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Project properties |
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| Title | Iron deficiency in tropical oceans? |
| Group | Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 8-12 |
| Supervisor(s) | Name: Mischa Streekstra
Email:mischa.streekstra@wur.nl |
| Examiner(s) | Edwin Peeters |
| Contact info | Name: Mischa Streekstra
Email:mischa.streekstra@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2021/04/15 |
| End date | 2022/12/31 |
| Description | The iron hypothesis suggests that the availability of iron contributes to the degradation of Caribbean coral reefs. Aeolian dust from the Sahara desert is suggested to enrich the Caribbean basin with bioavailable iron, and so lift nutrient limitation for algae that can displace corals and other reef organisms. It is however largely unclear how much bioavailable iron is present in tropical waters and how this relates to the needs of different reef organisms. In this literature project, you would investigate if there could be a deficiency in iron on reefs. Depending on your interest, you can focus on the concentration and composition of iron in tropical ocean waters, or the bioavailability of different iron forms for tropical marine biota (micro/macroalgae, corals, sponges). |
| Used skills | Literature review; data analysis & statistics |
| Requirements | |