PhD supervison as co-promotor:
- Gilles Erkens (2009, UU-FG): Fluvial activity in the Rhine catchment over the last 15,000 yrs.
- Nelleke van Asch (2012, NWO-TOPTALENT): Rapid climate oscillations during the Bølling-Allerød interstadial.
- Annelies van Hoesel (2014, Focus&Massa-UU): The Younger Dryas climate change: was it caused by an extraterrestrial impact?
- Marieke van Dinter (2017, Domplein-UU): Living along the Limes: landscape and settlement in the lower Rhine Delta during Roman and Early Medieval times.
- Harm-Jan Pierik (2017, NWO-GW): Past human-landscape interactions in the Netherlands: reconstructions from sand belt to coastal-delta plain for the first millenium AD.
- Kees Nooren (2017, NWO-ALW): Holocene evolution of the Tabasco delta - Mexico: impact of climate, volcanism and humans.
- Fabian Ercan (2022, NWO-ALW): Growing season changes in northern high latitudes.
- Marjolein Gouw-Bouman (NWO-GW): Vegetation and climate change in the Dark Ages.
- Elena Familetto (NWO-SGW)-: Finding Suitable Grounds.
My research in 16 selected publications
I have selected the following scientific publications out of my publication list. The selection is in chronological order and contains publications in a variety of journals. The selection partly reflects what I have been doing since finalizing my PhD thesis in 1997.
The first papers are follow-up papers from my PhD-research and my involvement in the INTIMATE project on the INTegration of Ice-core, MArine and TErrestrial records, which is still ongoing and resulting in several highly-cited publications in a.o. Quaternary Science Reviews, Quaternary International, Journal of Quaternary Science, Episodes, and Nature Communications.
1) This paper builds on my PhD thesis work and shows that vegetation may be capable to respond fast to rapid climatic ameliorations. It is based on the large database of pollen diagrams, biostratigraphic zonation and 14C-dated zone boundaries. I designed the research and wrote the paper.
- Hoek, W.Z. (2001) Vegetation response to the 14.7 and 11.5 ka yrs BP climate transitions: is vegetation lagging climate? Global and Planetary Change 30, 103-115.
2) This paper is for me the first one in a sequence of INTIMATE papers, I became involved in this project in the 1990ties and was involved in a series of papers as contributor or in my role as secretary, president, and workgroup chair. For this paper I contributed to the writing.
- Lowe, J.J., W.Z. Hoek & INTIMATE group (2001) Inter-regional correlation of palaeoclimatic records for the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition: a protocol for improved precision recommended by the INTIMATE project group. Quaternary Science Reviews 20, 1175-1187.
3) In this paper the use of lacustrine oxygen isotopes for stratigraphic correlation is advocated. It is also shown that minor changes in vegetation development might be independent of temperature. I designed the research, performed fieldwork and the analyses and wrote the paper, Sjoerd Bohncke contributed to the fieldwork and writing.
- Hoek, W.Z. & S.J.P. Bohncke (2001) Oxygen-isotope wiggle-matching as a tool for synchronising ice-core and terrestrial records over Termination 1. Quaternary Science Reviews 20, 1251-1264.
4) This paper provides an overview of the environmental changes and shows the interaction of climate, vegetation, and landscape changes, a subject that I regard as my specialism. Sjoerd Bohncke and I designed the research and wrote the paper together.
- Hoek, W.Z. & S.J.P. Bohncke (2002) Climatic and environmental events over the Last Termination, as recorded in The Netherlands: a review. Geologie & Mijnbouw/The Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 81, 123-137.
5) The next paper is the result of the international cooperation with RHUL colleagues within the framework of INTIMATE. PhD-students Siwan Davies, and Sean Pyne-O’Donnell studied the Kostverloren Veen pingo-remnant for Lateglacial tephra and found at that time the most southern occurrence of the Vedde Ash. John Lowe and I designed the research; I selected the site, coordinated the fieldwork, performed pollen analysis and stratigraphic correlation, and contributed to the writing.
