Biodiversity of the Grensmaas

Maastricht and Wageningen University will focus on the biodiversity and ecological processes in the terrestrial and aquatic habitats of the Grensmaas. We will invite students to join us in short and longer research projects, fieldwork and in creating a herbarium of the area.

Aquatic biodiversity

.The Grensmaas is a very dynamic area with tributaries, side arms, lakes, winter-, and summer bed. Many areas underwent big remodelling with the aim of renaturalizing the river and bring back species, which are characteristic for fast flowing gravel rivers. In official reports it was found, that fish and terrestrial developments are positive, but typical macro- invertebrate species are still rare or missing. The macro-invertebrate community of an area is representative for its ecological state and missing groups are normally a bad sign. We want to investigate, what the species pool is for the Grensmaas and why it is lacking behind the other ecological developments. Our students are collecting valuable ecological and methodological insights.

Rosan van Halsema
MSc student Earth and Environment at WUR
Specialisation: Biology and chemistry of soil and water
September 2020 until April 2021

In my MSc thesis, I will look into the biodiversity of macrofauna, small water bugs, in the Grensmaas. Therefore I will go into the field, to collect the macrofauna and take water samples to analyze. I like being outdoors and being in the area that I am working on, but besides that, I also have a passion for education. Therefore I would like to bring my findings and the existence of macrofauna to the attention of the general public. My preference would be to collaborate with schools or children, but we will see what will be possible!

Emiel Schuurke
MSc student Earth and Environment at WUR
Specialisation: Biology and chemistry of soil and water
March 2021 until January 2022

In my master thesis, I looked into the influence of the Geul tributary on macrofauna communities in the Bordermeuse and determined how much area should be sampled to represent macrofauna communities in different habitats in the valley. For this I went into the field and had both a good and instructive time. I always like to include life (in this case macrofauna) in my research and this thesis was therefore great for me to work on.