The main theme in the Mooij Group is the modeling of aquatic ecosystems as a whole and processes therein.
The central question is how the combination of external factors and internal feedbacks shape these systems at various levels of integration and affect their resilience against environmental change. The most common external factors taken into account are climatic factors, nutrient inputs and fisheries. Internal feedbacks often cause these systems to respond in a non-linear fashion to eutrophication, climate change and overfishing leading to regime shifts, alternative stable states and priority effects.
Most of the work in the Mooij group combines fundamental with applied research. A number of research projects deal with large and unique aquatic ecosystems, e.g. IJsselmeer (see projects: ANT-SYSTEM and ANT-SMELT), Lake Victoria (see project: VICTORIA) and The Everglades (see project: EVERKITE).
Recently, a project on Dutch lakes (see project: PCLAKE) and linear waters (see project: PCDITCH) was started. The strength is in the width of approaches that is applied. Stoichiometrically explicit ecosystems models composed of many coupled differential equations are used to study the main nutrients flows through the food web. Rosenzweig-MacArthur type of models are used to zoom in on specific consumer-resource interactions (see project: BIOPOOL) and to study the behavior of the system as a whole at a high level of abstraction. Individual-based models are used to study trait-mediated interactions in food webs, animal movement and small populations.
Expertise
- Aquatic food web dynamics
- Ecology of fish and zooplankton; Restoration ecology
- Ecosystem modeling of lakes and linear waters
- Individual-based modeling of animal populations
- Mathematical modeling of consumer-resource interactions
- Statistics
Current group-members
