The effects of eutrophication and mowing on aquatic plants

Aquatic plants are of paramount importance to especially shallow aquatic ecosystems. They provide food and habitat for all kinds of organisms, thereby increasing biodiversity. They also help stabilize the ecosystem through many (a)biotic processes.

However, under some conditions these same plants can grow to large proportions that they create problems, especially when the ecosystem is also used by humans. Especially ecosystems under threat by (human induced) high nutrient levels or invasive species show problematic plant growth. One way of reducing the nuisance is to mow the plants and remove the cut vegetation.

This year we are planning to perform a controlled experiment to assess how different species of aquatic plants respond to cutting and high nutrient levels. We also want to measure if mowing can be beneficial to species being suppressed by the dominant nuisance species.

If you are looking for an internship and are interested by this topic, please feel free to contact me (m.verhofstad@nioo.knaw.nl). There are also possibilities for doing a theoretical (written) intership (AKA ‘scriptie’ in Dutch). Internship can be in Dutch or English.