University of Groningen
Beds of grass at Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania El-Hacen, El-Hacen Mohamed
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Publication date: 2019
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El-Hacen, E-H. M. (2019). Beds of grass at Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania: Ecosystem infrastructures underlying avian richness along the East Atlantic Flyway. University of Groningen.
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207 Acknowledgments/
نانتماو ركش
This is perhaps one of the most difficult sections to write in this thesis, not because I don’t have acknowledgments to make, but rather how can I express the enormous amount of support and help I have received in few paragraphs. Furthermore, in my culture we tend to acknowledge strangers more than our closest ones and as a matter of fact we are not trained to thank family members, friends and colleagues. How can we ever thank them and where to begin and to end? The deep appreciation to our closed ones rest in the hearts and rarely being expressed especially verbally! Nonetheless, I am now ready to step out of my comfort zone and write thank words to some of the people who had great contribution to what I have achieved over the last couple of years.
The acknowledgment to the support and help for this thesis goes way beyond its time window especially to those who believed in me and gave me the chance to come to Groningen as
undergraduate. Multinational team joined hands to make my dream comes true. I owe my deepest gratitude to Theunis Piersma, Sidi Mohamed Ould Moïne, Antonio Araujo, Otto Overdijk, and Petra de Goeij. Without your continuous optimism concerning my work, enthusiasm, encouragement and support this study would hardly have been completed.
I would like to pay special thankfulness, warmth and appreciation to the people below who made my research successful and assisted me at every point to cherish my goals: My Promotor, Han Olff for his vital support and assistance. His encouragement made it possible to achieve the goal. I have benefitted tremendously from your vast experience in experimental ecology, ecological interaction, and spatial and statistical analyses. Thanks for your constructive critical thinking and patience. Theunis, my second Promotor, for his endless support and constant motivations not only to meet the deadlines, but also to expand my horizon, aim high and be efficient. I have learned
extensively from your unique writing skills and storytelling approaches. Thanks for dealing
passionately with the so many drafts (Vs), which you have commented constructively on every single one of them. My external Supervisor, Tjeerd Bouma, whose help and sympathetic attitude at every point during my research helped me to work in time and focus my goals. Your deep knowledge to coastal ecosystems, great skills in the field, and innovative approaches and techniques, never stopped challenging me and helping me develop my ideas and research. The Assistance Professor, Laura Govers, for her significant contribution to some of my research. I have enormously benefited from your sharp comments and deep knowledge of the newly developed concepts in the field of intertidal ecology especially seagrass ecosystems.
Petra, ‘Oum Hacen’, who has accompanying my development from the first day of my arrival to the Netherlands. I am indebted to Peet who supported me in a number of ways: not only
208
scientifically but also extended her support financially, morally and emotionally. I am honored and glad that you are one of my paranymph. I would like to express my gratitude to Lenze Hofstee, who assisted me tremendously in the field and always found me an accommodation and shelter when needed.
I would like to show my greatest appreciation to my officemates whom I enjoyed being with. A special word of thanks is due to Ruth for the endless support in GIS, Stat, and the field, Karin for being a quiet and cheerful neighbor and for translating my summary to Dutch, Michiel, Wimke, Annelies, Georgette, Elske, Yvonne, Inger, Rik, Sidi Cheikh, Sidi Yahya (thanks for helping with the French translation), Emulian, Bjorn, Qingqing and Megan for all the nice discussion and fun. I would like to offer my special thanks to Guido for the help in the field and for assisting me in my PhD defense ceremony, very honored to have you as a paranymph. I would like to thank the rest of my Groningen colleagues for their scientific discussions, joyful coffee and lunch breaks: Marion, Janne, Jelmer, Almut, Jeroen R., Maaike, Yvonne, Jesse, Jelle, Mo, Lucie, Raymond, Joost, Tjisse, Koosje, Popko, Richard, Marco, Christiaan, Chris, Jeroen O., Martijn, Koosje, Bea, Xuelei, Greg, Puck, Nina, Rosalie, Bingrun, Frank, Peter, Julia, Eldar, Raphaël (Merci pour aider à la traduction) and the army of students that helped me during my Phd and those that I forgot to name. I would like to thank also my colleagues at NIOZ whom I enjoyed visiting every now and then: Roos, Emma, Eva, Thomas, Suzanne, Roeland, Tamar, Kees, Anne, Maarten, Jan, Allert, Piet, Jutta, Anita, Jim, Job, Eelke, and Matthijs.
I received generous support from many RUG staff members as well as from NIOZ employees. I am particularly grateful for the assistance given by Ingeborg, Joyce, Jacob, Jan, Corine, Nelly, Marten, Henke, Sander Holthuijsen and Lennart van IJzerloo. Dick Visser, thanks for taking care of some of my figures. Het is echt heel mooi geworden!
Finally, I would like to acknowledge with gratitude, the support and love of my family: my parents Mimi and Dah; my brothers Bechir, Chawki and Ez Dinn; my sisters Jemila and Fatima; the extended family beyond….; my beloved wife Daisy and my kids Adam Omar and Moussa Yassin. They all kept me going, and this thesis would not have been possible without them. I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my wife whom I am very grateful to have. Daisy, it is beyond my comprehension and very puzzling to me how did you manage to finish a PhD, raise two kids, have a successful job, take the lion share of the household, and be such a fun and gezeleg person to be with. Thank you for everything.
