We are pleased to announce our project, “ALAN and Warming Impacts on Marine Interactions” is a newly endorsed project of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development! 🌊🌐🧪 This project will look at the combined impacts of light pollution and warming #OceanDecade #ArtificialLightAtNight

The outer #SydneyHarbour coastal management plan is now open for community submissions. If you can, please submit on key sites for #biodiversity, #pollution or #heritage around Sydney Harbour. www.sydneycoastalcouncils.com.au/program/oute...

Last night, Dana and Milly spoke at the #CooksRiverValleyAssociation meeting. We had great discussions about #lightpollution and #saltmarsh restoration. Niki Bañados (@stickwriter on Instagram) sketched these amazing illustrations of our talks! Check out more here www.nikibanados.com 🌊🧪🌐

Curious about #lightpollution impacts underwater and in our urban ecosystems? Join this free webinar tomorrow, 10.30am Sydney time with A/Prof Mariana Mayer Pinto 🌊🌐🧪😊💡

Can seagrass restoration be more successful when we mimic existing seagrass beds? 🌱 Another talented PhD student of ours, Ann Nielsen spoke at the UNSW Big Ideas festival late last year. Watch here! 🌊🌐🧪 #marineecology #seagrass #posidonia www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mJJ...

What do light pollution and saltmash have in common? They are both found along the Cooks river! Milly Caley and Dana Lanceman will give a talk on Feb 17th on light pollution in marine environments and saltmarsh and mangrove restoration for the Cooks River Valley association 🌊🧪🌐😊💡🌱

We have very talented PhD students! PhD student Natalie Coy founded Seeds of the Sea, to record flowering of endangered #Posidonia australis #seagrass. Check out the video she made about it (and website) below. vimeo.com/1136638387?f... www.seedsofthesea.org #marineecology #oceanoptimism 🌊🌐🧪

Light pollution is an underappreciated and growing threat to marine #biodiversity. It already affects ~22% of global coastlines and can reach the seafloor. This video, made with #UNSW, #ADSA, and #DCCEEW, highlights why marine #lightpollution matters 🌊🌐🧪 #ALAN 💡 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtd7...

A short film by PhD student, Dana Lanceman, on restoring coastal wetlands. This video depicts the emotional journey of a mangrove crab, moving from wetland degradation to ecosystem restoration. Watch and learn how to support wetland restoration! 🌊🧪🌐🦀 #marineecology #crab youtu.be/PWhoiMt0fCM?...

A recent video feature on the Living Seawalls project in Sydney Harbour, @livingseawalls.bsky.social , featuring Mariana Mayer Pinto and Alex Goad 😊🧪🌐🌊 www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

The latest (and largest) Living Seawall installation to date! 🌊🧪🌐🌎 #marineecology #ecoengineering #naturebasedsolutions

Upcoming free webinar on marine impacts of light pollution! A/Prof Mariana Mayer Pinto will present an online webinar on the impacts of #lightpollution on #marineecology on the 17th February 2026 at 10:30 am AEDT, organised by the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance 🧪💡🌐🌊 tinyurl.com/light-webinar

Wonderful illustration by Hyunh Kim from Mariana's talk at the Valuing Darkness Symposium. Over 20% of the world’s coastlines experience #lightpollution, yet we have limited knowledge of its impacts on #marineecology and key habitat-forming organisms 🧪🌊💡🌐 Read more here: tinyurl.com/ADSA-conf

Great article, featuring our PhD student Ann Flemming Nielsen talking about work she is involved in with the Gamay Rangers and UNSW, and her PhD research, testing the best ways to restore endangered Posidonia australis seagrass in Gamay/Botany Bay 🌐🌱🌊🧪

New paper alert!! Repetition and order of exposure to salinization and nutrient enrichment drive freshwater microbial community responses, led by PhD student Rose Fuggle with supervisors Mariana Mayer Pinto, Miguel Matias and Ziggy Marzinelli. 🧪🌐🦠 Read here: doi.org/10.1002/ecy.... #microbes

🚨 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘁! PhD candidate Annemie Rose Janssen exposed kelp populations to copper contamination to see whether kelp from the inner harbour would respond differently to outer harbour kelp. Results indicate local adaptation to contamination in the inner harbour! 🧪🌊🌐 doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...

