Written by Fee: “👩🎓 🌱 What a day! Last Friday I defended my thesis ‘Herbivores shape the seascape’ at Wageningen University & Research. I was totally overwhelmed to get the designation ‘cum laude’ added to my degree. Many thanks to
🎓Great start to 2024: ✨I have been promoted to Associate Professor 1 with tenure at Wageningen University & Research✨. This promotion comes with the “ius promovendi,” granting the right to supervise PhD candidates as a promotor. A huge thank you to my family, talented students, colleagues, friends and collaborators for their unwavering support that made this possible! Looking forward to diving into new marine ecology challenges✨
Handing over the printed thesis copy is a very happy moment in a PhD and supervisors’ collaboration🎓. Sincere congratulations to Sara Pino Cobacho with her thesis “Mangroves in a transforming world: biogeochemical interactions, global change drivers, and innovative mitigation strategies,” a journey with much-needed persistence into fascinating hashtag#mangroves 🌍🌿.
Just 2 weeks ago, we kicked off the exciting new BSc program in Marine Systems at WUR, we’re thrilled to have 110 students on board! This program beautifully combines food, nature, society, and personal development. A big
‘World’s average ocean surface temperature measured 21.1 beating the previous high of 21C set in 2016’. As a scientist, I was asked to explain to national news (NOS Saturday evening news) the impact of rising temperatures and the resulting frequency of marine heat waves on ecosystems, together with Erik van Sebille.
🌊 #Longread – Despite the many threats, seagrass habitats still have the potential to store large amounts of carbon and restore the balance of the sea. On 1 March 2023 – the very first World Seagrass day – we explain why we need to protect and rewild the sea, and share how camera-equipped sea turtles and tiger sharks can help us do it:
Last week we (Karin Didderen, Fee Smulders, and I) were invited to the seagrass restoration week in #bonaire ! We started a new seagrass restoration site in Lac Bay as part of the Lac Pa Semper – RESEMBID project (https://stinapabonaire.org/nature-projects/lac-pa-semper/), coordinated by Jessica Johnson. Most inspiring was the training of
How does ecosystem functioning change now megaherbivores are returning? In our new paper today in Global Change Biology we show that the return of the green turtle has strong effects on seagrass ecosystem functions and can even reduce multifunctionality with ~25%. Read the short & simple summary below.
— Update, Sept 2022 — The documentary won the “Gouden Hert” competition 2022 at the International Short Films Festival in Arnhem.
Mirthe Dokter and me in Arnhem.
In 2021 I was happy to be involved in the making of a documentary with Artist Mirthe Dokter, together with Rian van den Boom and others.
This unconventional docu shows an intriguing portrait of the leatherback sea turtle, threatened with extinction. In Ghana, artist Mirthe meets ‘Uncle Raf’, the leader of a turtle conservationists team in a small fishing town. Slowly, she gets entangled in the web of all the difficulties that come with protecting this ancient animal. Virtual artists Mirthe records her story in a painted diary, that she shares with a marine ecologist, Marjolijn, from the Netherlands.
