NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research

🐦 💤 Slome wadvogel haalt voorpagina krant. Trouw: "Snelle en slome kanoeten helpen elkaar met eten. Wadvogels die van zichzelf niet zo snel zijn in het zoeken en vinden van voedsel in de bodem, profiteren van sociale interactie met soortgenoten. Vogels die van zichzelf heel rap en ondernemend zijn, worden juist wat trager als ze in een groepje moeten opereren." 🐦 🐦 Volgens vogelonderzoeker #AllertBijleveld van NIOZ Coastal Systems department toont dit onderzoek aan dat de verschillen in karakter, in identiteit, tussen vogels veel meer zijn dan een ‘grappig weetje’. “Persoonlijkheid heeft echt een belangrijke invloed op het functioneren van vogels in groepen, zoals blijkbaar op het vinden van voedsel.” 🐦 🐦 🛰 🌍 In een vervolgonderzoek met vogels met zendertjes op hun rug, wil Bijleveld onderzoeken of de afwachtende kanoeten in het wild ook daadwerkelijk de ondernemende types volgen in de zoektocht naar voedsel. Link naar de wetenschappelijke publicatie over het experiment: 👉 https://lnkd.in/ggdBhjvr Link naar het hele artikel in Trouw (achter betaalmuur) 👇 https://lnkd.in/g8sUKsd4

🎉 Congratulations Jim van Belzen of NIOZ Estuarine and Delta Systems department and Marjolijn J. A. Christianen of Wageningen Environmental Research with this grant for investigating trophic rewilding in coastal ecosystems!

NWO Open Competition XS grant for deep-sea sponges as sinks of dissolved inorganic carbon. Climate change affects all oceans via ocean acidification, rising sea levels, or increasing sea water temperatures. Mangroves, seagrass meadows, and saltmarshes can fix inorganic carbon via photosynthesis and sequester it as #bluecarbon. Deep-sea sponges are also capable of fixing dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), and dr. #TanjaStratmann of NIOZ Ocean Systems department hypothesizes that this process is a major source of carbon taken up by deep-sea sponges in food-limited areas. In this way, deep-sea sponge grounds could serve as sinks of DIC, contribute to blue carbon, and reduce ocean acidification. With the XS grant, Stratmann aims to confirm this hypothesis by conducting incubation experiments with deep-sea sponges from Chilean fjords.   Picture of deep-sea sponge, courtesy of Geomar (Sonne_SO254_02ROV01) 👇

👂Luister terug: informatief interview over de vele veranderingen in de #Waddenzee, uniek werelderfgoedgebied en wat we daaraan kunnen doen met #AllertBijleveld van NIOZ Coastal Systems department in Dr Kelder en CO. https://lnkd.in/e5BuhbXB

ARTIKEL: Slimme technologie volgt migrerende vissen in de Waddenzee. 🐟 De Waddenzee is van cruciaal belang voor de levenscyclus van vele vissoorten. Sinds de jaren tachtig nemen de populaties migrerende vissen in dit gebied af. De oorzaak van deze afname is nog niet duidelijk. Promovendus Jena Edwards volgt al enkele jaren grote vissoorten in de Waddenzee. In haar recente studie beschrijft zij hoe verschillende (volg)technieken gecombineerd kunnen worden, om essentiële informatie te verkrijgen voor de bescherming van deze migrerende vissen. Lees het hele artikel op https://lnkd.in/eZtu-eEN #SwimWay #Waddenvereniging #Zeeonderzoek NIOZ Coastal Systems department

GRANT: Veni grant from NWO for research on Saharan mineral dust and its role in a changing climate Dr. Michèlle van der Does, a postdoctoral researcher who completed her PhD dissertation in 2018 with Jan-Berend Stuut at NIOZ, has been awarded a Veni grant from NWO. In her Veni research, which she will be doing at NIOZ Ocean Systems department, Van der Does will focus on the complex interactions between mineral dust particles and climate change. ''Over 2 trillion kg of mineral dust is emitted from Northern Africa every year. I am fascinated by these immense amounts, and I want to investigate how this dust impacts climate, and how this changes due to climate change,'' Van der Does says. Read the full news item on the website. Michèlle van der Does NIOZ Ocean Systems department #grant #searesearch #climate (photo credit: Lars van den Brink)

