Thibaut de Bettignies

Thibaut de Bettignies is working at the Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research at Edith Cowan University on a project titled Source and supply of kelp wrack from reef to adjacent habitats.

Kelps (brown algae of the order Laminariales) are highly productive in temperate zones where they produce the largest biogenic structures found in benthic marine ecosystem. They play a key role locally, as an important food source for herbivores, detritivores and filter feeders, as well as spatial structure offering sites for settlement, early development, and refuge for a large number of invertebrates and fish species. Nevertheless kelps are also of great importance outside of their own habitat, when part of their biomass is exported to other habitats. A key mechanism of connectivity in marine ecosystems is this movement of plant detritus.
 
However, questions remain about the magnitude and regularity of this subsidy because its impact on the recipient habitats could differ according to the delivery timing, the pathway along the food web (erosion or full dislodgement), and how this relates to physical disturbance. Therefore, the processes leading to algal dislodgment and/or tissue erosion will be a strong determinant of the magnitude of any subsequent spatial subsidy and have profound implications for the trophic structure of many coastal habitats.

This biological productivity contrasts with surroundings oligotrophic waters along the Western Australia temperate coastline and therefore makes such research especially interesting and highlights the likely key role of this subsidy in the whole coastal marine system. This may have strong implications subsequently for environmental management and conservation if the kelp forest system is recognised as a crucial donor habitat.

Thibaut said the aim of the research was to determine the processes that supply seaweed wrack from reefs to the detrital food chain in adjacent habitats. This will be investigated through a biomechanistic approach coupled with a hydrodynamic model for Marmion Lagoon.
    
The supervisors are Dr Thomas Wernberg (UWA), Pr Paul Lavery (ECU) and Dr Matt Vanderklift (CSIRO).

Email: tib.debett@gmail.com

http://www.sons.ecu.edu.au/students/postgrad_students/thibaut_de_bettignies.php

Presentations

2009
(Poster) Sources and supply of wrack: quantifying vectors of habitat connectivity
http://cmer.ecu.edu.au/documents/POSTER%20AMSA.pdf
- AMSA 2009 Conference, Adelaide, Australia
- Rottnest Island Student workshop, AMSA-WA, Australia
- 11th Annual Royal Society of WA Postgraduate Symposium, Curtin University.

2008
(Report)  For the «The Australian River Institute», Griffith University: “The influence of Sesarmid crabs on Pore-Water sulphide concentration in Rhizophora sp. Mangal ecosystem”, p 50.

2007
(Publication)  Hégaret H, da Silva PM, Wikfors G.H., Lambert C, de Bettignies T, Shumway SE and Soudant P (2007) Hemocyte responses of Manila clams, R. philippinarum, with varying parasite, Perkinsus olseni, severity to toxic-algal exposures. Aquatic Toxicology, 84 (4) 469-479.

Thibaut is a member of the AMSA-WA Committee and the Royal Society of Western Australia.