Tom Van Der Stocken

The team of Tom Van der Stocken addresses spatial and temporal patterns of species distribution and abundance, conditions and processes that interact to determine these patterns, and interactions with climate change, with a particular emphasis on coastal and marine systems (e.g., mangroves, seagrasses). The dispersal ecology of coastal foundation species is an important component of our research. This ranges from quantifying propagule properties (e.g., size, shape, density, germination rate) to estimating dispersal and connectivity patterns using surface-ocean currents obtained from state-of-the-art ocean circulation models. Our studies span local to global scales, and rely on field and laboratory experiments, modelling, remote sensing, meta-analysis, as well as biodiversity, climate and oceanographic databases, and collaborations with colleagues internationally. Current projects also include the role of coastal blue carbon ecosystems in the global carbon cycle, and focus primarily on quantifying the export, transport and fate of carbon from these systems in the global ocean.

• Van der Stocken T., Vanschoenwinkel B., Carroll D., Cavanaugh K. C. and Koedam N. (2022). Mangrove dispersal disrupted by projected changes in global seawater density. Nature Climate Change 12, 685–691.
•  Van der Stocken T., Wee A. S. W., De Ryck D. J. R., Vanschoenwinkel B., Friess D. A., Dahdouh-Guebas F., Simard M., Koedam N. and E. L. Webb (2019). A general framework for propagule dispersal in mangroves. Biological Reviews 94(4): 1547–1575.  
• Van der Stocken T., Carroll D., Menemenlis D., Simard M. and N. Koedam (2019). Global-scale dispersal and connectivity in mangroves. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116(3): 915–922.