About:

Jaap van der Meer

Scientist NIOZ (PO BOX 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, The Netherlands)

Professor Marine Population Ecology, VU University Amsterdam                                                                  

 

Expertise

Marine ecology, population ecology, Dynamic Energy Budget theory, foraging behaviour, statistical ecology

 

News

In April 2013 we organize the Third Internation DEB Symposium on the beautiful island of Texel. Further information on the symposium website.

 

Projects and research group (under construction)

Mosselwad (with Andreas Waser and Bruno Ens)

WaLTER (with Olga Lyashevska)

SIBES (with Tanya Compton and Theunis Piersma)

Blue mussel modelling (with Sofia Saraiva and Bas Kooijman)

Size-specific predation (with Henrike Andresen)

 

Outreach

A visit to Spitsbergen (in Dutch)

 

CV

Personal data

Born in 1959 in Rotterdam, married, three children

 

Education

Ph.D.University of Groningen, May 1997. A handful of feathers. Studies on the estimation and modelling of temporal and spatial fluctuations in the numbers of birds and their prey; Promotor Prof. Dr. R.H. Drent

M.Sc. Free University Amsterdam, September 1983. Major: Animal Ecology; Minors: Statistics, Mathematics; Grade: Cum laude

 

Research interests

“Changes in body size can make a crucial difference”

At sea, classic population models, dealing with adults of one, constant size, are of little or no value. As body size of most invertebrates – as well those of fish – constantly changes, more dynamic models, such as the Dynamic Energy Budget theory, are needed. Our group studies the constantly changing interactions between consumer and resource. Body size of individual organisms is the key factor in our research. How does body size influence energy fluxes? How does the size of a predator or the size of a prey influence predation rates and thus: how does body size influence the complete demography of the different organisms? By addressing these questions, our scientists aim to get a better insight in the true dynamics of populations of marine predators and prey, such as invertebrates in the intertidal seas.

Publications

I published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals. A selection is given here.

J. Van der Meer, H. W. Van der Veer and J. I. Witte (2011). The disappearance of the European eel from the western Wadden Sea. Journal of Sea Research 66: 434-439.

This paper provides an example of the use of a simple population model based on Dynamic Energy Budget theory. The model was very helpful in interpreting time series of abundance data of a threatened species

 

J. Van der Meer and I. M. Smallegange (2009). A stochastic version of the Beddington-DeAngelis functional response: modelling interference for a finite number of predators. Journal of Animal Ecology 78: 134-142.

This paper is one of the results of work on providing a mechanistic basis for functional response models, and in which we tried to parameterize the models developed. A companion paper emphasizing the experimental results has been published in Marine Biology. These papers again illustrate my research approach of providing direct links between theoretical developments and experimental validation.

 

J. Van der Meer (2006). An introduction to Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) models with special emphasis on parameter estimation. Journal of Sea Research 56: 85-102.

This paper provides an introduction to the Dynamic Energy Budget theory developed by my Amsterdam colleague Prof. S.A.L.M Kooijman and gives avenues how to apply this work. At the moment I am working on a monograph on the same subject

 

J. Van der Meer (2006). Metabolic theories in ecology. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21: 136-140.

This paper evaluates the highly successful (at least in terms of Nature and Science publications) Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE) developed by Jim Brown and Geoffrey West and compares its achievements with those of the Dynamic Energy Budget theory. I show the severe shortcomings of MTE (but still have to convince many colleagues)

 

J. Van der Meer, C. H. Heip, P. J. M. Herman, T. Moens and D. Van Oevelen (2005). Flow of energy and matter in marine benthic animal populations. In: Methods in marine benthos studies. A. Eleftheriou and A. MacIntyre (eds.). Oxford, Blackwell: 326-409.

This chapter in the most well sold handbook on Marine Benthic studies is really a product where all authors have contributed a major share. I organized the chapter and wrote the more theoretical parts. An update is already in press and will appear in 2012 or 2013.

 

J. Van der Meer, J. J. Beukema and R. Dekker (2001). Long-term variability in secondary production of an intertidal bivalve population is primarily a matter of recruitment variability. Journal of Animal Ecology 70: 159-169.

This paper links a functional item (i.e. secondary production) to underlying population-dynamical phenomena

 

J. Van der Meer, J. J. Beukema and T. Piersma (2001). Population dynamics of benthic species on tidal flats: the possible roles of shorebird predation. In: Ecological comparisons of sedimentary shores. K. Reise (ed.). Berlin, Springer-Verlag. 151: 317-335.

This paper, and the next two ones, are examples of what solid analyses of detailed long-term studies may (or may not) offer

 

J. Van der Meer, J. J. Beukema and R. Dekker (2012). Using stochastic population process models to predict the impact of climate change. Journal of Sea Research (in press).

 

J. Van der Meer, J. J. Beukema and R. Dekker (2000). Population dynamics of two marine polychaetes: the relative role of density dependence, predation, and winter conditions. ICES Journal of Marine Science 57: 1488-1494.

 

J. Van der Meer and B. J. Ens (1997). Models of interference and their consequences for the spatial distribution of ideal and free predators. Journal of Animal Ecology 66: 846-858.

This paper shows the importance of consistency in ecological theories, and the role of apparent details

 

J. Van der Meer (1997). Sampling design of monitoring programmes for marine benthos: a comparison between the use of fixed versus randomly selected stations. Journal of Sea Research 37: 167-179.

This paper, and the next one, are examples of my earlier more statistically oriented work (up to 1997) when I worked as a Staff Scientist at NIOZ mainly in the role of a statistical consultant

 

J. Van der Meer (1992). Statistical analysis of the dichotomous preference test. Animal Behaviour 44: 1101-1106.

 

Further reading

See my Google Scholar account