Image

 ![Coastal research landscape used as the Northmoor University hero image.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2026-01/camilo-botia-k4vFDPJoDZk-unsplash.1600x1200.jpg.avif?itok=ujHvC8nC)

 

 



Image

 ![Coastal research landscape used as the Northmoor University hero image.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2026-01/camilo-botia-k4vFDPJoDZk-unsplash.1600x1200.jpg.avif?itok=ujHvC8nC)

 

 



Position title

Assistant Professor of Marine Conservation

 

Person type

faculty

 

 

Email

s.marchetti@northmoor.edu

 

Sofia Marchetti works on coastal habitat restoration, principally seagrass and salt marsh. Both are routinely restored, both are routinely declared successful, and the standard by which success is declared is usually whether the plants survived three years.

Her research asks the harder question of whether a restored habitat does what the original did — whether it supports the same species, stores carbon at a comparable rate, attenuates waves the same way. The answer is mixed and depends heavily on how much of the original physical setting was restored alongside the vegetation. Planting into a system whose sediment supply has been cut off produces a meadow that looks correct and does not persist.

Her seagrass plots in the Aldwych estuary have now held through two winters, which she describes as encouraging and not yet a result.

Marchetti joined the faculty in 2026 from a postdoctoral position on a large restoration monitoring program. She teaches ENVS 460 Environmental Impact Assessment and contributes to MBIO 240 Marine Botany and Algae. She collaborates with Aisha Tanaka on using the Prentice transect record as a reference for restoration targets.



ORCID profile

[ORCID profile](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5563-9018)