Marine students awarded for master's theses on eelgrass and melting glaciers

Congrats on the first prize Maru! How does it feel?

"I feel honoured and grateful to the Swedish Society for Marine Sciences, for recognizing my work and the effort that we as Master’s students put into our projects. I also feel very lucky and thankful to have been surrounded by incredibly supportive people that helped me during the process, it wouldn’t have been possible without them."

What is your master's thesis about?

"We looked at genetic diversity in eelgrass, Zostera marina, meadows on two scales: A local assessment in ten eelgrass meadows in the Kosterhavet archipelago where we wanted to know if these meadows were genetically differentiated from each other, and a large-scale analysis where we looked at which environmental factors best explain genotypic richness along the whole distributional range of eelgrass."

"The results indicate that genotypic richness in eelgrass meadows seems to be overall high, which means that there is sexual reproduction and successful recruitment. This is good news if we think about the potential to colonize new sites and adapt to changing environments."

What do you do now?

For now I am enjoying Mexico and my family, while I wait for the next adventure with eelgrass and seagrasses in general. 

What will you do with the prize money?

"I will use the prize to pay part of the loan that made it possible for me to complete my masters studies in Sweden." 

Interview: Susanne Liljenström

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