This Newsletter will come to you
twice per year to inform you about the symposia of the CWE, about research
opportunities, about activities of Stowa's Water Mosaic and to announce
events and news. We are open for suggestions and contributions
Rob
Fraaije (secretary CWE)
Jos Verhoeven (chairman CWE) |
| CWE News |
Next CWE
symposium |
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Eutrophication: bottom-up versus
top-down regulation
Nijmegen,
22 June 2011
Radboud University, Huygens building |
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Nutrient enrichment has been shown to have potentially dramatic effects on
aquatic and wetland systems. Shifts from a state with good water quality and
high biodiversity to states with anoxia, fish kills and loss of species have
been found worldwide.
The mechanisms behind the phenomena are becoming more
clear. The symposium will highlight such mechanisms, emphasizing the role of
bottom-up control (nutrient cycling in the system) as well as top-down
control (food web relations).
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| CWE-AIO graduated |
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The
CWE as a consortium has funded 8 collaborative Ph.D. projects about 5 years
ago. Four AIO's already graduated in 2010. Right now we can congratulate
JuanJuan Wang, who obtained her new degree on 16 February 2011 in Utrecht.
There are three more graduations to come in 2011 and 2012.
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Iron-oxidizing bacteria
(By JuanJuan Wang)
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16 February 2011: JuanJuan Wang (UU and NIOO), "Ecology of
neutrophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria in wetland soils"
Personal page >>
2011: Ellen
Weerman (NIOO and UvA), "Spatial heterogeneity of
microphytes and grazing"
Personal page >>
2012: Melis Akman (UvA and RU), "Diversity
and adaptation in the genus Yellow Cress, response to flooding"
Personal page >>
2012: Casper van
Leeuwen (NIOO and RU), "Dispersal of aquatic organisms by
waterbirds" Personal
page >>
Click
here
for an overview of all 8 projects
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2nd CWE symposium
(Dec 2010): Lively discussions
on wetland restoration
The second CWE symposium in
Antwerp was attended by 80 participants and
brought a nice overview of recent work on dispersal, colonisation and
succession. There were very lively discussions throughout the day after the
surprising results presented in the first lecture.
Full description
and link to the lectures >> |
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New CWE Member
In 2011 the Environmental Sciences group of
Utrecht University (Faculty of Geosciences, Copernicus Institute of
Sustainable Development) signed up for the CWE. Now the CWE has 21
member-research groups from academic research institutions in the
Netherlands and Flanders.
For a full list op partners
follow
this link >>
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Collaborative research projects
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PEATCAP: CWE research
collaboration in Volgermeerpolder
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The CWE Board is delighted to announce a new research
subsidy (about 900,000 euros) from the Stichting voor de Technische
Wetenschappen (STW) for three CWE research groups to study vegetation
development and peat formation in a large-scale wetland mitigation
project ‘Natural Cap’ just North of Amsterdam. |
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| The Volgermeerpolder had been a
waste dump for Amsterdam since centuries. A consortium of
specialized companies has designed and built a totally new
landscape of 35 large ponds (image left) together covering 110
hectares and underlain by a thick, continuous plastic sheet to
seal off the chemical waste dump from the environment. The ponds
are aimed to fill in with peat-forming vegetation and over time
develop into fens with a thick, almost impervious peat layer. This
peat layer will then eventually take over from the plastic layer,
which is expected to hold for at least 50 years.
Full description >> |
Research projects in Markermeer – IJmeer
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4 CWE research groups are developing a common research
proposal to generate knowledge for the design of a large wetland in the
northern part of the Markermeer near Lelystad. The wetland is meant to
strengthen the biodiversity values in this lake area and to help reverse the
downward environmental trend in this large, turbid shallow lake area.
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| Water mosaic |
Institute day Utrecht
University February 2011 |
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More than 70 professionals from water
boards and consulting companies visited the 3rd Water mosaic
Institute day at Utrecht University on 4 February. Four UU groups
participating in the CWE presented their research and hosted subgroups of
the audience in their labs for further discussions. Former Minister of the
Environment Jacqueline Cramer presented the mission of the new Utrecht
Centre for Earth and Sustainability (UCAD – Utrecht Centrum voor Aarde en
Duurzaamheid), directed by her, which has put forward the theme “Water” as
one of its focal points.
More details about this meeting (in Dutch) >>
Website of UCAD >>
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| Water Mosaic projects mid-term symposium
6-7 April 2011 |
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The Water Mosaic
Program is a master plan for tackling questions from practitioners in
water resources management. So far, there are 11 ongoing Water Mosaic
Projects, 6 of which were funded by the WFD Innovation Fund of the
Ministry of Verkeer en Waterstaat in The Netherlands. This symposium
will focus on the progress of these projects. On 6 April, projects
will be discussed with topics on the interaction of wetland soils,
ecology and water quality. On 7 April, present monitoring techniques
will be discussed and compared with innovative monitoring techniques.
