The die-off of the long-spined sea urchin Diadema antillarum in the 1980s highlighted its crucial role as a primary grazer in tropical western Atlantic coral reefs. However, natural recovery has been slow, exacerbated by a new die-off in 2022. Interest in actively restoring D. antillarum populations …

DEME Group, a leader in offshore energy and marine infrastructure, seeks to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of cable burial operations for offshore wind farms through the development of a user-friendly trencher mobility model. This research addresses the limitations of existing models and provides …

Zee-egels spelen een cruciale rol bij het behoud van de gezondheid van Caribische koraalriffen, omdat ze grazen op algen die anders koraal zouden kunnen overgroeien. In de jaren '80 stierven zee-egels massaal, met alle gevolgen van dien. De populatie is nog altijd niet op peil, hoewel de gemiddelde zee-egel …

The Dutch Caribbean is making significant strides in coral reef restoration through innovative approaches to restoring invertebrate herbivores, as presented by Alwin Hylkema of Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences and Wageningen University during the DCNA Reef Restoration Workshop. Hylkema …

Gesprek met Alwin Hylkema, marine ecoloog aan de Hogeschool Van Hall Larenstein en de Wageningen universiteit (WUR). Hij is hoofdonderzoeker en projectleider van het Diadema II project op het Caribisch eiland Saba. Daarbij herstellen ze de populatie zee-egels om het koraalrif-ecosysteem te herstellen …

This research investigates the feasibility and design of an Universal Transition Piece (TP) grillage for Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) to enhance the efficiency of transporting transition pieces in offshore wind projects. The study addresses the problem of designing unique TP grillages for each project, …

The growing demand of seafood alternatives is driven by concerns on overfishing, marine pollutants and animal welfare in aquaculture and fisheries. Currently, the availability of non-animal-based seafood flavorings on the market is limited, and animal-based seafood flavorings conflict with vegetarian …

That coral reefs are in decline worldwide, particularly in the Caribbean, will come as no surprise. This decades-long decline has reached a potential tipping point as the weight of the effects of climate change have come decidedly to bear on the planet’s most diverse marine ecosystem. Whether coral reefs …

Tropical western Atlantic reefs have gradually shifted from being dominated by corals to being mainly covered by macroalgae. The mass-mortality of the sea urchin Diadema antillarum in the 80s and the slow to non-existent recovery exacerbated this shift. Chemical cues associated with these reefs are expected …

A bottleneck in restoring self-sustaining beds of the European oyster (Ostrea edulis) is the successful development and settlement of larvae to bottom habitats. These processes are largely governed by temperature but a mechanistic understanding of larval performance across ecologically relevant temperatures …