This assignment will focus on ecosystem services and biodiversity of salt marshes in Nature-based Solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation. The overall research project is described below. You will focus on measuring biophysical parameters and ecosystem services in 5+ field sites around the Dutch and German Wadden Sea (Figure 1), postprocessing and analyzing results. You will join a field campaign to conduct measurements at the German field sites, and there are opportunities to join field campaigns to Dutch sites as well. You will be emerged in measurements focusing on waves, water levels, erodibility of the marsh, sediment, carbon and vegetation. Subsequently, you will be translating the (a)biotic measurements to ecosystem services and biodiversity values. All to assess ecosystem service and biodiversity trade-offs in a range of restoration and construction techniques for salt marshes in Nature-based Solutions.
Figure 1. Study sites in the research project.
A good understanding of ecology and/or hydrodynamics of the coastal zone is required (or eagerness to learn), as well as the eagerness to learn other research disciplines. Moreover, good skills in a programming language like Matlab, R and/or Python are required to post-process and analyze data. For fieldwork to measure at the marshes along the Wadden Sea coast, flexibility and perseverance is asked. In return you will get the unique opportunity to visit a range of salt marshes and work with state-of-the-art measurement equipment.
If you are interested and/or would like to have more information, please contact Pim Willemsen (pim.willemsen@wur.nl) and/or Marte Stoorvogel (marte.stoorvogel@utwente.nl).
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Overall research project:
“Salt marshes: where climate change adaptation meets climate change mitigation”
While the global extent of intertidal salt marsh ecosystems is diminishing, their potential contribution to climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as biodiversity preservation is significant. This proposal aims to comprehensively examine the collective impact of salt marshes on adaptation, mitigation, and biodiversity for a sustainable future of these ecosystems and the coastal communities they support.
Over the last decade, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) with salt marshes have globally been recognized as a solution to adapt to and mitigate climate change by providing regulating ecosystem services (ES): storm protection (wave attenuation), erosion control (coastal stabilization) and climate regulation (carbon sequestration). Salt marshes can be implemented in NbS by supporting their development through stress alleviating structures and construction techniques enhancing marsh growth. Marsh restoration has also been applied to increase biodiversity in e.g. the Netherlands, Belgium, UK and Canada. The magnitude of ES provided by salt marshes relies on their biophysical properties, a combination of spatiotemporal aboveground- and belowground (in)organic dynamics. Constructed, restored and/or supported salt marshes (in NbS) develop differently than natural marshes (Figure 2), shown by preliminary erosion and carbon data. Pilot projects only appeared in the last decade, so there is limited knowledge about the long-term development and functioning of these constructed, restored and/or supported salt marshes (in NbS).
Figure 2. comparison of recently constructed contemporary Nature-based Solution in the Ems-Dollard estuary (left) and historical salt marsh at a Dutch Wadden island (right).
Comprehensive assessments quantifying ES in constructed, restored and/or supported salt marshes are sparse and field-based evidence is missing. While there are synergies and trade-offs between ES, ES for adaptation and mitigation are currently considered individually and not integrated in a multi-service approach. These combined knowledge gaps impede the effective design and management of constructed, restored and/or supported marshes in support of climate change adaptation and mitigation as well as biodiversity preservation. To address this contemporary knowledge gap, in this overall study we aim to (Figure 3):
Understand and quantify the fundamental relation between marsh development and ES to define guidelines for NbS with salt marshes that enable climate change adaptation and mitigation, by:
- quantifying (in)organic aboveground and belowground development of salt marshes; and
- assessing the magnitude, synergies and trade-offs of combined ES and biodiversity.
In practice, we would like to tell an honest story about what constructed, supported and/or restored marshes can contribute to ecosystem services for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Furthermore, the study gives insights into what interventions for construction, support and restoration are effective for ecosystem services and biodiversity, and insights into the relation between salt marsh management and ecosystem services will be gained.
Figure 2. schematic overview of the research in the project “Salt marshes: where climate change adaptation meets climate change mitigation”
