Prof. Dr. Tjeerd Bouma

‘Learning from Mother Nature’

Specialization

Understanding coastal ecosystems for sustainable conservation & use.

Research interest

During the last 10 years, I focussed my research on bio-physical interactions between the forces originating from tidal currents and waves, and species that alter these forces and thereby the environment (i.e., ecosystem engineers). Biophysical interactions by ecosystem engineers (e.g. vegetation like salt marshes, mangroves, seagrass, aquatic water plants, reef forming animals, bioturbating animals) can have major consequences for the functioning and development of the estuarine and coastal landscape. I’m interested in obtaining a better understanding of ecosystem engineering as a strategy (fundamental ecology), the thresholds ecosystem engineers encounter in establishing (overcoming bottle necks in ecosystem restoration), the influence ecosystem engineers have on ecosystem functioning by altering resource fluxes, biodiversity, ecosystem resilience and landscape evolution (management implications) and especially the opportunities this offer for benefiting from ecosystem services (e.g. nature based coastal defence, food provisioning, maintaining biodiversity, recreation, etc.).

Key ecosystems:
- Coastal vegetation, mangroves, salt marshes, seagrass meadows
- Benthic ecosystem engineers, mussels, oysters, endo-benthos
- Bio-engineering sea walls

Personal motivation

Working on coastlines across the globe has taught me this: the future safety and prosperity of millions of people depends on sustainable, nature-based coastal defense systems and healthy, resilient coastal ecosystems. To make this happen, we need to fundamentally understand how coastal ecosystems work and thrive. We need answers to questions like: What safety, food, energy, recreational and ecological services can they provide for society? How stable and reliable are these services under global changes like climate change, sea-level rise and growing populations? And how can we establish, maintain and restore those valuable ecosystems where we need them?

To come up with solutions that will affect so many lives, we need frontier-applied research that yields answers now. And training gifted young people that will provide answers in the future. But this is not enough: we also need to reach out to seek support of the public, companies, NGO’s and governments to steps up in solving today the problems of tomorrow.

Education & current positions

Tjeerd J. Bouma studied biology at Utrecht University (NL), did a PhD in the field of Plant Physiology at the Wageningen University NL (i.e., quantifying maintenance costs in agricultural crops), followed by a post-doc in the field of Plant Ecology at Pennsylvania State University USA (i.e., quantifying drought stress on energy use and root longevity in fruit trees). Since then he has worked at the NIOZ-Yerseke (former NIOO-CEME) on the ecology of tidal wetlands in estuaries and delta’s. Tjeerd Bouma has a strong interest in crossing the border between fundamental and applied research, and holds both an honorary Professorship at the University of Groningen, and a Lectureship at the HZ University of Applied Sciences in Vlissingen.
Researcher ID: A-9841-2011

Current positions:

• Coastal ecologist at NIOZ
• Lector at the University of Applied Sciences, Vlissingen
• Honorary Professor at Groningen University