Diversity of marine annelids along the European Atlantic coastline (master thesis)

In the marine intertidal zone, annelids are among the dominant macrofaunal taxa in terms of species richness and abundance. The occurrence of different species depends on diverse biotic and abiotic factors. Within the framework of the TREC-project, marine annelids have been sampled from two different intertidal habits along the European Atlantic coastline: sandy beaches and rocky shores. Based on these samples, species diversity across the European Atlantic coastline can be estimated from morphological identification and (optionally) (meta)barcoding. The goals of this thesis are: to (I) understand changes of annelids species diversity along a latitudinal gradient, (II) patterns of diversity between more-or-less polluted sites, (III) the occurrence of invasive species along the European coastline.

Main focus of the planned project will be sorting and identification to the species level of marine annelids from different European beaches. Additionally, (meta)barcoding aproaches could be adopted. Diversity data will be statistically analysed using R scripts. The project is part of the EU-funded iniative „BIOcean5d“ (https://biocean5d.org/). Potential start of the master thesis would be April 2025.