Last Thursday on #RewildingDay, our WildMarsh team was knee-deep (literally! – see below) in putting research into practice, setting up two hudge field experiments in Zeeland to collect robust rewilding data—hence this belated update.
Setting up these experimental exclosures is no walk in the park! Our team persevered through challenging conditions, hauling heavy wooden poles, fences, and tools through deep gullies and manually carrying materials hundreds of meters through thick mud.
All this effort to investigate:
The impact of deer on low marsh colonization in the #Hedwige polder
The effects of water buffalo grazing and trampling on the high marsh (drowned lands of Saeftinghe), and we’ll be investigating effects on #biodiversity wave erosion and heatwave resilience.
One significant advantage we have in this Dutch landscape (compared to some of our other research sites) is our collaboration with local experts. The ecologists at @Zeeuws landschap have been invaluable partners, providing baseline data and access to their excellent field station.
We’re also fortunate that colleagues from the Province of Zeeland and NIOZ established exclosures 5 years ago (see drone photo) giving us valuable insights into the longer-term impacts of megaherbivore reintroduction.
Additionally, we’re collaborating with Freenature, who manage the herd and are helping us track buffalo spatial movements. Early results already show interesting differences in the impacts of buffalo compared to cattle,
Next week Marieke Mom and Jente van Leeuwe will coordinate finalizing all the exclosures and taking the first measurements. Thanks to the many students colleagues and volunteers (Sven, Aiso, Jens van der Zee , Marlies Vollebregt , Brenda Walles, Twan, Bart de Koster, Valerie, Justin, Vincent and team Baecke) that helped this week, and already to those helping the I next. Stay tuned for updates as our exclosures yield their first data sets. the WildMarsh team
