People

My research interests lie in the field of marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning with a focus on macrophytes including seagrasses and other vascular aquatic plants. More specifically, I explore how the functional diversity of aquatic plants is linked to ecosystem processes and properties in vegetated coastal environments across spatial and temporal scales. In addition, I investigate how seagrass traits are linked to trait variability along environmental gradients and how ecological filters shape the community assembly of seagrasses regionally and globally
 

Keywords: Biodiversity-ecosystem function, seagrass, functional diversity, carbon cycling, climate change, plant-faunal interactions
 

My research focuses on vegetated coastal ecosystems and their functioning. During my PhD at the University of Groningen, I specialised in seagrass restoration. Currently I work with submerged aquatic vegetation on many different scales; from large scale mapping-studies performed with satellite imagery to mesocosm experiments investigating release-rates of VOCs.

Keywords: coastal ecology, seagrass, remote sensing, SAV, VOC, ecological restoration

I am a community ecologist studying how spatial processes shape biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics under environmental change. My work combines experiments, empirical analyses, and theoretical models to uncover how dispersal, connectivity, and landscape structure influence metacommunities. I am particularly interested in linking theory and data, and in advancing experimental and data-intensive approaches to improve mechanistic understanding in ecology.

My research focuses on the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of submerged vegetation. I am working on the community assembly processes (i.e. abiotic, biotic and dispersal filtering) and stability of seagrass and other aquatic plant communities. I am especially interested in the role of functional traits in the assembly, resistance and recovery of the plant communities under changing conditions such as climate change.

Keywords:marine biodiversity, seagrass, functional traits, ecosystem functioning, macrophyte ecology

My current research is focused on the common reed (Phragmites australis), a grass species whose global distribution has been increasing dramatically and who has had significant impacts on macrophyte biodiversity in littoral systems along the Baltic Sea and other parts of the world. I am particularly interested in carbon cycling in reed beds across coastal archipelago systems. Research into the reed’s role in coastal carbon budgets has been limited despite its increased distribution. My research explores the reed’s role in carbon cycling across temporal and spatial scales to better understand the reed’s role in coastal carbon budgets.

Keywords: coastal carbon cycling, blue carbon, Phragmites australis, littoral ecology, greenhouse gas fluxes, climate change, ecosystem functioning