The theme of chemical communication is represented broadly within NIOO with a range of projects covering aquatic as well as terrestrial topics.

Aquatic projects focus on role of allelopathy in aquatic foodwebs (van de Waal), disruption of chemical communication by pharmaceuticals (van Donk), host-pathogen interactions to combat diseases in aquaculture (de Bruijn) and algal-bacterial interactions in decentralised sanitation (Fernandes).

Terrestrial project cover the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum and focus on plant-insect communication to find biological pest control (Kostenko, Biere), soil-plant feedback (Bezemer, van der Putten), microbial modulation of plant secondary metabolism (Je Seung), microbial pest control (Raaijmakers), volatile-mediated microbial interactions (Garbeva), mining microbial interactions for discovery of novel secondary metabolite (Garbeva, Tyc) and the role of chemical communication in biogeochemical processes (Bodelier).