Lego meets Biology at ResearchLIVE!
The CBESS team at the University of St Andrews joined fellow researchers at ResearchLIVE! in St Andrews.
ResearchLIVE! was part of European Researchers’ Night 2015 where over 300 researchers all over Europe joined forces on Friday 25 September to deliver an evening of discovery, debate and entertainment.
At the CBESS stand we introduced participants to the power of plants and the role they play in coastal defence and reducing erosion.
A Lego saltmarsh (conceptualised by PhD student Cai Ladd) demonstrated how salt marshes attenuate/absorb the power of waves. Research carried out by Dr Iris Möller at the Cambridge Coastal Research Unit has demonstrated that salt marshes, over a distance of 40 metres, can reduce the height of damaging waves in storm surge conditions by close to 20%.