Droevendaalsesteeg 10
6708 PB Wageningen
The Netherlands
About
My current research is focused on responses of harmful marine algae to multiple climate change-associated factors.
Biography
I am a marine scientist with a PhD in Oceanology and a double master’s in biology. My interests lie in interdisciplinary research of ecosystem perturbations and trophic responses. I have joined the Van de Waal – Phytoplankton Group at the Aquatic Department of NIOO as a postdoc to study harmful marine algae blooms (HABs) in relation to climate change as a part of the ACTNOW project. My earlier research includes in and ex situ studies of the other parts of the plankton community, particularly culturable autotrophs and gelatinous zooplankton (GZ), as a part of several scientific and monitoring projects in the Adriatic Sea. Both HABs and GZ can exert adverse effects on ecosystem services. Thus, I study those seemingly sudden and enigmatic phenomena to understand their role in changing marine environments under anthropogenic pressure.
Research groups
Projects & collaborations
Projects
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Climate change impacts on harmful algal blooms
Harmful cyanobacterial blooms produce toxins that are a major threat to water quality and human health. Blooms increase with eutrophication and are expected to be amplified by climate change. Yet, we lack a mechanistic understanding on the toxicity of blooms, and their response to the complex interplay of multiple global change factors. Bloom toxicity is determined by a combination of mechanisms acting at different ecological scales, ranging from cyanobacterial biomass accumulation in the ecosystem, to the dominance of toxic species in the community, contribution of toxic genotypes in the population, and the amounts of toxins in cells.
Featured in
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Impact of nutrients
Nutrient availability in natural ecosystems has increased due to anthropogenic activities like spill-over from agricultural ecosystems. In the Netherlands, this has led to the acidification of natural areas for example. At NIOO, we aim to understand the impact of nutrients on natural systems in more detail, to help to bring back the balance.