👀 RTL NIEUWS: Oceanograaf Femke de Jong van NIOZ Ocean Systems department is verantwoordelijk voor een actuele wetenschappelijke vaartocht richting Groenland naar de AMOC, een golfstroom in de Atlantische Oceaan die warm oceaanwater naar het Noordpoolgebied voert en ook bij ons voor warmte zorgt. De AMOC dreigt eerder dan werd verwacht een kantelpunt te bereiken. Volgens Femke is er inmiddels geen twijfel meer of de AMOC in kracht gaat afnemen. "Maar of de stroming ook echt 'instort' is nog onderwerp van discussie. Daarom is er reden voor meer onderzoek. ❄ Vooral in West-Europa kunnen de gevolgen groot zijn, denken wetenschappers. In relatief korte tijd kan er, afhankelijk van het gevoerde klimaatbeleid, een heel ander klimaat ontstaan, met een sterke afkoeling in West-Europese landen tot gevolg. 📉 Ook al is er nog veel onduidelijk over de AMOC, klimaatwetenschappers zijn het over één ding wel grondig eens: de bezorgdheid over het stilvallen van de golfstroom onderstreept nogmaals de noodzaak om heel snel de uitstoot van broeikasgassen naar beneden te brengen. Want die uitstoot, van met name CO2, leidt er uiteindelijk toe dat de AMOC een kantelpunt bereikt. Lees het hele artikel en kijk het nieuwsitem terug via de rtl-nieuwspagina 👇 https://lnkd.in/eUCpVukD

BLOG: Final ''Weeds of Change expedition'' blog post 🌊 Today marks the conclusion of the 4-week voyage through the great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, a remarkable expedition filled with scientific discovery, cultural exchange, and collaborative triumphs. For Linda Amaral Zettler, the Chief Scientist onboard, each journey begins with a mix of anticipation and uncertainty: Will the seas and the weather be kind? Will the experiments work? Will the equipment malfunction? Will we gather enough samples? Will we accomplish most of what we set out to do? This time, the team was truly fortunate. ‘’While we celebrate the success of a productive expedition – the mood is also bittersweet to realize the magnitude of the problem we are studying, heightened by the sheer size of the Sargassum patches we encountered and the accompanying inability to capture their extent.’’ In de drone footage, made by Erik Zettler, you see the RV Pelagia alongside one of largest Sargassum patches encountered on the voyage that extended kilometers in either direction, beyond the safe traveling distance of the drone. Read all about this remarkable expedition on the NIOZ website: NIOZ@Sea: The Weeds of Change expedition is the name of the blog. #WeedsOfChange #SargassumExpedition #ScientificDiscovery #CollaborativeScience #OceanResearch NIOZ Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry department

📝 PUBLICATION: Methane, a strong greenhouse gas that naturally escapes from the bottom of the North Sea, is affected by the pressure of high or low tide. Methane emissions from the seafloor can be just easily three times as much or as little, depending on the tide. This is shown by oceanographer Tim de Groot of NIOZ Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry department in a publication in #Nature Communications Earth and Environment. "Our research shows that you can never rely on one measurement when you want to know how much methane escapes from the seafloor," De Groot emphasizes. Swamp gas at sea Methane (CH4) is a particularly strong greenhouse gas. Among other sources, it is produced when plant remains and other organic material in the bottom of a swamp or a canal, but also in the bottom of the North Sea, is broken down by bacteria, in the absence of oxygen. In the case of the North Sea, this involves old layers of organic materials at a depth of up to 600 meters in the seabed, which is converted by bacteria into methane. And like from a muddy canal that you poke into with a stick, that methane can also escape from the sea floor when the pressure gets high enough. Large variation To close the books on all sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, it is important for climate science to know how much methane is coming out of the seafloor and, more importantly, how much of that powerful greenhouse gas reaches the atmosphere. De Groot now cautions against jumping to conclusions in that research. Measurements at a bubbling methane source at a depth of forty meters, near the Dogger Bank which is located roughly between Denmark and Scotland, showed that considerable variations can occur. Not only do methane emissions differ between summer and winter, but high and low tides also appear to have a robust influence: emissions can easily be three times higher or lower depending on the tide. “If you don’t take this effect into account, you will probably over- or underestimate the methane emission from the sea bottom,” says De Groot. You can find the entire news article in English and Dutch and the link to the scientific publication in Nature Communications on the NIOZ-website: 👇 https://lnkd.in/evzRis-C

Some #bacteria form colonies that display striking, reflective colours. An international, interdisciplinary team with NIOZ researchers Henk Bolhuis and Bastiaan von Meijenfeldt, gained new genetic insights into the formation of such colours which allowed them to identify the environments and bacterial groups in which these colours are found. The findings, which were published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), form a starting point to understand the function of these colours in bacteria, and might have implications for the development of new innovative materials to replace non-sustainable dyes. 🦋 The striking, vibrant colours that we know from butterfly wings and peacock feathers are not the result of dyes or pigments. Instead, they are created by tiny, ordered structures that interact with light, creating a vibrant display of hues that is often perceived as iridescence (changes in colours depending on the angle of view or illumination). Such ‘structural colour’ is widespread in nature, and also exist in bacteria. Bastiaan von Meijenfeldt postdoc @ NIOZ Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry department: “𝘞𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘳. 𝘞𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘩𝘺𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘩𝘴, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘺𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵.” Aldert Zomer, Colin Ingham, F.A. Bastiaan von Meijenfeldt, Henk Bolhuis, and Bas E. Dutilh. Universiteit Utrecht https://lnkd.in/ez85_D46.