(April 2017) -- Visiting Ph.D. student Laura Guerrero Meseguer will head back to the University of Murcia in Spain at the end of May. 

Meseguer spent her time at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab working in Dr. Just Cebrian's lab with post doctorate Dr. Erin Cox. The trip offered Meseguer a chance to learn about different seagrass species, Halodule wrightii and Ruppia maritima, and about the methods used to examine ocean acidification. Her studies in Spain focus on the Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica. 

Meseguer measures leaf growth and grass distribution/competition based on the changes of pH, simulating ocean acidification due to ocean uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. She and her Cebrian lab mate intern Sara Schmid also monitor temperature and conductivity as a function of pH.

"The collaboration at DISL allowed me to meet people with similar research topics outside my country. It was so great to learn new methods to study seagrasses," Meseguer said.

Once she returns to Spain, Meseguer will work to write and publish the last papers of her PhD to be able to present at the beginning of 2018. She hopes one day she will be able to return to the United States and continue her research.

"I would to like to thank Just Cebrian for the opportunity to collaborate on this project and my lab mates for their help, especially Erin Cox and Sarah Schmid," Meseguer shared. "Also, I was lucky to meet other people of DISL with whom I had a really good time. I am very happy to have had the opportunity to be in the USA, experiencing the culture and traditions."

Meseguer adds it will be hard to swap the island for the office.