Marine Ecology Research

Category: Events

Now online: “Wadden Natuur Kaart”

The Wadden Natuur kaart (Wadden Sea Nature Map) is now online: this is one of the publications of the Waddensleutels project on which I worked in the last 2+years. You should definitively explore and test it. For example; activate the benthos hotspot layer (upper left) and see which areas are most interesting as foraging areas for birds. Or check out where intertidal musselbeds occured for 5 years or more (in last 17 years). Or combine a map of shrimp fishery intensity and biodiversity. Our newly developed habitat map allows you to do these analysis per habitat type. Have a go at it. Use this interactive map to make your own map using just your web browser, print it or download it or continue in a GIS program. In the photo you see Han Olff & Sander Holthuijsen exploring the map at a large touch screen during the symposium in Leeuwarden.

More Waddensleutels publications here

April 19, 2015
Symposium: Wadden Sea foodweb & role of ecosystem engineers

The Waddensleutels project finished 16 april 2015 with a symposium in Leeuwarden, and with that also my 1st post-doc project. Topics here were: Which measures should we take to increase the area of musselbeds in the Dutch Wadden Sea & what is the current foodweb stucture and state (and how is this affected by the presence of mussel beds)? We learned that mussel beds are of vital importance for the Wadden sea. Musselbeds increased the biomass of benthos, fish and birds upto 4 times compared to bare surrounding areas. Mussel beds really are the foundations of life in the Wadden Sea.

These results can be found in our scientific report & glossy

April 16, 2015
PhD thesis in the pocket!

The 22th of March was the Big Day, I had to defend my PhD thesis. After a 10 minute summary about my research I had one hour to answer the questions of 8 (associate) Professors. 1.5 hours later this happy photo was taken. (more…)

March 22, 2013
My research in the (Dutch) media

After sending out the press release about my upcoming PhD defense, my research on seaturtles destroying their own habitat did receive some attention in Trouw newspaper and a science-radio program. Check these links here.

March 20, 2013
10th ISBW Buzios, Brasil (& sea hares)

The 10th international seagrass biology workshop was a success! Together with seagrass specialists from around the globe we enjoyed 3 days packed with talks & workshops in a resort town of Buzios in Brasil. See WSA’s blog by Sity for a nice overview of the highlights and of the speakers (gallery seagrass watch)

It also included a field trip to the seagrass (Halodole wrightii) meadows of Ilha do Japonês, Cabo Frio. Here Dominik and I found some small green turtles above the seagrass bed and loads of sea hares swimming and mating.

Together with the other young seagrass punks we had a great conference! See then here in their natural habitat:

Many thanks to Tjeerd & Leon to provide funding for this great opportunity

December 14, 2012
My PhD thesis is finished!

After months of radio/blog silence (I did not want to bore you with another photo of my computer screen) I finished the manuscript of my PhD thesis just before the deadline of 1th of October, Woehoe! The last weeks I lived a life comparable to a burrowing shrimp: I lived inside my office, only shoveling the manuscripts over to all my supervisors on a regular basis.

I will defend my PhD-thesis titled “Seagrass systems under nutrient loads, hydrodynamics and green turtle grazing – Do green turtles rule the seagrass world?” at the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen on March 22nd 2013 at 13:00. Now it is time to go on seagrass expedition to Bank D’Arguin, Mauretania.

October 1, 2012
CERF fieldwork trip: Manatee!

After a week of CERF-ing (Conference of the Coastal & Estuarine Research Federation) in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA, I was totally saturated with new knowledge. So a great time to go out to the field & spend a day searching for Florida seagrasses near Sebastian Inlet. Lori, our guide never saw the seagrass in such turbid & low biomass conditions and even when snorkeling in knee deep water we couldn’t see the seagrass or bottom. BUT I did saw my first manatee in the wild, they came very close to us (± 2m). A cool way to end a conference!

November 15, 2011
Visiting CEAB Spain

Last year I met Teresa Alcoverro and Rohan Arthur at the Turtle Symposium in India were we discovered that our research had a hudge overlap; we were both doing comparable work on ecosystems with very high densities of green turtles and declining seagrasses, and we only found this out just then. My lastest MS about habitat destruction by green turtles is in an advanced stage, so time to present my results at the lab in CEAB, in Blanes, Spain & discuss possibilities for comparing these special ecosystems of the Lakshadweep islands and the Derawan Archipelago where we both working in. Check out their great paper: “Implications of conserving an ecosystem modifier: Increasing green turtle (Chelonia mydas) densities substantially alters seagrass meadows“. Check also their interesting work showing that fishers of have been in conflict with turtles, and perceive that fish catches have declines over the years due to direct and indirect interactions with turtles. To be continued… (@ CERF)

August 11, 2011
Seagrass workshop Thailand

I just had a great time in Phuket and Trang in Thailand were the seagrass scientists of the world gathered for 11 days for the World Seagrass Conference and the International Seagrass Biology Workshop.

Here a group picture of al the people joining the ISBW inside the Emerald Cave after surviving the 80 meters of darkness to enter the cave in snake-formation:

Part of our Workshop was a fieldtrip were we spotted the dugong feeding trails (pic middle) of the 40 dugongs that live in the area around Trang. Further searches of Dominik Kneer and me after the workshop only resulted in a observation of 3 vage brown silhouettes underwater which we lost in the waves after a boat passed by.

On our first night we released our floating flowers at the Loy Kratong festival (every full moon in November, pic right)

I presented my first exclosure experiment (seagrass with nutrient addition and mimicked turtle grazing) at the conference and received a 2nd prize in the student presentation competition, yeah.

December 17, 2010
East Kalimantan Programme Conference Samarinda

After our first meeting in Texel in 2009 our second meeting was in Samarinda, Indonesia. The university of Samarinda (UNMUL) hosted the meeting and in 2 days we were updated of the outcomes the 15 WOTRO/ KNAW Phd projects that are now running in the Mahakam and Berau river Delta, including my project. The projects within the East Kalimantan program are very diverse ranging from geological, GIS, physical geography, to ecology, social and law. Many local NGO’ and scientists joined the meeting making it an interactive meeting. And the end of the second day Irfan Cibaj (Total) took us to a very interesting outcrop were he showed us the history of the previous delta in 70 meters of delta deposits. We even learned that there were once hard corals in the Mahakam delta, and that this delta is one in a series of ±30 delta’s that are situated on top of eachother. That puts a the human lifespan into perspective. On the 3rd day a big boat was arranged to travel downstream to show us the apex of the Mahakam rivers and the fluvial and tidal channels that transport the water out and into the delta respectivily. Duddy demonstrated and collected some sediment samples. We closed with a delicious Indonesian diner at Mesra Hotel and I travelled to Derawan Island for 2 days of fieldwork (heavy rain see pic). It was my shortest trip to Indonesia ever. Thanx Retno Wulandari for the picture above!

September 30, 2010