On the Shores of Patagonia: Exploring Benthic Life and Carbon Cycling
by Marie Elisabeth Kaufmann, PhD student at the Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (AWI), Germany
During my secondment, I participated in the CoastCarb Training Course on Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Blue Carbon and Feedbacks. The course offered a mix of lectures, discussions, and practical fieldwork, focusing on the impacts of climate change on coastal ecosystems and carbon cycling. During fieldwork in Playas Doradas, Patagonia, we surveyed intertidal communities along environmental gradients, strengthening our methodological knowledge in biodiversity assessment and functional ecology in intertidal systems.
In addition to the training course, I used the secondment to advance my PhD research on spatio-temporal changes in the macrozoobenthos of the Beagle Channel region. I collaborated closely with Dr. Ricardo Sahade’s research group to refine species identification of benthic organisms in seabed images collected during the FjordFlux expedition in the Beagle Channel in 2022. This collaboration included in-depth discussions on taxonomic identification of certain organism groups and improving the accuracy of image-based community analyses.
The exchange of knowledge and ideas with local experts not only enhanced my ongoing work but also established new scientific connections for collaborations. Overall, working at the Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal (IDEA-CONICET) was a very enriching and inspiring experience, both professionally and personally.
