dr.ir. MMPD (Monique) Heijmans

I am an ecosystem ecologist specialized in vegetation-climate interactions in northern ecosystems. I like to combine field studies with ecosystem modelling. Current research focuses on how vegetation influences permafrost thawing and vice versa. Together with PhD candidates and thesis students I also investigate the possibility of shrub decline due to small-scale permafrost collapse instead of the widely reported shrub expansion in tundra ecosystems. At a Siberian tundra site we run field experiments in which vegetation or thawing depth is manipulated.

• 1994, MSc. Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, thesis topics: wetland ecology, ecohydrology, aquatic chemistry
• 2000, PhD, Wageningen University, Efffects of elevated CO2 and increased N deposition on bog vegetation
• 2002, Postdoc, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Talent fellowship
• since 2003, Assistant Professor, Wageningen University
• 2010-2014, Postdoc, Vidi grant