- Davies, S.M., W.Z. Hoek, S.J.P. Bohncke, J.J. Lowe, S. Pyne O’Donnell & C.S.M. Turney (2005) Detection of Late-glacial distal tephra layers in the Netherlands. Boreas 34, 123-135.
6) In 2005 Hanneke Bos and I organized a KNAW Academy Colloquium in Amsterdam on Early Holocene climate oscillations. We edited a special issue in Quaternary Science Reviews based on the papers presented during this workshop. The following paper focuses on the main objectives and results from this international workshop.
- Hoek, W.Z. & J.A.A. Bos (2007) Early Holocene Climate Oscillations – causes and consequences. Quaternary Science Reviews 26, 1901-1906.
7) One of the main issues within INTIMATE is stratigraphic correlation. The following paper is part of a special issue in Episodes about the stratigraphic sub-division of the Quaternary.
- Hoek, W.Z. (2008) The Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition. Episodes 31(2), 226-229.
8) The paper by Birks at al. is part of one of the special issues in Quaternary International, resulting from international workshops I organized within the framework of the INTIMATE COST action ES0907, in this case on the interactions of climate and environmental changes with archaeology.
- Birks, H.H., E. Robinson, V. Gelorini & W.Z. Hoek (2015) Impacts of palaeoclimate change 48,000-8000 years ago on humans and their environments: integrating palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data. Quaternary International 378, 4-13.
For the following papers I was involved as supervisor, and therefore mentioned as second or last author. For these studies I designed the research, took active part in fieldwork, analyses, and writing.
9) The paper by Kasse et al. can be regarded as a follow-up on my previous work as a doctoral student with Erik Schorn in the ‘Land van Maas en Waal’, which was supervised by Henk Berendsen, and the research conducted in the Meuse valley by my VU-colleagues Kees Kasse and Sjoerd Bohncke. This paper combines fluvial geomorphology and palynology, with a series of detailed coring transects.
- Kasse, C., W.Z. Hoek, S.J.P. Bohncke, M. Konert, J.W.H. Weijers, R.M. Van der Zee & M. Cassee (2005) Late Glacial fluvial response of the Niers-Rhine (western Germany) to climate and vegetation change. Journal of Quaternary Science 20, 377-394.
10) The paper by my first PhD student Gilles Erkens et al. is illustrating the integration of several methods for geomorphological reconstruction that I use: coring, cross-sectioning, mapping, dating (AMS/OSL), palynology. This study shows the complex interplay between several external and internal factors (e.g. climate, preservation potential, tectonics, human activity) in the formation of river terraces in Germany.
- Erkens, G., R. Dambeck, K.P. Volleberg, M.T.I.J. Bouman, J.A.A. Bos, K.M. Cohen, J. Wallinga & W.Z. Hoek (2009) Fluvial terrace formation in the Northern Upper Rhine Graben during the last 20,000 years as a result of allogenic controls and autogenic evolution. Geomorphology 103, 476–495.
11) I became involved in a study which started as an unfinished sea-level study, when Ir. Kees Nooren approached me for core material to perform a palaeoecological study to the human impact of the Maya on vegetation. When opening the cores we found several tephra-layers, wrote the following paper on tephrostratigraphy and a bit later a successful PhD proposal for NWO:
- Nooren, C.A.M., W.Z. Hoek, L.A. Tebbens & A.L. Martin del Pozzo (2009) Late Holocene Eruption History of El Chichón Volcano and its Impact on the Maya Lowlands. Geofisica Internacional 48(1), 97-112.
12) For this study we used different proxies for climate reconstruction for a site in Ireland. PhD student Nelleke van Asch specialized in the use of chironomids, pollen and isotopes. This is the first paper of a West-East Transect study, funded as NWO-TOPTALENT project to investigate the climate gradients from the Atlantic into Germany, following the INTIMATE approach.
- van Asch, N., A.F. Lutz, M.C.H. Duijkers, O. Heiri, S.J. Brooks & W.Z. Hoek (2012) Rapid climate change during the Weichselian Lateglacial in Ireland: a multi-proxy record from Fiddaun, Co. Galway. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 315/316, 1-11.
