Marine Ecology Research
Who eats who in the Wadden Sea? We collected 12000 samples in one of the largest dbases of stable isotope samples. Using these samples we found that the energy in the Wadden Sea (primary production) is mainly provided by the production of benthic algae (diatoms) on the tidal flats. Papers about this are underway but the first results can be found in our scientific report & glossy
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
This summer we (the Waddensleutels team) visited all dutch Wadden Islands to collect samples for food web comparisons between mussel beds and surrounding habitats. It was a very successful operation. We collected around 1800 samples of organism that are now going to be analyzed for stable isotopes at the NIOZ, Texel. Sampling involved fishing with fykes (also during nighttime), benthos cores, algal sampling, but also measuring the height profile of the mussel bed, the hydrodynamics, mussel production and much more. We are very grateful for the help of the many volunteers that helped us! The pictures will tell you much more about the research & show some of our surprising catches, check it out:
Many thanks to Arjen de Ruiter en Peter Visser for providing some of the Pictures!
Also see this newsletter ( in dutch; nieuwsbrief Waddensleutels november 2013)
This week I am joining the SIBES 2013 crew on the Navicula. They are sampling benthos at ± 4500 points spread througout the Wadden Sea, a program that is already running for 6 years. (more…)
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…)
From May onwards it was finally time for data analysis and writing! My data folders look like these:
And know its time to revise (ms 2), email the editor (ms 1), and wait for comments (ms 3).
Thanx Phd comic for recognizable stories.
Last year Laura was working together with me in Indonesia for her MSc. Now she already harvested a mega-seagrass-experiment for her own Phd. research. After receiving al lot of positive sms from Laura, when I was in Indonesia, I was looking forward visiting her experiment in Viane. Wouter also showed us his research on seagrass transplantation in Roelshoek. Eric Visser, Eelke Jongejans (both from RU’s Plant Ecology Department), Marieke and Leon were also invited to brainstorm over the driving forces behind succesful recolonisation after seagrass transplantation. The growth-season is very short from spring to early autumn but Zostera noltii growth rates are almost comparable, nevertheless seagrasses are still declining in the Netherlands. It is a pity that on the sites were seagrass grows most successful, dikes have to be enforced and seagrass have to give way.
10 February Judith Sarneel and me found our way back (was it a Levy walk?) to Conference centre “De Werelt” for 2 days of total saturation by Ecological research during the Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting in Lunteren: At daytime listen to “Allee effects”, early warning signals by spatial patterns, plantquality-herbivore interactions and at nighttime getting inspired from foodweb interations compared between seagrass, Serengeti-Mara, Hluhluwe (S.A.), and Barro Colorado (Panama) ecosystems.
The second day it was time for Madelon and me to present our poster “Overgrazing by Green Turtles?” (PDF) together with 45 others. The poster were evaluated on scientific quality, clarity and attractiveness. Not without succes, like you will see below we won the NERN and NECOV 2009 posterprize, and 300 euros! We are very happy with this result, now its time to write an article from it to apply for the PhD paper award next year ☺
The only critics on the poster: increase fontsize of the author names
