanne Lima Barros, with coauthors Mariana Mayer-Pinto, Katherine Dafforn, Stuart Simpson, Mark Farrell, Sally Bracewell and Emma Johnston. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🧪🌎🌐
sciencedirect.com
Impact of wildfires on sediment quality in estuaries in New South Wales, Australia
Climate change is increasing wildfire intensity, introducing new risks to estuarine systems. However, the impacts of wildfires on estuaries and their …
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Recent paper highlight - Multiple stressors affect function rather than taxonomic structure of freshwater microbial communities, headed by PhD student Rose Fuggle supervised by Miguel G. Matias, Mariana Mayer-Pinto & Ezequiel M. Marzinelli. 🧪🌐 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Multiple stressors affect function rather than taxonomic structure of freshwater microbial communities - npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
npj Biofilms and Microbiomes - Multiple stressors affect function rather than taxonomic structure of freshwater microbial communities
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Fieldwork highlight! PhD student Annemie Rose is investigating whether kelps in the inner harbour are more adapted to urbanisation 🌱🌆 Yesterday we collected kelp from inner and outer sites in Sydney Harbour, for experiments where she will test responses to copper and nutrients! 📸 by Aliah Banchik
Annemie Rose holds two Ecklonia radiata/kelp adults. She is standing on a boat in a wetsuit.An underwater photo, showing a snorkeller, Milly Caley, holding a kelp individual (Ecklonia radiata). In the background is a kelp forest.A photo of Sydney Harbour, with the Sydney Opera House in the background, and in a foreground, three people on a boat, smiling, in wetsuits and lifejackets. These three people are Luke Walker, Annemie Rose and Milly Caley.
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
New paper out from PhD student Dana Lanceman, on how to characterise pathways of ecosystem service recovery following restoration. Congratulations Dana! doi.org/10.1111/gcb....
doi.org
Ecosystem Service Trajectories in Restored Coastal Habitats
In a restored site, ecosystem values are produced at different rates over time, influenced by environmental and climatic conditions. Here, we outline seven key components that can be used to define h....
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Reposted by SEACS Lab (UNSW)
Niki Hubbard, PhD 🐙🦀 @nikihubbard.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Beaut of a morning for fieldwork at Parsley Bay. Helping @lenaholtmanns.bsky.social with her experiments on ALAN and habitat complexity in the shallow subtidal. @seacs.bsky.social 🧪
Beautiful blue! Parsley Bay on a gorgeous sunny morning. Calm water, cloudless sky. A few trees and houses in the distance along the shore
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
New paper out on the effects of major global ports on light regimes for marine biofouling communities💡🌱🛳☀️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
New paper from our lab, on the effects of artificial light at night on fish predation and herbivory rates in a nearshore reef. 🌱🐟💡 doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Valuing Darkness Conference on light pollution will take place March 19th-21st in Naarm (Melbourne). Mariana will be sharing research on the effects of light pollution in marine systems, but lots of other interesting talks as well! #ALAN #light australasiandarkskyalliance.org/program?utm_...
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SEACS Lab (UNSW) @seacs.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Hi everyone! We are the SEACS lab at UNSW, investigating Solutions for Estuarine And Coastal Stressors. Headed by Dr. Mariana Mayer Pinto, we study a diverse range of human impacts, including artificial structures, light pollution and climate change in coastal ecosystems 😊🌱✹🐚💡
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