Location: ICBM Wilhelmshaven, home office

Start: September 2025

Duration: 4-6 Month

Description

Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) are standardized 3D-structures that mimic the complex structure of marine benthic environment by providing a habitat for sessile, less mobile and small organisms. After deployed for 6 to 12 months on the seafloor, the benthic communities have settled on the ARMS and can be recovered to be analysed using genetic (DNA-Metabarcoding & CO1-amplification) and morphologic methods to assess the biodiversity of even small and cryptic species. ARMS have already been deployed globally, but within this project they were deployed for the first time in the North Sea. The area of investigation is the Sylter Outer reef and Borkum Reef Ground, two of the marine protected areas in the North Sea. ARMS can help to identify cryptic reef species that have not yet been recorded in the protected areas by routinely applied monitoring methods.

Assignment

The task of the student is to conduct DNA metabarcoding, CO1 amplification and morphologic analyses, including also image analyses of fauna from recovered ARMS, to assess the biodiversity in the MPA and to test the suitability of this non-destructive method for a long-term monitoring in the North Sea.

Requirements 

The candidate should a student of Biology, (Marine) Environmental Science, Microbiology or equivalent. Skills in molecular and taxonomic analyses of organisms from the North Sea would be helpful, but are not mandatory.

Contact for further information:

Dr. Sven Rohde – sven.rohde@uol.de