13) The next paper is focusing on chronology, and particularly on the dating of charcoal in the Usselo-layer, which according to another group of authors should be related to an extra-terrestrial impact that might have caused the Younger Dryas cold event. We tend not to believe this, and under supervision of Martyn Drury and me, PhD student Annelies van Hoesel has been looking for different lines of evidence to disprove the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis:
- van Hoesel, A., W.Z. Hoek, F. Braadbaart, J. van der Plicht, G.M. Pennock & M.R Drury (2012) Nanodiamonds and wildfire evidence in the Usselo horizon post-date the Allerød-Younger Dryas boundary. PNAS 109, 7648-7653.
14) This paper is an example of the fieldwork and research that I undertake with MSc students (e.g. Marlies Janssens & Heidi Greaves) and shows again the interaction between geomorphology, palynology, and dating. Furthermore, it nicely illustrates the work I have been doing as editor and editor-in-chief of the journal NJG from 2003-2013 to improve the lay-out and create an attractive full-colour journal with (delayed) Open Access. NB for this contribution I was not involved in the editorial process.
- Janssens, M.M., C. Kasse, S.J.P. Bohncke, H. Greaves, K.M. Cohen, J. Wallinga & W.Z. Hoek (2012) Climate-driven fluvial development and valley abandonment at the last glacial-interglacial transition (Oude IJssel-Rhine, Germany). Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 91, 37-62.
15) Another example of fieldwork and research that I undertake with students resulted in the following paper for which BSc student Philip Minderhoud worked on a new method to construct age-depth models using the sedimentological information in channel fill deposits.
- Minderhoud, P.S.J., K.M. Cohen, W.H.J. Toonen, G. Erkens & W.Z. Hoek (2016) Improving age-depth models of lacustrine deposits using sedimentary proxies for accumulation rates. Quaternary Geochronology 33, 35-45.
16) During the SEES expedition to Svalbard we obtained several cores from remote lakes on lakes on Edgeøya and Barentsøya which are currently under investigation. The following paper on recent changes related to a strong decrease in sea-ice cover is the first published result from the expedition.
- Woelders, L., J.T.M. Lenaerts, K. Hagemans, K. Akkerman, T. van Hoof & W.Z. Hoek (2018). Recent climate warming drives ecological change in a remote high-Arctic lake. Scientific Reports 8 (6858).
Projecten
Project
Op zoek naar geschikte gronden: Onderzoek aan begraven Mesolithisch-Neolitische landschappen voor een reconstructie van de introductie van akkerbouw
01-11-2021
tot 31-12-2025
Algemene projectbeschrijving
Hoe begon de akkerbouw in het Nederlandse laagland? We onderzoeken landschappen die sinds de steentijd zijn verdronken en afgedekt. Geologische datasets en geofysische metingen leiden ons naar sleutellocaties hiervoor op oeverwallen van riviersystemen. Met mechanische boringen en microscopische en palaeobotanische technieken onderzoeken we hoe en hoe snel akkerbouw hier begon.
Project getrokken door Hans Huisman (PI, RUG) en Kim Cohen (co-PI, UU).
1 PhD in Utrecht (Familetto @ Dept F.G.; supervisie: Cohen, Huisman, Hoek, Stouthamer) - RM Delta begraven oeverwallenlandschap, Centraal NLse lagune: 'Swifterbant' zoetwatergetijdeoeverwallen, paleobodems, micromorphologie, geschiktheid voor vroegste landbouw, offsite aanwijzingen for prille ontbossing en ploegen aan het begin van de Jonge Steentijd (vroegste deltaboeren).
1 PhD in Groningen (Smuk @ GIA; supervisie: Huisman, Schepers, Raemaekers, ...) - archaeobotanie, indicates voor vroege boeren in diverse vormen van gefossiliseerd plantenmateriaal.
Verdere consortium partners: Barcelona Archeobotany (Madello), BIAX (Kubiak-Martens), RAAP (Willemse).
Rol
Uitvoerder
Financiering
2e geldstroom - NWO NWO Geesteswetenschappen Open Competitie 2020
Overige projectleden
- Hans Huisman (RUG); various others.
