Marine Animal Ecology Group
Ewout Knoester
The Marine Animal Ecology group, led by chair holder Tinka Murk, studies how marine animals adapt in response to a changing environment. Our research and education is focused on different organismal levels, from eco-physiology, early life-stage development, population genomics, up to whole ecological community responses.
Research themes
Biodiversity
We perform fundamental research to answer questions such as how biodiversity is generated and maintained and what the underlying processes are.
Climate change
Marine Animal Ecology aims to increase climate resilience of reefs through understanding how organisms respond to change and how we can best protect them.
Local stressors
Marine Animal Ecology studies the effect of stressors on marine life through various experiments.
Nature-based solutions
Marine Animal Ecology works in Kenya, the Dutch Caribbean and the North Sea on various restoration projects.
Education
Education by Marine Animal Ecology
We participate in education at BSc, MSc and PhD level, always closely aligned with our research. We also supervise BSc and MSc thesis, internship and Short Research Projects. Our projects often have a field, lab, aquarium or modelling component. We work in a state-of-the-art molecular lab, and we have various aquarium set ups where we work on fundamental and applied research in corals, sea urchins and other invertebrates. We also take part in the Shared Underwater Marine Research Facilities, where we facilitate students projects on marine research shared by at least two chair groups.
Publications & Projects
The research and projects of the Marine Animal Ecology group focuses on adaptive abilities of animals and communities in the marine realm. Our work therefore includes molecular techniques, biomonitoring, aquarium studies, field work and modelling. The aim is to better understand underlying processes so that we can inform management decisions for restoration, and potentially make use of nature-based solutions. We work in the fields of biodiversity, climate change, local stressors, and nature-based solutions.
Highlighted projects
Highlighted publications
Chairholder
Tinka Murk is professor and chair holder of the Marine Animal Ecology group. Her research covers a range of topics in marine ecology, and focuses on nature-based solutions, particularly in the North Sea. She is interested in how marine organisms can or cannot adapt to changes in their environment, and what the consequences are for the species interactions within the community they live in. This includes abiotic changes of the marine environment (like climate change, acidification, eutrophication and physical changes) and biotic changes (such as invasive species or over-extraction of species).
People of Marine Animal Ecology
Meet the people of Marine Animal Ecology!
