Jelmer Nijp PhD

Jelmer Nijp has been working as a researcher in the Ecohydrology team since 2018. Jelmer’s field is at the interface of Hydrology and Ecology, combining mathematical models, field measurements, experiments and spatial analyses. The interactions between water-soil-plant-climate make up Jelmer’s core expertise and interest. He focuses in particular on wet ecosystems (peat bogs) and the interaction with the locality. For example, he is working with colleagues and other research institutes on the ongoing development of the WaterVision Nature. This tool can be used to calculate in a simple process how changes in water management or the climate, and in the future nitrogen deposition, will affect nature. Jelmer completed his PhD research in 2015. He investigated how climate change (including precipitation patterns and drought) can affect ecohydrology and carbon capture by natural peat bogs. During that research, he worked closely with organisations including SLU Umeå and he spent many summers on fieldwork in northern Sweden. Jelmer also has extensive expertise in the field of tipping points and identifying them at an early stage on the basis of early warning signals. In a post-doctorate study, he acquired a great deal of experience with the use of image analysis techniques for aerial photographs to identify changes in spatial vegetation patterns for use as signals of this kind. His results have been published in international peer-reviewed scientific journals.