Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research
Location
Texel
Department
Ocean Systems (OCS)
Function
PhD student
University
Universiteit Utrecht
Promotor
Jan-Berend Stuut
Expertise
  • Dust fertilization
  • Phytoplankton ecology
  • Saharan dust
  • Biological pump
  • Mediterranean Sea

MSc. Anouk van Boxtel

PhD student

In my PhD project I study the effects of Saharan dust deposition on the biological pump in the Mediterranean Sea. I am specifically interested in the fertilizing effects of Saharan dust and the influence on phytoplankton community composition, and the role dust deposition in exporting carbon from the surface ocean to the deep sea. To study this I use material from sediment-traps that collect sinking particles, including phytoplankton remains and dust particles. The unique time-series of sediment trap material we are studying spans from the early 1990’s to now and is still ongoing. This allows us to study both seasonal and long-term variation in the relationships between Saharan dust input, phytoplankton response and carbon export.

More information about dust and dust-related research at NIOZ can be found here.

Linked blogs

Sunday 07 April 2024
Early April 2024 Saharan dust to Europe - event
Early April 2024, a big dust cloud took off from Northwest Africa and was blown North across Western Europe. The dust caused spectacular sunsets and caught a lot of media attention. Since we know very little about long-distance aeolian (wind-blown)…
Tuesday 07 March 2023
RV Pelagia expedition 64PE514 - DUST2023
In March 2023, an international group of dusty scientists will board RV Pelagia for an expedition around the Cape Verde Islands to study Saharan-dust deposition and its effects on the marine environment. Colleagues from NIOZ, MARE - Lisbon, MARUM -…
Monday 27 June 2022
MedDust2022
From 20 - 23 June two NIOZ colleagues boarded the Italian tug Macistone to recover, service and re-deploy the Mediterranean sediment-trap mooring that is part of a unique time series of Saharan dust collection since the late 1980's. The time series…