NIOZ, the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, is the national oceanographic institute and the Netherlands’ centre of expertise for ocean, sea and coast. We advance fundamental understanding of marine systems, the way they change, the role they play in climate and biodiversity, and how they may provide sustainable solutions to society in the future.
Over the past 40 years, the Atlantic Ocean has experienced a tropicalization, with an increase of warmer-water species; the Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea, where warming has been more rapid, have seen a marked decline in cold-water organisms.
Climate change may speed up the emergence of insects in northern countries at the onset of spring. This may cause breeding birds to come too late to benefit from the insect peak if they do not adjust their travel schedules to the new situation.
Iron that fertilizes the waters around Antarctica, mostly comes from the deep, upwelling waters and the sediments around the continent. That is shown by field research of NIOZ marine biogeochemist Hung-An Tian in the Amundsen Sea and the Weddell Sea.
Our science is conducted in four scientific departments;. Three of them are area oriented: estuaries and delta areas, coastal seas and open oceans. Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry conducts science in all three area types.