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Project properties |
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| Title | Ecophysiological tolerance of macrozoobenthos |
| Group | Marine Animal Ecology |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 24-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Dr. Katharina Alter (NIOZ)
Prof. Myron Peck (NIOZ & WUR) |
| Examiner(s) | Tinka Murk, Reindert Nijland, Ronald Osinga, Rosa van der Ven, Diede Maas |
| Contact info | katharina.alter@nioz.nl
diede.maas@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2024/03/01 |
| End date | 2025/03/01 |
| Description | Sessile or less-mobile coastal organisms in marine and estuarine environments are naturally exposed to changes in abiotic conditions, most importantly temperature and dissolved gases, and these changes are projected to amplify in a future climate. A key question that arises is whether species using these habitats have adapted to that unique and variable environment and the extent to which they will be able to cope with future climate-driven changes. An important aspect for coping with it are micro-habitat differences particularly whether animals live in upper or lower intertidal areas (exposed to air for different amounts of time each day) or subtidal areas (constantly submerged). To shed light on these questions, you will perform targeted laboratory experiments examining the performance of organisms to multiple stressors (e.g. temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, air exposure) using intertidal chambers, multi-stressor gradient tables, and intermittent-flow respirometers. We commonly work on crustaceans (Carcinus maenas, Gammarus sp., Hemigrapsus sp.), bivalves (Mytilus edulis, Cerastoderma edule) and gastropods (Littorina littorea) from the Wadden Sea but other invertebrates that can be linked to our large-scale field sampling programs are possible to investigate as well. |
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