Lucy Coals

PhD Candidate

Lucy is incredibly passionate about protecting, restoring, conserving, and connecting others with the mighty power that is seagrass. Currently Lucy is undertaking her collaborative PhD with Deakin, Swansea University, and Project Seagrass, working to optimise and upscale field-based techniques for seagrass restoration. Using seed-based approaches, Lucy’s research aims to facilitate seed germination, establishment, and survival in the intertidal zone at sites both in the UK and Australia. Her research focuses on pro-active restoration methods with a view to breaking negative feedbacks within intertidal systems. She aims to draw together data and lessons learned from previous restoration attempts, test appropriate field methods for intertidal seagrass restoration, explore the importance of ecosystem engineers to facilitate seed-based restoration activities, and trial selection for stress tolerant phenotypes within restoration efforts. 

Prior to joining Deakin, Lucy worked on seagrass conservation projects across the tropics, focusing on strengthening local capacity for seagrass research, protected area management and monitoring, and investigating household economics and livelihood contributions from women using seagrass resources.