Deep ocean & global climate
Nutrients fuel all life in the ocean. In the sunlit surface layer, the bioavailability of essential elements controls the growth of CO2-fixing microorganisms. This regulates atmospheric CO2 and converts the Sun’s energy into food, sustaining marine ecosystems. We investigate the processes that transport, sequester or release key nutrients such as iron and phosphorus in marine waters and sediments, helping to understand how nutrient inputs and (re)cycling control marine life and the carbon cycle in the past, present, and future.
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The knowledge about growth and spreading of young plants on salt marshes can also be given a practical translation, Van de Ven believes. "Coastal ecosystems such as salt marshes are not only valuable ecosystems for biodiversity. They are also systems that can protect our coasts from rising sea levels. If we want to work on restoring natural coastal protection, we will also need to understand how the first plants in such a new system will have the best chance to establish."