Wednesday 3 March 2021
09:00-09:10 Welcome address
Jan Mees, General director of VLIZ
09:10-09:30 2021: A Science Odyssey - A 15-year journey across oceans and seas, and the return home
Griet Neukermans, Ghent University & VLIZ
09:30-10:00 Predoc presentations
- Green beaches for a green future?
Luna Geerts, Antwerp University
- Assessing feasibility and best practices of zooplankton observations with the Video Plankton Recorder in coastal turbid waters
Anouk Ollevier, Flanders Marine Institute
- Disentangling the effects of climate change on the offshore wind farm hard substrate fouling community
Helena Voet, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
- Different plastic-degrading assemblages result from marine enrichments using several novel plastics
Valérie Mattelin, Ghent University
- In times of crisis: Effect of the Belgian coast on well-being during the COVID‑19 pandemic
Marine Severin, Flanders Marine Institute
10:00-10:05 Intermezzo
10:05-10:40 Break-out to poster pages and Meet the Company
10:40-11:10 Predoc presentations
- The importance of the spatial configuration of marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) on dune functioning and biodiversity
Ruben Van De Walle, Ghent University
- Successful quantification of Atlantic salmon in mixed food products using Droplet Digital Polymerase Chain Reaction (ddPCR) to identify fraud
Dumas Deconinck, Flanders Research Institute voor Agriculture, Fisheries & Food (ILVO)
- Environmentally relevant concentrations and sizes of microplastic do not alter marine diatom growth
Zhiyue Niu, Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
- How a WW2 shipwreck still influences the surrounding sediment 70 years later
Josefien Van Landuyt, Ghent University
- Integrating drone imaging with artificial intelligence to detect marine plastics
Mehrdad Moshtaghi, Vlaams Insituut voor Technologisch Onderzoek (VITO)
11:10-11:15 Intermezzo
11:15-11:55 VLIZ Scientific Award winners and Brilliant Marine Research Idea grant laureates
- North Sea Award: Trace metals in estuarine and coastal waters: dynamics, speciation and bioavailability under various environmental conditions
Camille Gaulier, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) & Université de Lille
- Mercury accumulation in fishes from North-East and North-West Barents Sea during the polar night
Anjali Gopakumar, IMBRSea, Ghent University & University of Oslo
- The spatio-temporal evolution of a newly created mussel bed and its effects on benthic communities
Nanou Goedefroo, IMBRSea, Ghent University
- Tracking marked plastic items on their journey through the Scheldt estuary, using the Permanent Belgian Acoustic Receiver Network (PBARN)
Bert Teunkens, Antwerp University
- Algal microbial interactions: beyond bacteria
Luna van der Loos, Ghent University
- Microbiome and diet turnover as an indicator of rapid environmental change in the Arctic Ocean
Sarah Maes, KU Leuven
11:55-12:05 Award ceremony
- North Sea Award 2020
- Master Thesis Awards 2020
- Brilliant Marine Research Ideas 2021
12:05-12:10 Blue economy & the UN Decade of Ocean Science
Marc Nuytemans, CEO of Blue Cluster
12:10-12:15 Flanders & the UN Decade of Ocean Science
Hilde Crevits, Deputy Prime Minister of the Flemish government & Flemish Minister of Economy, Innovation, Work, Social Economy and Agriculture
and Sea Fisheries
12:15-12:20 Throwback to 20 years ago
12:20-12:30 Closing talk
Jan Mees, General director of VLIZ