Through the funding by the THESEUS Marco Polo grants and the Chinese scholarship Council, Zhenchang Zhu, a young Chinese scientist from East China Normal University (ECNU), has had the opportunity to spend 48 months at NIOZ-Yerseke in the Netherlands doing his PhD study.

He said :"I would really like to thank the THESUES project. It gave me a precious opportunity to study the development of salt marsh ecosystems, one of the natural barriers. My research mainly focuses on seed dispersal of salt marsh pioneer species. While much is still unclear within this area, it can provide very useful insights for the restoration and management of the saltmarsh ecosystems.

I also wish to address sincere thanks to Prof. Peter Herman, Dr. Tjeerd Bouma and all the people of the Spatial ecology group at NIOZ-Yerseke. They gave me very important suggestions and scientific ideas and kindly assisted me with experimental designs. Their help led to the successful completion of my experiments.

Moreover, I thank Prof. Liquan Zhang and all the people from SKLEC. They provided me with the opportunity to travel between the Netherlands and China, carrying out experiments on two contrasting estuaries: the Western Scheldt and the Yangtze Estuary. These two estuaries differ in sediment input, physical forces and salt marsh status. This comparative study will add to my general knowledge on seed dispersal and salt marsh development. I believe this experience will proof to be extremely valuable for my education and research career"

By Zhenchang Zhu