Identifying plant and animal DNA switches much faster and cheaper
PhD student devises new technique for ecological epigenetic research Epigenetics is a fast-growing field of research all over the world. Ecological epigenetics has now been further advanced thanks to the development of a new research technique. ‘This technique is cheaper and faster and enables...(read more)
Published 09-02-2016
Pharmaceutical residues increasingly disrupt aquatic life
It's a hidden global change: away from the public eye, residues of medicines in water have been causing increasing disruption. They can kill aquatic animals, and play havoc with their food web and reproductive cycle. An international team of researchers led by the NIOO makes an urgent case for...(read more)
Published 02-02-2016
Clever songbird's genome may hold key to evolution of learning
The great tit has revealed its genetic code, offering new insight into how species adapt to a changing planet.(read more)
Published 25-01-2016
Marcel Visser named among world's most influential scientists
Thomson Reuters has named NIOO-KNAW head of Animal Ecology Marcel Visser a Highly Cited Researcher, and has included him in its 2015 list of the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds. The Thomson Reuters list identifies the scientists who have made the most significant global impact in their respective fields. It is based on their output of top-cited papers over an 11-year period. According...(read more)
15-01-2016
15-01-2016
International Soil Year: what have we achieved?
The United Nations' International Year of Soils has come to an end. One thing is certain: for many people, the soil has now finally stopped being the great unknown. TerrAgenda , a symposium in Utrecht, marked the official end of the IYS in the Netherlands on 11 December. The organisers looked back on a long list of activities that included a National Mud Day , the Northern-Dutch potato festival...(read more)
31-12-2015
31-12-2015
Lucia Salis: seasonal timing in a warming world
Lucia Salis' PhD thesis looks at the effect of climate change on a simple food chain comprising the oak, the winter moth and the great tit.(read more)
10-12-2015
10-12-2015
Letter to the government: close all coal plants
More than sixty leading Dutch academics - including four NIOO-scientists - have called on the government to shut down all coal plants. NIOO-director Louise Vet explains.(read more)
23-11-2015
23-11-2015
Looking for 'green' innovators: European Commissioner Vella at the NIOO
The European Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maltese politician Karmenu Vella, visited the NIOO this week in search of 'green' innovators: "we need you – the future!" During his visit to Wageningen, the commissioner stressed that 2015 is an important year for sustainability. "The United Nations adopted the 2030 agenda for sustainable development in New York in...(read more)
06-11-2015
06-11-2015
Extinction of Pleistocene herbivores induced major vegetation and landscape changes
The extinction of large herbivores such as mammoths could explain massive prehistoric changes in vegetation and landscape structure, with major implications for our understanding of present-day ecosystems.(read more)
Published 26-10-2015
NIOO's science of the week (2)
We are yet to grasp the impact of the 'eternal summer' state that many people in developed societies live in nowadays, and already climate change seems to be tipping our sense of seasonality even further into the abyss. So what will it do to our immune system and our food security, not to mention the key industries relating to them? And how can biodiversity help to increase the resistance of...(read more)
16-10-2015
16-10-2015
High marks for soil life in Dutch gardens
The woodlouse is the most common soil animal in Dutch gardens. That is the outcome of the first soil animal count in the Netherlands. According to the NIOO-led probe, most Dutch gardens have a more than averagely healthy soil life. They may be less colourful than birds or butterflies - and some have a serious image problem - but more than 10,000 soil animals were counted on 'Soil Animal Day', 4...(read more)
12-10-2015
12-10-2015
Dig in with us on Soil Animal Day!
What soil creatures are living right under our feet? Find out in your own backyard on 4 October - or in your local park, on your green roof or even your balcony (!) - as the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) organises the first-ever 'Soil Animal Day', together with the Centre for Soil...(read more)
Published 27-09-2015
Helping nature restoration, Science day on soil transplantations
Date: Thursday 15 October Location: NIOO-KNAW, Wageningen Transplanting soil, with seeds and soil life, can help to restore agricultural areas into nature. In m any cases, a good soil life will help the establishment and success of many plant species, and consequently for the insects that life there. During this science day, nature managers, scientists and foresters can share knowledge and...(read more)
17-09-2015
17-09-2015
NIOO's science of the week
Proof that white light stresses birds, a plea against scientists' dependence on significance testing and the surprise cosmopolitanism of indispensible root symbionts.(read more)
28-08-2015
28-08-2015
No natural limits with more ecologization
For our planet to cope with continued population growth, ecological considerations must be made more integral to the global economy, write Stijn van Gils and Louise Vet (NIOO-KNAW) in Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer. The two NIOO-researchers are responding to an article by journalist and researcher Ralf Bodelier in the same weekly. In the 30 July issue of De Groene , Bodelier distances...(read more)
13-08-2015
13-08-2015
John D. Liu: "knowledge is not a commodity"
Filmmaker and ecosystem restoration champion John D. Liu joined the NIOO earlier this year as a visiting fellow. He tells us his thoughts about the NIOO, the failure of universities and Dutch karma. John D. Liu's documentaries show deserts coming back to life in China and elsewhere, thanks to efforts to restore the huge damage human activity has done. It's a miraculous process that Liu describes...(read more)
10-08-2015
10-08-2015
Rare bacteria key to fighting dangerous fungus
Pretty but dangerous: that's the Fusarium -fungus gracing the cover of the August issue of Ecology . Bacteria can stop the fungus from infecting plants. But it's a surprisingly delicate balance, discovered a team of NIOO-researchers. Soil bacteria may be invisible to the human eye, but that doesn't mean you won't notice them. Just think of the way the woods smell after a summer shower. That smell...(read more)
31-07-2015
31-07-2015
More rice, less greenhouse gas?
Just like CO 2 , methane is a potent greenhouse gas. The largest single human source of methane is rice cultivation. A new rice variety could change all that, although NIOO-microbiologist Paul Bodelier warns in the current issue of Nature that it's too early to get excited. Methane has an even higher capacity to absorb the heat from the earth's surface than CO 2 . But at least there's less of it...(read more)
23-07-2015
23-07-2015
Introducing the new Vogeltrekstation-website
Vogeltrekstation, the Centre for Avian Migration and Demography, has a brand new website. The new site caters to a lively community of bird ringers and citizen scientists, and highlights the centre’s position as an integral part of the NIOO. Then Ever wanted to know what is the greatest distance on record that a migrating bird has covered? Or what the (stringent) conditions are to join the...(read more)
10-07-2015
10-07-2015
Innovating with nature: Louise Vet at the 'University of the Netherlands'
Five days in a row, Universiteit van Nederland ('University of the Netherlands') published a new video lecture by NIOO-director Louise Vet on its website. Watch the lectures online to see her passionate pleas for working with - rather than against - nature. Universiteit van Nederland is the Netherlands' foremost online academy. Louise Vet's lectures are being added to a library that already...(read more)
18-05-2015
18-05-2015
