Dr Didier De Bakker

About me:

I am an ecologist studying how coral reef habitats are changing in response to persistent anthropogenic impacts. At the University of Exeter, I study the geo-ecological aspects of coral reefs in the Mexican Caribbean, focusing on reef accretion, framework maintenance, and sediment production. Specifically, I aim to assess how these processes are impacted by human disturbances.

My doctoral research at the University of Wageningen and the Royal NIOZ focused on characterizing the long-term trajectories of change in the configuration of benthic reef communities in the Dutch Caribbean. As part of this, I have had the opportunity to study the longest running time-series on coral reefs in the world, which includes photos of permanent quadrats that have been collected since the early 1970s.

I have joined the coral group of Prof. Chris Perry in the Geology Department at the University of Exeter in September 2022 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. The project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

While I consider myself a reef ecologist, I am also interested in the chemical processes taking place within reef habitats, marine animal physiology and taxonomy, the modelling of future responses, and the use of molecular research techniques.

Interests:

• Coral reef ecology
• Reef carbonate budgets
• Bioerosion
• Sponge ecology
• Reef biochemistry
• Climate change and reefs
• Long-term time-series
• Benthic Cyanobacterial Mats (BCMs)
• Invertebrate spawing in the Red Sea

Qualifications:

PhD, Coral Reef Ecology, University of Wageningen (Wageningen, The Netherlands)
MSc, Limnology and Oceanography, University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
BSc, Biology, University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)