Studying Wadden Sea ecosystem dynamics using digital twin approach

The Wadden Sea is the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world, and listed by UNESCO as World Heritage. To ensure a sustainable Wadden Sea, it is crucial to understand and predict how ecosystems are impacted by changes in environmental conditions, and external pressures. The urgency of this challenge is high given the unprecedented rate of global change in climate and increases in human activities in and surrounding the Wadden Sea. Developing high-quality scenarios requires seamless integration of long-term environmental and ecological data with fundamental knowledge. This can be facilitated by adopting the “digital twins” approach, meaning replicating a living or non-living physical entity, in this case the Wadden ecosystem. This can be realised in a user-friendly and secure way using digital research lab, which is a cloud-based modelling and simulating platform. Such digital twins will allow us to study, for instance, the carrying capacity of the Wadden Sea for all living life, and the impacts of extreme climatic events on phenology.

The students will be involved in one of the two scientific use cases:

1. Mapping spatial & temporal dynamics of primary production in the Wadden Sea;
2. The impacts of extreme climatic events including heat waves & storms on population dynamics of cockles.

The students will work closely in a team involving two postdocs and senior researchers. Part of the expected outcomes from the two use cases are scientific publications, in which the students will be involved as co-authors. Moreover, the students will be introduced to a large Dutch national digital infrastructure project: LTER-LIFE, in which the students have a chance to interact with other researchers with diverse multidisciplinary backgrounds, ranging from software developers to domain ecologists, based at eight different Dutch universities and institutes. The involvement can benefit the students in many aspects including expanding their network. The students will be trained in some essential skills needed for advancing her/his research careers, including data & model FAIRification, data analysis, modelling, scientific communication & writing. To give you an example, FAIR data is increasingly becoming the new “norm” as well as requirements for journals and research funders have increasingly asked for reuse and validation of your research products. 

Requirements

We are looking for highly motivated MSc students (2-3) with a background and keen interest in data science and ecological modelling. The project has a big data analysis component, you will work with long-term datasets in a virtual research environment (a cloud-based computing platform). The exercises will comply with the FAIR principle (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability). Aside from working with existing data & models, the student also has a chance to join field work to collect data within the beautiful Wadden Sea.

The projects have a planned duration of 6 – 9 months (upon discussion) and will take place at NIOZ on Texel or at NIOZ in Yerseke, Zeeland. An onsite interview shall be expected. There is flexibility regarding the amount of time spent on site (part of accommodation costs can be covered, more info refer to NWO internship implementation regulation: MSc students - NIOZ).

Contact

For more information about this project, please contact: Dr. Qing Zhan (qing.zhan@nioz.nl) or Dr. Stanley Nmor (stanley.nmor@nioz.nl).