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Adaptation of species
In a changing environment, species change as well. During the last decades, human influence has intensified environmental changes, making adaptation even more crucial. Ecologists at NIOO are interested in rapid adaptation of species, both through (micro)evolution and via behavioural plasticity. For this has implications for the success of species, and for biodiversity. -
Fireworks have long-lasting effects on wild birds
An international team of scientists has examined the long-term effects of fireworks on wild birds. -
PhD defence Melanie Lindner: Bird reproduction in a warming world
Melanie Lindner will defend her PhD thesis titled "Avian seasonal reproduction in times of global warming: Insights from evolution, ecology and (epi-)genomics" -
Thesis defence Bernice Sepers: the role of DNA methylation variation in avian personality
On 28 October, Bernice Sepers (Animal Ecology) will defend her thesis on 'Behavioural epigenetics: insights into the role of heritable and induced DNA methylation variation in avian personality' at Wageningen UR. -
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. -
Light Pollution
Illumination of forest edges leads to a decrease in moth numbers and changes in the behaviour and success of bigger day as well as night-active animals in the long run. What did we find out at NIOO and what can we do with these results? -
It takes more than two to tango: Microbial communities influence sex and reproduction in animals
The reproductive tracts of males and females contain whole communities of micro-organisms. These microbes can have considerable impact on (animal) fertility and reproduction, as shown by Melissah Rowe from the NIOO-KNAW. -
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. -
Frisian lapwings fan out across Europe in winter
Northern lapwings are easy to spot during the breeding season, with their noisy aerial acrobatics. But as research led by the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) shows, lapwings that breed virtually next to each other in spring may spend their winters thousands of kilometres apart. As a survival strategy, it's not enough to stop the species' ongoing decline.