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From Pioneer to Soil Prophet: 40 years belowground - Farewell symposium Wietse de Boer
On Thursday April 4 we'll have the Farewell Symposium and reception for our long-time colleague Prof. Dr Wietse de Boer (Department of Microbial Ecology at NIOO and Wageningen University). -
Adaptation of species
During recent centuries, human activities have dramatically changed the habitats of wild animals, plants and micro-organisms. Ecologists at NIOO are interested in how species can adapt to these rapid changes, for example through (micro)evolution. The ability of organisms to do this has a major impact on biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems. -
Spotlight on living soil at COP15 biodiversity conference
The UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal (COP15) is discussing global action to reverse biodiversity loss. Healthy, living soil is of key importance. -
Predicting soil biodiversity to make food production more sustainable
Fields and meadows provide a range of key services, as long as the soil is healthy. A group of researchers and companies will study how farmlands can be returned to multifunctionality. -
Awakening sleeping antibiotics with ERC Advanced grant
Facilitating the search for new antibiotics: that's what Gilles van Wezel aims to do by looking at similarities in the DNA of antibiotic-producing bacteria. -
Lisette De Senerpont Domis appointed to Smart Ecological Monitoring of Aquatic Systems chair
Lisette de Senerpont Domis is to be appointed professor of Smart Ecological Monitoring of Aquatic Systems at the University of Twente as of 1 May. -
Spreading the word about wild swimming... but safety first!
Swimming in nature is healthy. A group of British researchers have started a project to spread the word. -
Farming microbial community for plant probiotic - MicroProFarm
A current challenge for modern agriculture is to meet the food production needs for an increasing global population while improving resource use efficiency and attenuating impacts on human health and environment. In order to maximize reliability and stability in agriculture, optimization of crop management and resource use efficiency have been considered the best approaches for a sustainable increase of crop yields under variable agro-ecological conditions, environments and years. For this purpose, one interesting and sustainable method is the use of natural plant biostimulants, a diverse class of products and microorganisms that enhance plant growth and other plant parameters, such as flowering, fruit set, crop productivity and nutrient use efficiency. In this context, several studies already demonstrated that plant biostimulants can induce morpho-anatomical, biochemical, physiological and molecular plant responses, not only improving crop productivity but also promoting protection against abiotic stresses, such as drought and salinity. Among the different biostimulant classes there are protein hydrolysates (PH), mixtures of polypeptides, oligopeptides and aminoacids originated from partially hydrolyzed animal and vegetal tissues. Even though the effect of PH were already observed in diverse crops, the mechanisms and behind their action are still scarcely studied, and their action can vary depending on their origin, characteristics, crop species, cultivars, growing conditions, time and mode of applications, among other parameters. The objective of this project is to evaluate the effect of protein hydrolysates in the growth, nutrient content and microbial communities of crops, if microbes are responsible for these effects, which are the mechanisms and if such effects are long-lasting. -
Evolution in your back garden – great tits may be adapting their beaks to birdfeeders
British enthusiasm for feeding birds may have caused UK great tits to have evolved longer beaks than their European counterparts, according to new research. The findings, published in Science, identify for the first time the genetic differences between UK and Dutch great tits which researchers were then able to link to longer beaks. -
Identifying plant and animal DNA switches much faster and cheaper
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 research that was previously impossible to conduct.’ The time has come to look at how important epigenetic changes really are for dealing with climate change, plagues and other stress-factors. The research team led by the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) is publishing its technique in the scientific journal Nature Methods.