Awardee: Tanner Waters
Department: Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Bio: Tanner Waters (he/him) is a third-year doctoral student at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability studying marine genetics. His work uses environmental DNA (eDNA) to understand landscape scale conservation and restoration efforts.
Project Summary: Seagrass provides dozens of ecosystems services to California’s coastlines, but their decline has been exponential within previous decades. This project uses eDNA to study the fish and metazoan diversity that is supported by seagrass beds. This is a critical step in helping to recognize the ecological importance of Southern California’s seagrass.