A serious game about trait-based ecology

Living Lab B7 wil de biodiversiteit in de Bollenstreek verbeteren. Dit doen we door inzichten over biodiversiteit te delen en ter plekke toe te passen. Co-creatie en kennisontwikkeling in de praktijk, samen met lokale partijen.

Water hyacinths: use them or lose them? Improving human and ecosystem health by bringing the science to the people of Lake Chivero, Zimbabwe

Water hyacinth (WHY), an invasive species in (sub-)tropical inland waters, clogs waterways and affects aquatic life and human activities, in addition, it can facilitate the spread of diseases. On the other hand, water hyacinth can be exploited to produce biofuels and other sources of income. A sustainable solution to water hyacinth encroachment "uses" WHY rather than just trying to "get rid of it". This project will use scientific research, satellite data and stakeholder experiences to co-create such solutions for Lake Chivero, the main source of drinking water for Harare, Zimbabwe's capital. This project is coordinated by Professor Timothy Dube (University of the Western Cape) & Dr. Ing. Marloes Penning de Vries (University of Twente). Consortium partners: University of the Witwatersrand; IHE Delft Institute for Water Education; Environmental Management Agency; Midlands State University; Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)

Harmful cyanobacterial blooms produce toxins that are a major threat to water quality and human health. Blooms increase with eutrophication and are expected to be amplified by climate change. Yet, we lack a mechanistic understanding on the toxicity of blooms, and their response to the complex interplay of multiple global change factors. Bloom toxicity is determined by a combination of mechanisms acting at different ecological scales, ranging from cyanobacterial biomass accumulation in the ecosystem, to the dominance of toxic species in the community, contribution of toxic genotypes in the population, and the amounts of toxins in cells.

Producing tailor made-fertilizer from steering cultivation conditions of photogranules

Due to anthropogenic activities, the global environment is changing rapidly, and is expected to continue doing so over the coming decades. Many of these changes lead to increased levels of stress to living organisms with negative impacts on their natural populations. Rapid evolutionary adaptation is increasingly recognized as an important mechanism that increases the coping ability of multicellular organisms to deal with increased stress levels. Applying an experimental evolution approach with freshwater zooplankton, we aim at testing specific hypotheses related to the causes and consequences of rapid adaptation to increased stress levels (e.g. poor food quality, salinization, warming and copper contamination). Our recent research focuses strongly on a multiple stressor context and addresses questions such as whether adaptation to one stressor impedes or enhances abilities to cope with other stressors and how past selection regimes determine the evolutionary potential of populations to adapt to new stressors.

Zoogeochemistry: Alchemists of the Wild

Impact of sea turtles on seagrass bed ecology

The European Union aims to reduce net carbon emissions by 55% in 2030, and become climate neutral by 2050. These goals can only be met if it boosts carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems, preferably while fostering socio-environmental co-benefits such as conserving biodiversity, adapting to climate change, and safeguarding socio-economic and cultural values.

Climate Change and Governance in Indonesia and the Caribbean: A Pilot Program on Marine Protected Areas