Water Mosaic projects will come by, but also other relevant projects
of Waterboards.
More information and registration (in Dutch) >>
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| Grants and awards |
ERC Advanced grant for prof. Marten Scheffer
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Prof. Marten Scheffer of Wageningen University, who had previously been
awarded with a Spinoza Prize, has received a 2,5 million Euro ‘Advanced
Investigator’ grant from the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) for
research on alternative stable states in various fields of science,
including aquatic ecology, brain science and econometry. CWE congratulates
him with this very prestigious and impressive result!
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Scientific encouragement prize:
conservation of biodiversity to Liesbeth Bakker |
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Liesbeth Bakker of the department Aquatic Ecology of the Netherlands
Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) has won the Scientific Encouragement Prize
for conservation of biodiversity. This price is provided by the Dutch
Ministry of Economics, Agriculture and Innovation, the Netherlands Ecology
Research Network (NERN), Artis and the International Union for Conservation
of Nature (IUCN), for the contribution of innovative scientific insights to
conservation of biodiversity. The price consists of € 25000,-
available to turn scientific inventions into innovation. The project of
Liesbeth concerns the conservation of diversity of aquatic plants. The price
was given at the two-day symposium (23 and 24 November 2010): "Biodiversity:
oppurtunities for new economics", which was organised by the above parties.
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VIDI & VENI grants
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Merel Soons (UU) has been awarded a VIDI grant of NWO, the NL National Science
Foundation. She will start supervising three Ph.D. students in this project
with the theme: ‘Flying, floating or hitching a ride: The dispersal of
plants in heterogeneous landscapes’.
Personal page
>>
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Bjorn Robroek
(UU) obtained a VENI grant for a 3-year
postdoc with the title: Does diversity affect the carbon sequestration
potential of peatlands under climate change? An experimental study.
Personal page
>>
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Marc Davidson (UvA)
of the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics
(IBED) and the Research Group Ethics of the Faculty of Humanities,
received a VIDI grant from NWO for an interdisciplinary investigation of
economic instruments for the protection of global biodiversity.
See >>
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Waternetwerk Thesis Prize 2010 for MSc. student of IBED |
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On Friday 26 November 2010 Myra van der Meulen, won
the Waternetwerk Thesis Prize 2010 for her thesis titled: “Alien freshwater
species and their Influence on the goals set by the Water Framework
Directive”, that she wrote as part of her MSc studies of Limnology &
Oceanography under final supervision of Dr. Michiel Kraak of the Institute
for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED).
Read more >>
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Ph.D graduations
Konrad Goriski (WUR)
12 November 2010: "Floods and fish:
recruitment and distribution of fish in the Volga river floodplain"
Personal page >>
Artur Banach (RU) 15 November
2010: "Biochemical constraints on
combined flood control, water storage and ecological restoration in eastern
European river floodplains"
Hein van Kleef (RU)
17 November
2010: "Identifying
and crossing thresholds in managing moorland pool macroinvertebrates"
Personal page (in Dutch) >>
Judith Barke
(UU) 1 December 2010: "Palaeoecological and
palaeoclimatological implications of the Eocene Northern Hemisphere
Azolla phenomenon"
Personal page >>
Maarten van
Hardenbroek (UU) 10 January 2011: "Stable carbon
isotopes of invertebrate remains: do they reveal past methane release
from lakes?"
Personal page >>
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| AGENDA |
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6-7 April 2011:
Watermosaic Symposium: new monitoring techniques
and the role of sediments in water quality management. Conference Hotel,
Soesterberg.
More
information see STOWA (in Dutch) >>
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18-19
April 2011: Excursion 'Platform Ecologisch
Herstel Meren'. Groningen.
Read more (in Dutch) >>
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19-21
April 2011: Amsterdam Natural Cap conference,
West-Indisch House, Amsterdam.
Link >>
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24-28
April 2011: Shallow Lake
Conference 2011, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese
Academy of Sciences. Government of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.
More information >>
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3-8
July 2011:
Joint Meeting of the Society of Wetland
Scientists, WETPOL and Wetlands Biogeochemistry, Clarion Congress Hotal
Prague, www.sws2011.com >>
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21-25
August 2011:
4th World Conference on Ecological Restoration - Re-establishing the Link
between Nature and Culture. Merida,
Yucatan, Mexico,
www.ser2011.org >>
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| 3-8 June 2012:
9th INTECOL International Wetlands Conference -
Wetlands in a complex world. Caribe Royale, Orlando,
Florida, USA.
More information >> |
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