Project
Looking back to plan ahead – unfolding the natural heritage of Dutch landscapes
Algemene projectbeschrijving
Detailed knowledge of past vegetation change is a valuable resource that contributes to addressing a variety of problems, including the planning of forest restoration projects, it assists in archaeological surveys and sheds light on past human-environment interactions. For the time before historical maps, information on past vegetation comes from pollen preserved in lake sediments and peats. While the Netherlands are particularly rich in pollen analytical investigations, data and interpretations are difficult to access and therefore often not considered. We aim to overcome this shortcoming by collecting and collating the existing Dutch pollen data into a national atlas of past vegetation and land cover change with direct applications to forest restoration, archaeology, and education. The map series will contain detailed reconstructions for the period from 15,000 years ago to the present in 1000 to 500-year timesteps. All original data will be placed into the public domain using the international Neotoma platform to ensure ease of access and long-term storage.
In constructing the maps, we will use the constraints of the abiotic landscape on the vegetation such as soil substrate, water table depth or the location of river channels for the past and present. Based on existing algorithms (Multi Scenario and Downscaling approach) we will develop a software solution for pollen-based quantitative vegetation reconstruction using environmental constraints. The wealth of information on subsurface geology in the Netherlands is internationally unprecedented providing an ideal situation to develop this approach further. The mapping will facilitate the synthesis of the many pollen diagrams spanning only a few thousand years resulting in regionally differentiated Holocene vegetation histories for the Netherlands, hitherto not available. Prior to mapping, data compilations will be used to analyse dependencies of vegetation composition and the dynamics of change on abiotic and biotic controls such as soil substrate. Resulting quantitative vegetation reconstructions will be compared to constraints not used in the map making process such as distance to the sea and known archaeological finds. Emphasis will be on reconstructions of past vegetation openness and its dependency on substrate, coastal proximity, and peat growth. The stability and resilience of different forest types will be evaluated to assist in forest restoration projects in cooperation with Staatsbosbeheer. Relationships between past vegetation patterns and archaeological finds will be analysed with support from archaeological consultants (RCE, BIAX, ADC). TNO will support the digitization of legacy data and evaluation of age models. Staatsbosbeheer and RCA will help in the dissemination of the results.
Rol
Uitvoerder
Financiering
2e geldstroom - NWO
Project
CLIMET Climate feedback and methane cycling in Arctic lakes: enzymes to atmosphere
Algemene projectbeschrijving
Northern lakes are the largest natural sources of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, but it is unclear how and whether feedbacks from warming in Arctic regions will exacerbate or mitigate lake methane emissions. This proposal investigates two potential drivers of methane emissions, which are rapidly changing as the Arctic warms: (1) the composition and quantity of dissolved organic matter (DOM) transported into lakes from the land as vegetation changes and permafrost melts, and (2) the increasing quantities of windblown (aeolian) dust that is released from glacial discharge as the Greenland ice sheet melts. We hypothesize that DOM and dust are the key drivers of methane emissions. DOM is the dominant external source of carbon to lakes with the potential to fuel the methane cycle. Aeolian dust is a source of nutrients that drive microbial activity and, particularly, rare earth elements (REE) from the lanthanide group which are enzymatically-linked to methanotrophy. Understanding how such changes and interactions between DOM and dust/REE influence methane emissions requires approaches from different scientific fields. Methane cycling is powered by microbes and their interactions, but the lake conditions, trophic structure and environmental situation will modify the supply, distribution and bioavailability of elements that support the methane cycle over a variety of timescales and climatic conditions. This consortium focuses on a well-studied lake district as a living laboratory in West Greenland, and assembles experts in the microbiology of lanthanide-dependent methanotrophs, microbial and lake ecology to investigate respectively how microbial interactions and higher trophic levels of the food web modify methane production. Combining limnology and paleolimnology (sediment core analysis) with citizen scientist work will allow linkages between DOM, dust/ REE supply and methane production to be quantified at the landscape-scale and across timescales of decades to centuries as a means of evaluating their broader biogeochemical significance.
