Projects - dr. J (Juul) Limpens

DUNEFORCE

We have started a new project that aims to develop DUNEs FOR Coastal safEty and habitat development (DuneForce!) and is a key example of research for nature based solutions. The DuneForce project has been funded by NWO-TTW, started in 2019 and is a collaboration between Wageningen University and Research and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The project will run for 4 years. There are multiple opportunities for multidisciplinary MSc thesis projects on the edge between ecology, sediment transport, hydrology and engineering.

ReAshore

This project ReAshore aims at understanding the coupled socio-bio-physical dynamics of anthropogenic shores and translating this knowledge into guidelines to manage and (re)direct emerging development of multi-functional Nature Based Solutions (NBS) after their implementation. ReAshore is part of the NWO programma ‘Living Labs in the Dutch Delta’ and is a collaboration between Wageningen University, TU Twente, Hogeschool Zeeland  and several stakeholders.

Within ReAshore our task will be to assess  the impact of human activities, management interventions and variation in natural boundary conditions on the development of vegetation and its consequences for topographic evolution and functionality of the anthropogenic coastal landscape. The data will be used to model dune development in response to human activities. 

Windwerk: a dunebuilding experiment with an artistic touch on Terschelling

In March 2016 we set up a landscape-scale experiment on Terschelling in close cooperation with landscape artists SLeM (http://www.slem.org) and many volunteers (project Windwerk). The experiment has both an artistic and scientific goal. The artistic goal was to illustrate dune forming processes for a broader public during Oerol 2016. The scientific goal is to explore the role of vegetation density and patch size in dune building: do big patches of dune-forming grasses grow faster and erode less than small patches? Against all expectations the planted Marrom grass is alive and forming larger and larger dunes: we keep monitoring this experiment using the drone facility of Wageningen University and regular measurements during our ywarly field course on Terschelling. MSc students from multiple programmes (MFN, MEE, MBI, MGI) have been helping us understanding the processes. The data gathered from Windwerk helps to look at dune building with new eyes and continuously keeps surprising us: dune managers, scientists and artists alike. The data will be used to improve current dune models in the TTW-funded project DUNEFORCE.

Want to know more about windwerk? Check out the movie made by Andras Hamelberg (http://www.slem.org/projecten/windwerk/film/windwerk/) or read about dune engineer Marramgrass in Windwerk (https://duinbehoud.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Helm-DUIN-1-2019.pdf). If you do not understand Dutch drop an email to me.

Dunes, above and beyond: the factors that determine the development of new dunes

PhD Marinka van Puijenbroek (defended in 2017).

Coastal dunes protect large parts of the Netherlands against flooding. The formation of new dunes in front of the existing foredunes may strengthen flood defences in the face of rising sea levels. This thesis explores the ecological and geomorphological drivers of new dune development along the natural and nourished Dutch sandy coast and ends with exploring the potential of mega-nourishments for dune development. This thesis shows that I) beach morphology determines the potential for new (embryo) dune development, beaches of 300 m and wider being most favourable. II) Rate of development of embryo dunes is enhanced by sand supply and summer precipitation and depressed by winter storm erosion, III) vegetation composition modifies the sensitivity of the dunes to erosion, IV) Embryo dunes can facilitate development of species-rich green beach vegetation by creating shelter against oversanding on accreting coasts but compete for space on eroding coasts.

PhD project : Permafrost-shrub interactions in tundra

Together with PhD student Runa Magnusson and colleague Dr. Monique Heijmans we are investiging permafrost-shrub interactions on the Siberian lowland tundra. The project aim is to determine (1) whether lowland tundra ecosystems show a net decline or expanse of shrub vegetation, (2) how this is related to abrupt permafrost thaw and (3) to what extent this is caused by extreme summer precipitation.

For more gritty details of everyday science on the tundra check out Runa's blogs at: https://arcticresearch.wordpress.com/about/

PhD project Lilli Zeh: Can vascular plants accellerate peat decomposition?

I  teamed up with organochemist Karsten Kalbitz (Dresden University, Germany), Luca Bragazza (Ferrara University, Italy) and postdoc Bjorn Erhagen (Umea, Sweden) to address this question with  PhD Lilli Zeh along an altitudinal gradient in the Italian Alps (see picture: fieldwork in July 2015).

Participant of Loglife-experiment: Diversity of wood decomposing fungi: functional role in tree decomposition?

Together with fungal species experts: Mirjam Veerkamp, Nico Dam, Emiel Brouwer and Loglife team leaders Hans Cornelissen (VU), Mariet Hefting (UU), & Ute Sass-Klaassen (WUR)