Post by Michaël Ramaekers

FEAR holds you back! 🏆 I’m happy to inform that we won the award for '𝘚𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘎𝘰𝘢𝘭𝘴' (SDG's) at the yearly Faculty of Engineering and Architecture UGent Research Symposium (#FEARS) for our PhD research within the interdisciplinary project called... 𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗙𝗖𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬 💡 Did you know that oysters are the ecosystem engineers of the sea? A developed European flat oyster (𝘖𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘴) reef contributes to seabed stabilization and supports biodiversity by householding up to 300 animal and plant species. Furthermore, one single adult oyster filters 140-240 liters of water a day, maintaining a healthy marine ecosystem! 🌍 ☠️ The European flat oyster is functionally extinct in the North Sea, due to: the absence of hard materials (substrates) on the seabed – essential for larval settlement and growth, massive sea exploitation, overfishing/bottom trawling, diseases (e.g. Bonamia parasite), acidification of the seas and adverse climate change effects. GOALS of the 𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗙𝗖𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬 project • Recover European flat oyster reefs in the North Sea and European waters • Create a nature positive environment around offshore marine infrastructure • Promote biodiversity with tailored substrate development TEAM • 3 PhD students and 3 research groups of Universiteit Gent • Funded by VLAIO • Supported by De Blauwe Cluster vzw • Co-funded by industrial partners Jan De Nul Group, DEME Group and ResourceFull SOLUTION 🪨 Material development Michaël Ramaekers, Nele De Belie, #KimVanTittelboom #Magnel_Vandepitte_laboratory • Substitution of cement to lower CO2-footprint • Sea sand/water, oyster shells/powder, waste stream materials and biochar • Optimization of surface characteristics to promote settlement • 3D concrete printing and regularly casting 👩‍🔬 Oyster remote setting and transport Molly Hughes, Annelies Declercq, Mieke Eggermont Faculty of Bioscience Engineering UGent Laboratory of Aquaculture & Artemia Reference Center (ARC) • Remote setting of oyster larvae on natural and cementitious material, used as reef substrates • Cold long-term storage and transport • Oyster health monitoring from larval settling to reef deployment 🌊 Reef survival increase and hydrodynamic performance optimization Giorgio Santinelli, Peter Troch, Behnam Shabani, Vicky Stratigaki #Coastal_Engineering_Research_Group • Design of scour protections for marine infrastructure developed to incorporate artificial or natural reef structures • Reef hydrodynamics physically tested in a wave flume, with deployment layout optimized for performance • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations validated using physical experiments Thank you to all contributors, excited to see what more is to come! Kristien Veys, Wouter Crijns, #YouenDiquélou, Ahmad Masih Bahrami, Marc Huygens, Simon Boel, #TomasSterckx, Phara Cockaert, Joe El Rahi, Jan Fordeyn, Simon Petit, Erwan Berthelot