Merlijn Hulsenboom
Hi, I’m Merlijn Hulsenboom and I am a Marine Ecologist. As a child, I was already regularly found at the beaches and now I’m able to study and protect them! Within the SOURCE project, I’m studying how we can shape shoreface nourishments to optimize biodiversity. Whilst nourishments are primarily designed to protect our coast, I’m eager to find out in which way we can also protect the coastal organisms by minimizing the negative effects.
What’s exciting about this project is that we can study the impact of different types of nourishments close-by. By comparing the biodiversity of benthic (living in or on the sediment) animals before and after the separate scenarios, we can understand in which way the placement, grain size and height of nourishment impact these communities. I’m curious to find out how these species respond to the different altered habitats how this may affect predators such as fish and birds.