Annemie Rose discussing her recent paper on kelp genetic differentiation and local adaptation in Sydney Harbour 🌊🧪🌐 doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...

New paper from PhD student Annemie Rose Jannsen, who found distinct #kelp genotypes in the inner and outer parts of #SydneyHarbour. Genotype-environment analyses suggest adaptation to local conditions. Super cool results, great work Annemie Rose & coauthors!! 🌊🌐🧪 #marine doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...

PhD student Natalie Coy spoke on Radio National this morning about the Seeds of the Sea citizen science project. This project asks citizen scientists to report sightings of Posidonia seagrass flowers in NSW, to inform future restoration of this endangered species. 🌊🌐🧪 www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

A new citizen science project, Seeds of the Sea, run by one of our PhD students Natalie Coy has launched, helping to map seagrass flowering of #Posidonia in south-eastern Australia. Check out the website and map of sightings here: www.seedsofthesea.org 🧪🌍🦤🦑🌐🌊

Seaweed-associated microbial communities show limited responses to light pollution and warming 🌱💡 New paper assessing the independent and combined effects of #lightpollution and #oceanwarming on microbial communities associated with two habitat-forming #seaweed species 🧪🌐🌊 doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...

Congratulations our lab leader, Mariana Mayer Pinto and to the whole Living Seawalls team, who won the 2025 Eureka Prize for Environmental Research! A wonderful achievement. Watch the short video for this project at  www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yrR... #MarineEcology 🧪🌊🌐🌱

Light pollution caused by excessive Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) has harmful effects on wildlife. This petition calls for legislation to limit light pollution, to reduce impacts on wildlife and people. www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/...

Another recent paper from our lab on the impact of #bushfires on sediment quality in #estuaries, led by Thayanne Lima Barros, with coauthors Mariana Mayer-Pinto, Katherine Dafforn, Stuart Simpson, Mark Farrell, Sally Bracewell and Emma Johnston. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🧪🌎🌐

Recent paper highlight - Multiple stressors affect function rather than taxonomic structure of freshwater microbial communities, headed by PhD student Rose Fuggle supervised by Miguel G. Matias, Mariana Mayer-Pinto & Ezequiel M. Marzinelli. 🧪🌐 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Fieldwork highlight! PhD student Annemie Rose is investigating whether kelps in the inner harbour are more adapted to urbanisation 🌱🌆 Yesterday we collected kelp from inner and outer sites in Sydney Harbour, for experiments where she will test responses to copper and nutrients! 📸 by Aliah Banchik

New paper out from PhD student Dana Lanceman, on how to characterise pathways of ecosystem service recovery following restoration. Congratulations Dana! doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

Beaut of a morning for fieldwork at Parsley Bay. Helping @lenaholtmanns.bsky.social with her experiments on ALAN and habitat complexity in the shallow subtidal. @seacs.bsky.social 🧪

New paper out on the effects of major global ports on light regimes for marine biofouling communities💡🌱🛳☀️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New paper from our lab, on the effects of artificial light at night on fish predation and herbivory rates in a nearshore reef. 🌱🐟💡 doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...

Valuing Darkness Conference on light pollution will take place March 19th-21st in Naarm (Melbourne). Mariana will be sharing research on the effects of light pollution in marine systems, but lots of other interesting talks as well! #ALAN #light australasiandarkskyalliance.org/program?utm_...

Hi everyone! We are the SEACS lab at UNSW, investigating Solutions for Estuarine And Coastal Stressors. Headed by Dr. Mariana Mayer Pinto, we study a diverse range of human impacts, including artificial structures, light pollution and climate change in coastal ecosystems 😊🌱✹🐚💡