Search
10 search results
Search results
-
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. -
Follow-up funding for microbial fight against parasitic weed in Africa
Can micro-organisms in the soil help the fight against parasitic weeds in Africa? That question launched Promise six years ago. After promising initial results, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has now awarded follow-up funding to the project. -
Is agroforestry the answer for rainforest restoration?
The conversion of Amazon rainforest for agriculture has led to deforestation and soil degradation. Agroforestry has been suggested as a sustainable alternative, but NIOO's Eiko Kuramae says its impact on the soil needs to be more fully considered. -
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. -
Nature research and society
NIOO has a vigorous and long-standing commitment to societal impact. Not only is NIOO housed in a sustainable building designed to translate our ecological principles in terms of architecture and construction, we also have a number of units that are tailor-made for disseminating our ecological knowledge to specific target groups, we have a very active outreach policy, and we actively involve citizens in our research through large-scale citizen-science projects. -
Large herbivores can bend the curve of biodiversity loss in tropical forests
A 10-year experiment in Brazil’s endangered Atlantic Forest, led by NIOO-researcher Nacho Villar, has found that there's less biodiversity loss in areas where large herbivores can roam free. -
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. -
Hyperparasitoids and how to stop them
A hyperparasitoid is a parasitoid whose host is also a parasitoid. NIOO-researcher Martine Kos and her former colleague Roxina Soler have been doing research into ways to protect crops against these harmful insects. -
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. -
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. Initial findings suggest that epigenetics – what’s on rather than what’s in the gene – may have played a key role in the evolution of the ability to learn. And not just that of birds...