Coastal ecosystems are in rapid decline around the world. Restoring them is very expensive and is often unsuccessful. But together with an international team of researchers we discovered a way of increasing restoration success of salt marshes and seagrass meadows, using biodegradable mats. Our findings are just published in Nature Communications (22 July 2020)
Continue reading “Can we improve coastal restoration by temporarily imitating nature? Yes we can!”Turtle tracking story map released at Dutch Caribbean Sea Turtle workshop
Turtle cams & seagrass experiments in the Bahamas & Bonaire
In november Fee Smulders and I visited the Islands Bonaire and Eleuthera (Bahamas) to study the impact of grazing on seagrass ecosystem services. We look back at a very productive, and fun field trip, where we sampled and initiated multiple experiments.
Continue reading “Turtle cams & seagrass experiments in the Bahamas & Bonaire”Students investigating tropical marine ecosystems on Bonaire
This autumn 6 WUR students will spend some months in Bonaire to investigate different aspects tropical coastal ecosystems together with Fee and Luuk. Subjects range from impacts of surfers on sea turtles, to shark-turtle interactions, impact of sargassum on mangroves and corals, and bioturbation and seagrasses. Students also got introduced into the sea turtle monitoring protocols of Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire. And we went out to the reef for an underwater excursion. Great fun.
Continue reading “Students investigating tropical marine ecosystems on Bonaire”Staff expedition to Bonaire
Last month our group – the Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group @ WUR – travelled to the Caribbean to analyse the socio-ecological-system of Bonaire. This happened in the same week that a report came out stating that the nature in the Dutch Caribbean is under heavy pressure, highlighting the need for a change in nature management and for additional research. So we went!
Continue reading “Staff expedition to Bonaire”Optimism for mitigation of climate warming impacts for sea turtles through nest shading and relocation
Our research published this week in Scientific Reports reported effective conservation strategies that can mitigate the impacts of climate warming on sea turtle nesting success, #oceanoptimism.
Return of the native oyster facilitated by the invasive Pacific Oyster?
Our new paper that just came out today in Marine Biology research suggests so….
Continue reading “Return of the native oyster facilitated by the invasive Pacific Oyster?”
Megaherbivores may impact expansion of invasive seagrass in the Caribbean: our paper in Journal of Ecology
Green sea turtle digging its own watery grave due to invasion of non-native seagrass….
The potential of using drones and other UAVs in sea turtle research and conservation
In a new paper with lead author Alan Rees and collegues we reviews how drones and other UAVs can be used in sea turtle research and conservation.
Out today: New Tools to Identify the Location of Seagrass Meadows. Marine Grazers as Habitat Indicators
Emerging from the 12th International Seagrass Biology Workshop, held in October 2016, has been the view that grazing marine megafauna may play a useful role in helping to identify previously unknown seagrass habitats. Just follow green turtles & dugongs to map global seagrass meadows…