Research on Tropical Marine Ecosystems
The University of Milano-Bicocca in Italy is internationally recognized as an important scientific institution. It is present in the Maldives since 2009, when the Marine Research and High Education Center (MaRHE) was established in Magoodhoo (Faafu Atoll) to facilitate field work on tropical marine ecosystems.
The Planhotel Group is proud to actively support scientific research on their resort islands. Each resort has a Marine Lab in collaboration with MaRHE Center that is hosting our permanent and visiting researchers from the University of Milano-Bicocca. We are also offering an internship program for Master students in Marine Sciences, where early career scientists can gain practical experience and collect data for their final projects. Research interests span from the ecology of coral predators like the Crown-of-Thorns starfish Acanthaster planci, coral restoration, monitoring of the reef and its inhabitants with the support of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to studying the largest and most ancient corals in the ocean. Our findings have been published in scientific journals and are presented at international conferences.
But science is incomplete without sharing what we have learned with everyone, therefore researchers will be available to satisfy your curiosities about the Maldivian coral reef. This provides a unique opportunity for our guests to experience research in action and, in some cases, actively contribute to data collection and knowledge gathering as part of our Citizen Science projects. Join us for a short talk and ask us how you can be involved!
