Haozhuang Wang

I’m Wang Haoz­huang from China. Now I’m a PhD stu­dent in GLO­MAR at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bre­men. Recently, I fo­cus on a fan­tas­tic crea­tu­re in the oce­an: cold-wa­ter co­rals (CWC), es­pe­cial­ly the two reef-for­ming spe­cies: Lo­phe­lia per­tu­sa and Ma­dre­po­ra ocu­la­ta. They dis­tri­bu­te world-wi­de­ly and can pro­vi­de ha­bi­tats for va­ried fau­nal com­mu­nities. Be­si­des they are able to form huge three di­men­sio­nal struc­tu­res named coral mounds, which provide the knowledge of their past. In the Alboran Sea, a new “li­ving-co­ral-bar­ren” co­ral mound pro­vin­ce near Me­lil­la has been found in an en­vi­ron­ment which is pro­per for co­rals growth. But our know­ledge about it is rare. Thus one of my tar­gets du­ring my PhD stu­dy is to de­ci­pher the fac­tors con­trol­ling the de­ve­lop­ment of CWCs over geo­lo­gi­cal time­sca­les in this area.

The reason I joined the sci­ence com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on pro­gram is be­cau­se the pol­lu­ti­on of our oce­an is wor­se­ning, and ac­tions need to be ta­ken to pro­tect it. Thus first­ly, we need to sha­re the idea to child­ren who are the future of our earth, and let them be awa­re of this. Se­cond­ly, this is a good op­por­tu­ni­ty for me to spre­ad my re­se­arch to pu­blic. The rare known CWCs are an important part of the oce­an eco­sys­tem and need to be pro­tec­ted. I like child­ren and to sha­re the know­ledge that we have gai­ned about CWCs. And I hope my sto­ry will attract them and let them know that we need to pro­tect our home — world and oce­an.

Here you can listen to an excerpt of my story "SWIM! It's trawling!!!"