Wellington University Coastal Ecology Lab

13/04/2021

It's been a busy week here at WUCEL. Over the last week, for the first time, we held a week long underwater (or subtidal) field course run by Prof. Jeff Shima. In this inaugural class,18 undergraduate Marine Biology students spent a week based at WUCEL using boats and snorkel to learn about the underwater environment and then doing their own research projects. Here is a short video of what they have been up to! By all accounts it was a great success, well done everyone!

13/04/2021

We're so proud of our own Dr. Chris Cornwall, winner of the Prime Minister's MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize! Chris has a long history at WUCEL--he did his BSc and MSc in Marine Biology here at the old marine lab (previous incarnation of WUCEL), and after a stint in Dunedin and AUstralia to do a PhD and postdoctoral work, he is back here as a research fellow on a prestigious Rutherford Fellowship. Many of you may have met him at our recent Open Day, and heard about his ocean acidification work on coralline algae. So proud of you Chris! 🥳🥳

The Prime Minister's Science Communicator This Prize is worth $75,000. The Prize will be awarded to either a practising scientist who can demonstrate an interest, passion and aptitude for science communication and public engagement, or to a person who has developed expertise in public engagement wit...

23/03/2021

15/03/2021

What an amazing turnout for our Open Day yesterday! It was great to see and talk with you all. We had so much fun and hope you did too. See you next year!

If attended the event, could you please take a few minutes to complete the survey for Seaweek? They would really appreciate it: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SCSH38R

09/03/2021

Reminder: Our Open Day is this Sunday 10 am-3 pm! Hope to see you there!

05/02/2021

Our Open Day is coming! 🥳 Hope to see you 14 March!

11/12/2020

This was a banner week of WUCEL PhD and MSc students walking across the stage in the graduation ceremony! Here are Dani, Caitlyn and Li, with supervisor WUCEL Director Nicole Phillips. These three warrant special mention because they all completed and submitted their MSc theses during those hard lockdown weeks in March! What a mission. Well done and massive congratulations to them and all the other students who finished in this crazy year and under such unique and challenging circumstances. You are all rockstars of marine biology.

09/10/2020

Congratulations to WUCEL’s Chris Cornwall who is a PI in a new and recently funded national Centre for Research Excellence (CoRE) in NZ! It is called “Coastal People: Southern Skies” and its mission is to connect, understand and restore coastal ecosystems of NZ and the South Pacific. It will be a collaboration between coastal community members and scientists from throughout New Zealand and beyond.

VUW's School of Biological Sciences staff members will focus on understanding the impacts of climate change, and will work to improve monitoring of both NZ kelp forest ecosystems and Pacific coral reefs.

06/03/2020

It's all happening right now! Our doors are open till 3 pm today, come on down.

06/03/2020

Can you tell we are excited to see everyone at our Open Day tomorrow?

14/02/2020

We just finished up the 3rd year Marine Ecology Field course for 35 VUW marine biology majors. We had spectacular weather and a lot of science in action. Students learned how to sample intertidal environments and complete independent research projects ranging from investigating anemone, crab and snail behaviour, tidepool diversity, and patterns of distribution for a variety of organisms. They also received a warm welcome and Maori perspective on treasured coastal resources and personal history from the folks at Kohunui Marae in the Wairarapa where we stay for 3 days while working at Cape Palliser. Invaluable lessons learned across the board. Well done folks!