SEASTRONG: University of Bremen and ZMT coordinate international research project across three oceans

SEASTRONG: University of Bremen and ZMT coordinate international research project across three oceans

Three-panel image of coastal marine ecosystems showing mangroves along a sandy shore on the left, a seagrass meadow in the centre, and a branching coral reef on the right.

The international research project SEASTRONG will investigate how mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, and coral reefs support one another and, importantly, how their ecological and social connections can be used to improve conservation and restoration under climate change. Coordinated by the University of Bremen in cooperation with the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), the project has received €6 million in funding from the European Union within the Horizon Europe programme.

Mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, and coral reefs are among the most valuable and threatened ecosystems on Earth. They provide habitats for a vast diversity of species, sustain fisheries, protect coastlines from waves and erosion, store carbon, and support the livelihoods and wellbeing of millions of people.

These ecosystems are often studied, managed, and restored separately, despite they often form interconnected seascapes. Water movement, microorganisms, fish, seabirds, and other organisms transport nutrients, carbon, and energy between them. Damage to one ecosystem can affect the functioning and resilience of others. Within the new project SEASTRONG, researchers will examine these connections and translate the resulting knowledge into practical strategies for conservation, restoration, and coastal management.

The project SEASTRONG – Stronger Together: The Role of Connectivity in Safeguarding Functioning Coastal Ecosystems under Global Change will start on September 1, 2026, run for 4.5 years and cover three locations across the world’s oceans – Belize in the Caribbean, Fiji in the South-Pacific and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.

The project comprises 15 partner organisations from nine countries and is coordinated at the University of Bremen by Prof. Dr Christian Wild in partnership with Dr Sonia Bejarano from ZMT. From the outset, SEASTRONG has been co-designed with six key tropical partners who will continue playing central roles in shaping and implementing the project.

Christian Wild, Dean of the Faculty of Biology and Chemistry and Head of the working group Marine Ecology at the University of Bremen is delighted about the success: “We were very pleased to see an EU call directly targeting tropical marine ecosystems last year. The partnership between the University of Bremen and ZMT was instrumental in securing the funding, especially in the highly competitive context of EU calls. SEASTRONG is a beautiful example of a win-win collaboration between the University of Bremen and a partner institute within the U Bremen Research Alliance (UBRA)”.

Sonia Bejarano, Head of the Programme Area Global Change and the working group Reef Systems at ZMT adds: “Getting SEASTRONG funded is a great collaborative achievement. We are most excited to join forces with our tropical partners in Belize, Fiji, and Seychelles to build on locally-led research, conservation, and restoration advances, in harmony with local programmes and traditional knowledge. We want SEASTRONG to be a model of equitable international collaboration, bringing together scientific and traditional knowledge to tackle the global challenges threatening tropical ecosystems and to support the persistence of these vulnerable and valuable systems in rapidly changing and uncertain times.”

Coupling social-ecological knowledge to manage connected ecosystems in warmer oceans

Researchers in SEASTRONG will map coastal landscapes and investigate how the spatial arrangement and condition of the three ecosystems influence their connectivity pathways. Ecological field studies will examine how water movement, microorganisms, fish, invertebrates, and seabirds transport nutrients and organic matter across habitats. Hydrodynamic, agent-based, and trait-based models will then be used to explore how these relationships may change as oceans warm, marine heatwaves intensify, and sea level rises.

Together with Healthy Reefs for Healthy People and the the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment in Belize, Sonia Bejarano’s Reef Systems group at ZMT will quantify the multiple ecological connectivity pathways across ecosystems in Belize. The University of Bremen will establish interconnected experimental restoration sites across all three ecosystems, while the Systems Ecology group at ZMT with Agostino Merico and Subhendu Chakraborty will lead the agent-based and trait-based modelling efforts to identify where conservation and restoration measures are most likely to succeed as marine heatwaves become more frequent and severe.

New social-ecological knowledge will meet traditional knowledge in science-policy dialogues to co-develop conservation and restoration strategies centred in protecting interconnected mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, and coral reefs.

The University of Bremen in close cooperation with the ZMT will coordinate the scientific and administrative work of the consortium, lead major components of the restoration research, establish the project’s communication and knowledge-sharing structures, and support the integration of findings across disciplines and regions.