Keynote Speakers

 

Kate Spencer will explain about the small details of flocs. She is an environmental geochemist who works closely with geomorphologists, hydrologists and ecologists to provide fundamental science to underpin effective management of fine sediment in estuaries and lowland rivers. Her principal research interest is in understanding the source, distribution and behaviour of sediment-bound contaminants and to quantify how this is impacted by natural disturbance, anthropogenic management and restoration activities. Key research highlights include improved understanding of: (i) the influence of environmental parameters on contaminant behaviour; (ii) flocculation and cohesive sediment transport; (iii) the development of innovative geochemical tracers; and iv) the interactions between physical and biogeochemical processes in saltmarsh environments.

 

Peter M.J. Herman  is a coastal and estuarine ecologist with a keen interest in the interaction of biogeochemical, physical and biological processes that shape estuarine and coastal landscapes and their inhabiting populations. He works part-time as a senior expert at Deltares (Delft, The Netherlands) and part-time as a professor at Delft University of Technology. He is a co-ordinator of research projects on the role of ecosystems (vegetations, animal communities, coral reefs) in muddy coasts and coastal seas of tropical and temperate regions. He has been involved with numerous PhD projects and is a co-author of 250 publications. Peter has studied sediment-dwelling animal and plant populations as they are affected by nutrient and production dynamics, community interactions and landscape-scale interactions with physical forcing. His current research interest is on the practical application of nature-based solutions for coastal defense, as a means to conserve and foster biodiversity while adapting coasts to global change. He is fascinated by processes of self-organization in physically stressed environments, where populations of animals and plants modulate physical forces and by so doing, alter the adaptation landscape and the occurrence and vigor of the populations. Self-organization processes offer opportunities for shaping the coastal landscape of the future, but are subject to constraints that must be identified based on process understanding. Modelling limits and interactions will help to define the operating range of nature-based solutions and steer anthropogenic developments in coastal systems.