Marine Ecology Research

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  • Off to Shark Bay, Australia

    Off to Shark Bay, Australia

    Time for some fieldwork! This time not in Indonesia but 7 hours flying further east in Sharkbay, Australia!

    Together with Laura Govers, Tjisse van der Heide, Leon Lamers and Fons Smolders and researchers for the University of Western-Australia we will investigate the driving mechanisms behind the unique seagrass patterns of Shark Bay (picture below). Recently, van der Heide et al. demonstrated that banded spatial patterns in seagrasses (France) resulted from a scale‐dependent feedback between seagrass and hydrodynamics. Moreover, additional measurements showed that stress predictably influenced patterning in the seagrasses, hence suggesting that self‐organized patterns might be a useful stress‐indicator in seagrass ecosystems. Now in Sharkbay, there are patterns at 2 scales: Inside larger seagrass bands smaller seagrass bands occur, we will try to unravel the underlying mechanisms of their formation. We will post updates of our fieldwork on this blog.

     lat=-25.93828707492374 lng=113.92822265625


  • Visiting CEAB Spain

    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)

  • Virtual Classroom: Seagrass Microscopy

    Virtual Classroom: Seagrass Microscopy

    The Radboud University has recently updated it’s “virtual classroom” with interesting microscopy pictures of tropical seagrasses and other submerged water plants, check it out, (Thanx Liesbeth Pierson)

    There is also a movie in the virtual classroom (in dutch only) to explain students what kind of research we do at the department of Environmental Science .

  • Mega Turtle

    Mega Turtle

    Although this animal is already been found in 1996, this giant Archelon ischyros Turtle fossil of 70 million years old keeps impressing me.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Its “flipper-span” reaches 4.9 meters and its shell 4 meters across. Imagine snorkeling next to this this turtle. Did these ancient already graze on seagrasses? Probably not, it had a leathery carapace, and therefore this turtle seems more related to the present carnivorous leatherback turtle. The original fossile was found in Dakota by  the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology . Thanks to Euroturtle for the link!

  • Students internships 2011-2012

    Update 1-6-2011: STUDENT RECRUITMENT CLOSED: both internship positions taken

    I have 2 MSc. student internship opportunities available with fieldwork in Indonesia from end of November 2011 till February 2012. Students should already have finished 1 other internship. Contact me this month if you are interested.

    Check for here for more info, or at the site of my University (in Dutch).

  • Paper Published in Aquatic Toxicology

    Paper Published in Aquatic Toxicology

    After months of blog-silence I finally have some news to share: The first paper of my Phd thesis is published in Aquatic Toxicology this month.

  • Deep Seagrass

    Deep Seagrass

    During our divetrip to the Similan and Surin island in the Andaman sea I found some seagrass (a Halophyla sp. >8 cross veins) growing very deep, between burrows of the shy spotted garden eels. While I know that some species are found much deeper, e.g. 50m deep (Beer et al. 1982) I was quite happy finding it as a variation to the depressing coral reef. This reef consisted of 90% dead coral probably as a result of the 2004 Tsunami, 2010 Bleaching event (after some months with 34C water temperature, in contrast to the normal 29C), and some local dynamite fishing.

  • Seagrass workshop Thailand

    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.

  • East Kalimantan Programme Conference Samarinda

    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!


  • Writing, Writing, Writing

    Writing, Writing, Writing

    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.