Rol
Uitvoerder
Financiering
2e geldstroom - NWO
Afgesloten projecten
Project
De Vroege Middeleeuwen in de Lage Landen, interdisciplinair belicht
01-12-2012
tot 01-09-2019
Algemene projectbeschrijving
This research programme focuses on a period of severe pan-European economic and demographic change: the Late Roman Period (AD 300-500) and Early Middle Ages (AD 500- 1000). Physical-geographical and biogeological data point at marked climatic variability and changing landscapes during this time interval. In geomorphologically sensitive regions such as river deltas and coastal areas these changes must have had a noticeable impact on the location and lay-out of urban centres and rural settlements, land use and subsistence strategies, and connections of population centres to their economical ‘hinterland’. Recent developments in digital infrastructure in the Humanities and Geosciences in the Netherlands for the first time enable us to study these phenomena from an interregional and interdisciplinary perspective.
We study how settlement dynamics, land use, infrastructure, demography and trade between AD 300 and 1000 were related to changes of the landscape and climate, focusing on the Lowlands’ geomorphologically most sensitive regions. This reconstruction takes place within three complementary PhD-projects, in the realms of archaeology, physical geography and biogeology. Project A focuses on occupation patterns and land use in coastal, river and Pleistocene sandy regions, project B on natural geomorphologic landscape dynamics in these regions, and project C on vegetation changes and climate.
Results will be synthesized in an interdisciplinary reconstruction of the interactions between cultural and environmental dynamics in the Lowlands between AD 300 and 1000 in a broader northwest-European context. The study will greatly improve the archaeological understanding of dynamics in the Early Medieval Lowlands and strongly enhance the framework for future research of this key period.
Rol
Uitvoerder
Financiering
2e geldstroom - NWO NWO-Humanities
Overige projectleden
- Prof. dr. ir. Theo Spek - University of Groningen
- Dr. Bert Groenewoudt - Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands
- Drs. Menne Kosian - Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands
Project
Overstromingen van de Rijn gedurende het Holoceen
01-03-2009
tot 01-05-2016
Algemene projectbeschrijving
Grote overstromingen hebben in Europa aanzienlijke schade aangericht en de nodige slachtoffers geeist. De omvang van de wateroverlast en de onvoorzien korte terugkeertijd van de herhaalde overstromingen, deden vragen rijzen over de gehandhaafde niveaus van veiligheid. In Nederland was het, na de bijna-overstroming van 1995, aanleiding de ontwerpafvoer van de Benedenrijn te vergroten van 15,000 naar 16,000 m3/s (Waterwet, 2009; kans van optreden geschat op 1 per 1250 jaar). Het hoofdprobleem bij het inschatten van overstromingsrisico en het definieren van maatgevende afvoeren en daarvan afgeleide waterhoogten, is de onzekerheid bij het opstellen van verbanden tussen herhalingstijden en piekafvoergrootte in het domein van zeldzaam optredende overstromingen. Bij een meetreeks van slechts 110 jaar lengte, mag ervan uitgegaan worden dat ze nog weinig representatief is voor de grootte van een 1/1250 per jaar of zeldzamer piekafvoer. Met het langer maken van een meetreeks wordt ook klimaatvariabiliteit (weerpatroonvariabiliteit) op de tijdschaal van tientallen jaren tot eeuwen in de waarnemingen meegenomen, en deze non-stationarititeit dient in de statistische verwerking tot een herhalingskans 'bij huidige klimaatgesteldheid' meegenomen te worden. Over de duur van het Holoceen bezien, speelt naast subtiele klimaatschommeling ook de groeiende invloed van de mens op het landschap (ontbossing van achterland en van overstromingsvlakte zelf) een rol. Deze veroorzaakt een geleidelijk verschuiving in de grootte van typische piekafvoeren, en mogelijk ook van extreme afvoeren.
