Tjeerd J. Bouma studied biology at Utrecht University (NL), did a PhD in the field of Plant Physiology at the Wageningen University NL (i.e., quantifying maintenance costs in agricultural crops), followed by a post-doc in the field of Plant Ecology at Pennsylvania State University USA (i.e., quantifying drought stress on energy use and root longevity in fruit trees). Since then he has worked at the NIOZ-Yerseke (former NIOO-CEME) in the field of estuarine and marine ecology. Starting august 2018, he has been appointed at Utrecht University for 1 day per week