Marine Ecology Research

Category: Uncategorized

  • Guest post: Free-diver Laurent volunteering in St. Eustatius

    Guest post: Free-diver Laurent volunteering in St. Eustatius

    During our fieldwork on St. Eustatius. Laurent helped as a volunteer to catch turtles. He also made some really nice video footage while free diving. His guest post:
    “Being a volunteer in a scientific mission is very simple : You just have to listen to the Project Leader, and you have to be available anytime, sometimes very early, sometimes late. The Project Leader is generally very nice to work with, able to create the right atmosphere for everyone to participate, suggest, and bring his experience/enthusiasm to the mission. In that sense, confidence is the cement of the team.

    (more…)

  • All females? Experimental nest temperature assessments will show.

    All females? Experimental nest temperature assessments will show.

    Sea turtle sex is not determined at the time of fertilization like in humans, it is set by the temperature level during nest incubation. Recently for some small island rookeries througout the Caribbean researchers reported a shift towards a more female dominated hatchlings/populations as nest temperatures slightly increased in these areas (warmer beaches result in female turtles). At St. Eustatius we will further asses the driving factors of sand temperatures in natural nest and experimental treatments, link it to nest succes, and compare these with that of other Caribbean islands and beyond. (more…)

  • New Publication shows Dutch Caribbean turtles migrate into risky waters

    New Publication shows Dutch Caribbean turtles migrate into risky waters

    Lisa Becking (Wageningen University and IMARES) and I, together with Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire (STCB) ; Mabel Nava, Sue Willis and Robert van Dam have shown in a recent publication that sea turtles who breed in Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands, migrate great distances of up to 3500km to reach their foraging grounds across the Caribbean in 10 different countries. (more…)

  • 2 times cake: 2 cool new papers! How to keep seagrass as happy as a clam?

    2 times cake: 2 cool new papers! How to keep seagrass as happy as a clam?

    Today 2 papers of our group were published online! This papers are the result of a successful collaboration between the University of Groningen, NIOZ and Radboud University, The Netherlands

    The first study by Els van der Zee et al. demonstrates that food web structure and complexity can be fundamentally shaped by  (more…)

  • Guest post: Jurjan’s research – turtle genomics

    Guest post: Jurjan’s research – turtle genomics

    Within the Dutch Caribbean, green and hawksbill turtle rookeries and foraging grounds are found. Green and hawksbill turtles have been decimated by human exploitation and habitat degradation, calling for knowledge of population structure and demographic history. Here we investigate migration patterns in these highly migratory species and evaluate current population status. In other words: How many turtles were there and where to they go? Those are the central questions in my PhD which I will address using population genomics and ancient DNA. 

    Last summer I’ve spent three months in the Dutch Caribbean collecting tissue samples for my research. Most samples were collected on Bonaire, but a significant amount were collected on Curacao as well. A few samples were collected on Aruba as well. As soon as the samples arrive I will start on DNA extractions and analyses! Jurjan van der Zee20150910MC109214

    (more…)

  • PhD thesis online

    PhD thesis online

    You can download my PhD thesis “Seagrass systems under nutrient loads, hydrodynamics and green turtle grazing – Do turtles rule the seagrass world?” here (pdf 88 MB). And the papers of my thesis here.
    Next friday I will defend my PhD thesis at Radboud University Nijmegen.
    I still have some paper copies left. So send me an email if you want me to send it to you. If you want to watch the live videostream of my defence mail me for the link.
    Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any comments after reading my thesis. Look forward to it!