Job Type
Teaching/Education
Research
Data Management
Subject Area
Biological Oceanography
Marine Ecology
Activities
Our research unit seeks to understand and to predict how and why spatio-temporal dynamics in vegetation and landscape occur. It adopts a retrospective approach using relevant methods from different disciplines (tropical botany, very high resolution sequential remote sensing and ground truth, socio-economic survey research, historic archive research,...), an integrative analysis (using geographical information systems, multivariate and multicriteria analyses,...) in order to generate outputs relevant for fundamental understanding of ecosystem functioning (health status, resilience) and for its management (conservation, restoration). Within this framework we also emphasize biodiversity changes, climate change, ecological and ethological plant-animal interactions and man-ecosystem interactions. Mangrove forests form an important model for our research, but close links exist with adjacent ecosystems such as tropical rainforests or coral reefs. The research is done on different spatial scales from the case-study level in different countries to the macroecological level (global).
Sea regions of study
Caribbean Sea
North Pacific Ocean
Comment(s)
PhD Sciences MSc Human Ecology MSc Biology