IIn this blog series, we follow the research at sea, aboard the research vessel. They are looking for marine viruses, and... they are leaving right now!

After two exciting expeditions to the Galápagos Islands to explore the diversity and evolution of microbiomes associated with the endemic and endangered Scalesia species, we launched the next step in our work. The Microbial Ecology Department of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) organised a dedicated Galápagos Microbiome Symposium on 12 March, led by Luzia Stalder, Jos Raaijmakers, Mark Zwart and Viviane Cordovez.

Every spring, brent geese undertake remarkable journeys from temperate regions to the Russian tundra. Along the way, they face constant challenges, needing to balance their body condition with precise timing to ensure both survival and successful reproduction. These challenges are likely to grow even greater in a rapidly changing climate, particularly in the Arctic, where shifting conditions can affect their migration and breeding success.

Imagine your favourite food is available in enormous quantities in one year, but nowhere to be found the next. For many of us this sounds like a highly unlikely scenario, at least for humans, but it is the reality for many animal species living in the forest that are highly reliant on the fruits of masting plants.

When you think of evolution, you probably think of Darwin, timescales of millions of years and dinosaurs. But there is also rapid evolution, microevolution, a way in which organisms can quickly adapt to changes in their environment. This is becoming increasingly important for the survival of species, in view of climate change and other human disturbances in ecosystems.

As part of the CLIMET consortium (Climate feedbacks and methane cycling in Arctic lakes: enzymes to atmosphere), researchers from the NIOO-KNAW have been in West Greenland investigating methane cycling in Arctic lakes. The aim of this first field visit was to assess variability in lake conditions and microbial composition across the low arctic landscape of Kangerlussuaq.

What does a day as a researcher look like? That greatly depends on what kind of researcher you are. While some are working in greenhouses, and others are programming behind a laptop to process results, it looks different still when a researcher works with citizen scientists. I got to join Rosan van Halsema's fieldwork for her PhD for a day to experience what such a day looks like.

Hi, my name is Gabriel, and I like to work with (almost) invisible things. Every day, as I walk into the lab at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), I’m reminded of the very small things that, despite their size, have a very big impact on our lives. Like the tiny microbes in our soils that help cycle nutrients, the gas molecules that heat our planet, or the almost invisible compounds that plants release from their roots. I'm a PhD student working on the ClipsMicro project, and my focus is on a simple and sustainable idea: using the right plants, at the right time, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farmland.

Two years after our first scientific expedition, we returned to the Galápagos Islands—this time with sharper tools, new goals, and even more excitement. Our mission? To dive deeper into the hidden microbial world of Scalesia, the archipelago’s iconic giant daisies, and uncover secrets that even our earlier work only hinted at.

Beavers were reintroduced to the Netherlands in 1988 and the beaver population has grown enormously since then. About six thousand beavers now live in the Netherlands. In the wild, beavers can have very positive effects on their environment by changing it, but is this also true in human-regulated areas?

Blue-green algae disrupt many people's swimming plans. Picture this: the weather is nice and you want to hit the water, but you're out of luck! The beach is closed because of a blue-green algae bloom. But why does a a swimming spot close when that happens?

Inland waters can help us mitigate climate change by storing carbon in the sediments. However, for a long time, they were ignored as a player in carbon sequestration ―the process of removing CO2 from the atmosphere, transforming it, and storing it underground. Carbon sequestration happens in ecosystems all around the world. Forests and oceans are most well-known for sequestering carbon, but freshwater ecosystems are also good at it. To put this in perspective: inland waters might sequester up to 20% of the amount of carbon sequestered by the oceans, even though they cover <5.6% of the oceans’ area.