About Marjolijn – Marjolijn Christianen

Marjolijn Christianen is an Associate Professor of Marine Ecology and joined the Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group at Wageningen University (WUR), The Netherlands, in 2018. After her Ph.D. (2013) on seagrass and sea turtle ecology in Indonesia, she worked as a researcher at Groningen University and Nijmegen University on food web ecology, coastal ecosystem restoration, and tracking of megafauna with fieldwork in the Caribbean, East Africa, North Sea, and the Wadden Sea. She also worked as a scientific advisor for an Ecological consultancy (Bureau Waardenburg) in 2017.

As a marine ecologist, she is fascinated about the underwater world and the feedbacks between coastal organisms that change their environment (e.g. seagrass, shellfish reefs, mangroves) and marine management (e.g. protection of charismatic megafauna) in the context of climate change. Her research line focuses on exploring how and where can we rewild coastal marine ecosystems in ways that enhance resilience in the face of global change. Her team uses ecological field experiments, collects data on food webs, biogeochemistry, plant physiology, spatial ecology, and animal behavior, and increasingly gets interested in developing drone and machine learning technology to explore where rewilding can enhance ecosystem resilience. Most of her current work builds on her VENI project, a NESSC project and her new NWO M2 project(see list of press releases here). Her aim in conducting research is to contribute scientifically sound input to enhance the responsible management of coastal marine ecosystems. To ensure that research results are also applied she is actively communicating science to the wider public through her blog, media, teaching, art, and intense collaborations with nature managers and policymakers.

Here she blogs about fieldwork and events during her team’s research projects. On LinkedIn, you may find additional updates or recent work. In addition, you can also find archived posts about completed PhD project and practical info on my previous fieldwork site; Derawan in East -Kalimantan, Indonesia. The blog has been maintained since 2008.

A complete list of publications can be found Google Scholar, Research@WUR (w/Altmetric) and here.