About

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems to address societal, economic and environmental challenges. Increasingly, NbS feature in adaptation policies and national and international pledges on climate action, sustainable development, biodiversity management, environmental protection and coastal resilience.

Our network links a diverse community of researchers and experts with ocean or blue economy stakeholders: communities; policymakers; the public sector; regulators; non-governmental organisations; engineering consultancies; energy developers.

As a collective, we aim to improve understanding and generate the evidence base for nature-based solutions. NbS's are important in adaptation and mitigation policies that address climate emergencies and loss of biodiversity.

We want to inform adaptive nature-based solutions for ecosystem restoration and management. The aim is to alleviate coastal and marine hazards such as coastal flooding and erosion, habitat degradation and biodiversity loss and changing ocean biochemistry. This will provide healthy ecosystems for climate mitigation, carbon and nutrient management and sustainable food provision.

We want to inform engineering and management practices to enhance community resilience and embed nature-inclusivity in engineering technologies for scalable energy harvesting and renewable energy generation. This will inform the next generation of engineering designs, to be environmentally friendly and have minimal impact on marine and ocean environments. 

To find out more about the Nature-based Ocean Solutions Special Interest Group and what we do, get in touch with group champion Hachem Kassem (Hachem.Kassem@soton.ac.uk) and Vicky Dominguez Almela (V.Dominguez-Almela@soton.ac.uk).

to sign up to this group and our other special interest groups.

A school of blue and yellow fish swims above a seagrass meadow underwater.

Protecting marine biodiversity

Mapping seagrass in the Western Indian Ocean to boost conservation efforts

People, projects and publications

People

Dr Martyn Prince

Principal Research Engineer
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Dr Masashi Watanabe

Lecturer B in Coastal Marine Science

Research interests

  • Modelling ocean and coastal processes
  • Coastal geomorphology
  • Coral reefs

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Matt Kerr

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Nineteenth-century literature and culture
  • Oceanic humanities
  • Waste and rubbish

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Matt Mowlem

Professor

Research interests

  • Environmental gas, chemical and biological sensors
  • fluorescence, Raman, particle and gas spectroscopy
  • particle analysis
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Dr Matteo Scarponi PhD, CEng, MRINA, AMSNAME

Principal Enterprise Fellow
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Professor Matthew Loxham

Professor
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Dr Megen de Bruin-Mol茅

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • contemporary remix聽culture
  • monster studies
  • adaptation
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Dr Melike Kurt PhD

Lecturer (Assistant Professor)

Research interests

  • Fluid-structure interactions聽
  • Bioinspired propulsion and energy harvesting聽
  • Underwater robotics聽

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Michael Grant BSc MSc PhD

Senior Enterprise Fellow
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Related research institutes, centres and groups

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Enquiries

If you're interested in joining us or collaborating, get in touch with the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute.