Giulia Ferretto

University of Western Australia | UWA · Faculty of Science

Restoration is an important activity to assist the recovery of damaged or degraded ecosystems. Accessing healthy donor material can be challenging when restoring threatened ecological communities, but careful selection of donor material may improve the success and cost‐effectiveness of restoration projects. We aim to optimise restoration of the thr...

Habitat complexity plays a critical role in shaping biotic assemblages and ecosystem processes. While the impacts of large differences in habitat complexity are often well understood, we know less about how subtle differences in structure affect key ecosystem functions or properties such as biodiversity and biomass. The late-successional seagrass P...

Coastal aquaculture supports local economies and reduces pressure on wild stocks but can have adverse impacts on the marine environment when poorly managed. Estuaries, where oyster aquaculture is common, are critical habitats for seagrasses that are declining globally. We used field experiments to test how trays, longline baskets and floating bags...

Posidonia australis is a slow-growing seagrass that forms extensive meadows in sheltered coastal locations which are often popular areas for recreational boating. Traditional block-and-chain boat moorings can directly impact P. australis meadows, with the action of heavy chains eroding the seafloor and creating bare sand scars that fragment meadows...

The seagrass Posidonia australis has suffered large reductions in distribution since the early to mid-1900s and as such has been listed as endangered in six estuaries in New South Wales, Australia, and as a ‘Threatened Ecological Community’ in estuaries from Wallis Lake to Port Hacking. One of the ongoing causes of losses of Posidonia in NSW estua...