In dit onderzoeksproject, zijn voor bovenstaande vraagstukken met een hiervoor nieuw ontworpen methodologie, gegevens uit sedimentaire archieven ontsloten, die lagen opgeslagen in de korrelgrootte-eigenschappen van onregelmatig fijn-gelaagde opvullingen van diepste delen van oude rivierbochten in de overstromingsvlakte van de Rijn (afgesneden meanders: hammen of oxbowlakes). Met deze gegevens, konden we de conventioneel gebruikte tijdreeksen van gemeten Rijn piekafvoeren (Lobith afvoeren sinds 1901, rivierpeilaflezingen sinds 1772) verlengen. Het onderzoek (Proefschrift dataset en peer-reviewed artikelen) produceerde de volgende reeksen: kwantitatieve piekafvoer reconstructies tot 1772 (op basis van peilaflezingen), op sedimentaire gelaagdheid gebaseerde piekafvoer reconstructies tot 1550 (op basis van de Bienener Alt-Rhein opvulling), en een millennia-lange continue reeks van sedimentair geregistreerde grote tot zeer grote overstromingen (flood event history & flood intensity record) - gebaseerd op opvullingen van oxbow lakes van deels overlappende ouderdom, verzameld in het Nederlands-Duitse grensgebied (bovenstrooms deel Rijndelta, benedenstrooms deel Niederrhein). De methodologie dwingt af dat de reeks compleet is voor grote afvoeren - in de jongste 1500 jaar voor 1/25 per jaar en zeldzamerr; tot 8200 jaar terug voor 1/100 per jaar en zeldzamer - en oormerkt overig opvullingssediment en microgelaagheid als achtergrondsedimentatie tijdens jaren met 'normale' overstroming. Behalve toepassingen in rivierbeheer (veiligheid tegen overstromingen, ontwerp van dijk en riviergeul), vinden de resultaten ook hun weg in het archeologische werkveld (Postdoc kopproject: registratie van de overstromingen op archeologisch onderzochte locaties in Middeleeuwse riviersteden, begrip van preservatie, aantasting en begraving van Romeinse archeologie met name langs de Limes), in proceskundig rivieronderzoek (lange termijn stabiliteit van splitsingspunten, initieren, slagen en falen van avulsies) en in geologische kartering van Rijndal en -delta (event-stratigrafie; bewaard blijven, 'halfwaardetijd' van landschappelijk bewaard blijven van afgesneden meanders).
Het project Floods of the past - Design for tomorrow (Universiteit Utrecht en Universiteit Twente, gefinancierd in NWO-STW Water2015 call), de NWO-ALW Rubicon persoonlijke subsidie aan Dr. Willem Toonen (Oct 2014 - Maart 2017 te Aberystwyth University, Wales, Verenigd Koninkrijk), en sedimentair overstromingsonderzoek in het Maasdal aan de VU Amsterdam (promovendus Fei Peng op een Chinese beurs; supervisie: Dr. M. Prins e.a.) zijn vervolgen op dit project. De resultaten worden ook gebruikt in onderdelen van ons 'Dark Ages in an interdisciplinary light' project (Universiteit Utrecht).
Rol
Uitvoerder
Financiering
3e geldstroom - overig PhD candidate 2009-2013: Deltares; Postdoc 2014: Rijksdienst Cultureel Erfgoed; Supervision 2009-2016: Deltares
Overige projectleden
- Dr. Maarten Prins - Grainsize lab Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Dr. H.J.T. Weerts - RCE Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands
Project
Delta Evolution / Rijn-Maasdeltaonderzoek
01-01-2005
tot 31-12-2020
Algemene projectbeschrijving
Delta Evolutie is de naam die we sinds 2005 gebruiken voor het gebundelde Utrechtse geomorfologische en kwartairgeologische onderzoek naar Laaglandgebieden in het Department Fysische Geografie, in samenwerking met andere instituten. Het is ook het label van een onderzoekssamenwerkingsverband dat het departement in 2008 is aangegaan met Deltares en TNO Geologische Dienst Nederland op dezelfde Utrechtse campus.
[ herformulering/actualisatie van de beschrijving is gaande - zie voorlopig de engelse beschrijving ]
Rol
Uitvoerder
Financiering
Anders Mix. Over 2008-2016: UU/zelf 17% UU/NWO 13% Deltares 26% TNO 23% Derden(RCE/RWS) 20%
Overige projectleden
- Deltares
- TNO Geologische Dienst Nederland
- Rijksdienst Cultureel Erfgoed
- VU Amsterdam