Roberto Gonzalez de Zayas:
"I work as a Hydraulic Engineering professor at the University of Ciego de Ávila, Cuba. I am at ZMT based on the collaboration with the Ecological Biogeochemistry Workgroup and a Fellowship awarded by the Institute for Advanced Study (Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg) in Delmenhorst. My topic of study is the biogeochemistry of tropical coastal ecosystems.
My research relates to the potential of mangrove forests, grasslands and seagrass meadows as ecosystems that sequester carbon in Cuba. The data on carbon sequestration potential in sediments and carbon accumulation rates determined in our study will be the first of its kind in Cuba and will help to quantify Cuba's contribution to the global blue carbon storage. The results of the collaboration may support local and regional decision-makers in their efforts to increase the conservation of Cuban natural resources, principally the blue carbon ecosystems."