Consolidating the core team:

To support the HKSR project, we hired Dr Diana Guerra-Forero (postdoctoral researcher), an expert on modelling carbon (blue/green) stocks/fluxes. Dr Guerra-Forero joined the group in February and will lead the assessment of blue carbon dynamics, stocks, and sources (autochthonous/allochthonous) in seagrass meadows. This is part of the pilot project that will set the baseline information before implementing restoration efforts. Dr Guerra-Forero is supported by Mr Khan Cheung, a recently hired Research Assistant who is developing fieldwork and analytical work as part of his PhD thesis at the University of Hong Kong. Both of them are continuously supported by members of Dr JD Gaitan-Espitia’s laboratory at the SWIRE Institute of Marine Sciences, at the University of Hong Kong.
In February and March, Dr Guerra-Forero hosted several meetings with different stakeholders, including NGOs (TNC and WWF), the Hong Kong Herbarium, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) and the Hong Kong Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD). These meetings were organised to discuss our project activities and apply for the permits required to access field sites and to collect plant/seeds material for seagrass restoration. We now have all the necessary permits and the support of these organisations. The team has also started ecological surveys to monitor seagrass populations and started the collection of sediment cores for carbon stock assessments. Seagrass plants have been collected and are now under laboratory acclimation to follow flowers/seeds development as well as to test the survival of fragmented seagrass plants as part of a clonal reproduction approach for restoration.