From 1 May until 1 October 2024, Sandra Rizzo, one of the pre-doctoral students from our laboratory, is visiting the University of Southern Denmark (SDU, Odense) on an international stay to learn the use of the novel Aquatic Eddy covariance (AEC) technique. Sandra will work under the supervision of Profs. Karl Attard and Ronnie Glud.

AEC is a direct and non-invasive method that allows the quantification of benthic metabolism rates by measuring oxygen fluxes with a high resolution, during days or weeks and continuously.

The stay at SDU will allow us to transfer the know how to our laboratory, which only a few laboratories at international level have and extend our collaboration with our Danish colleagues. Furthermore, in practical terms, the use of the AEC method will facilitate the monitoring of benthic metabolism rates in different habitats in our area and to study the effect of extreme wind events, without the logistical problems associated with sampling under such conditions.  Our new project MULTIFLUX will focus heavily on this aspect.