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Project properties |
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| Title | Ditches and biodiversity |
| Group | Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 24-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Edwin THM Peeters |
| Examiner(s) | |
| Contact info | Edwin Peeters, 0317 483899, Room 1.114 Lumen, edwin.peeters@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2010/01/01 |
| End date | 2011/12/31 |
| Description | Ditches are characteristic for the Dutch polder landscape and their total length in The Netherlands has been estimated at 275.000 km. Ditches are not inhabited by species that are solely restricted to this man made water type but it is the species composition of the inhabiting community that distinguishes ditches from other aquatic ecosystems. Ditches may contribute to the total biodiversity because they support floral and faunal elements that may not otherwise be represented in the area. The biodiversity in ditches in the Netherlands declined in recent decades.
Ditch management, the periodical removal of vegetation (ditch cleaning) and sediment (dredging), is necessary to set back the system in its succession stage and by that avoiding peat formation or the creation of dry land. Ditch cleaning and dredging affects the floristic values of ditch vegetation in peat areas. Regional waterboard authorities collected data on macrophytes, macroinvertebrates and environmental conditions in many ditches. These data will be analyzed to investigate the effect of management on the biodiversity in ditches. Furthermore, experiments either in the field or in the lab may be performed to investigate, under controlled conditions, the effect of cleaning. |
| Used skills | data analyses |
| Requirements | |