Project description
Can microbes save northern seagrass?
Seagrass meadows, vital to coastal ecosystems, are vanishing at an alarming rate. While conservation efforts aim to reduce environmental stress, their limited success reveals a missing piece: the importance of symbiotic relationships. In southern seas, seagrass teams up with lucinid clams and sulphur-oxidising bacteria to fight toxic sulphides and boost nutrients, but this partnership vanishes north of 53°N. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the Symbio-CB-Seagrass project is exploring a northern alternative: cable bacteria. These unusual, filamentous microbes may help protect seagrass in the Wadden and Baltic Seas by reducing sulphide stress and enhancing nitrogen availability. The project hopes to unlock new microbiome-based strategies to save and restore Europe’s northern seagrass meadows.
Objective
Seagrass meadows are crucial for maintaining healthy coastal environments, yet they are declining globally at an alarming rate. Traditional conservation efforts focus on reducing environmental stressors, but their limited success highlights the need for innovative approaches that do not look at the plants as single entities but acknowledge the role of key symbiotic interactions. One example is the symbiosis between seagrass, lucinid clams and their sulphur-oxidizing bacteria (SOB), which has been shown to enhance seagrass health by mitigating sulphide stress and increasing nutrient availability through nitrogen fixation. However, this symbiosis is absent in seas above 53N, like Wadden and Baltic Seas. Cable bacteria (CB) are centimetre-long, filamentous bacteria, capable of long-distance electron transfer, coupling sulphide oxidation in anoxic sediments with oxygen reduction. These bacteria have recently been found in the seagrass rhizosphere, suggesting they could serve as an alternative symbiotic system, protecting seagrasses in northern regions. Despite reports linking CB presence with reduced sulphide levels, little is known about the mechanisms and potential benefits of this interaction for the plant. The Symbio-CB-Seagrass project aims to investigate the CB-seagrass interaction across spatial and temporal micro- and macro-scales. Through a series of laboratory experiments, I will test whether CB positively impact seagrass fitness by reducing sulphide stress and by enhancing nutrient availability through nitrogen fixation. Field surveys and publicly available data will be used to assess the geographical distribution of these symbiotic systems and whether CB can serve as beneficial symbionts for seagrasses in northern European waters, analogous to the lucinid clams in southern European seas. This study will deepen our understanding of the beneficial seagrass microbiome and stimulate the development of innovative solutions in seagrass protection and restoration.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences marine biology
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology bacteriology
- natural sciences chemical sciences electrochemistry electrolysis
- natural sciences biological sciences biological behavioural sciences ethology biological interactions
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
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