Songbirds change their behaviour and timing when nestboxes are exposed to artificial light at night. "They become light sleepers, literally and metaphorically", says Maaike de Jong (NIOO-KNAW). She successfully defended her thesis on the effects of different colours of light at Wageningen University on Friday. The most surprising effect she's found? Some birds are forced to become more monogamous...

ZEIST/WAGENINGEN/NIJMEGEN - Birds that breed in the Dutch Wadden Sea are facing serious problems, according to a new report that brings together all available data from the past two decades. The report was launched at the inaugural symposium of the new Centre for Avian Population Studies (CAPS).

An oystercatcher nest is washed away in a storm surge. Australian passerine birds die during a heatwave. A late frost in their breeding area kills off a group of American cliff swallows. Small tragedies that may seem unrelated, but point to the underlying long-term impact of extreme climatic events. In the special June issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, NIOO researchers launch a new approach to these 'extreme' studies.

Emilia Hannula and Elly Morriën have been awarded the Teylers Foundation’s gold medal at a ceremony in Haarlem. The two soil researchers - who both did their PhD research at NIOO - won an essay competition set by the foundation.

03/07/2020 In a special online session, Antica Culina from NIOO's department of Animal Ecology has received an award for using Open Science to make research more accessible. The Open Science Use Case Awards are part of the National Open Science Festival, which has had to be rescheduled because of the corona situation.