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

Restoring wetlands by allowing water level dynamics and connecting terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems can be considered as a form of aquatic rewilding. Lake restoration project Marker Wadden and the Oostvaardersplassen marsh reset are part of our research program studying the impact of lake and wetland restoration measures on the biodiversity and functioning of aquatic ecosystems.

Zon op water: Onderzoek naar de effecten van de effecten van zonnepanelen op water op de waterkwaliteit en het ecologisch functioneren van watersystemen

PCModel: Ecosystem models PCLake, PCLake+ en PCDitch
NIOO has a long history in developing, maintaining, applying and doing research with the ecosystem models PCLake(+) and PCDitch. Among others, NIOO maintains the PCmodel github page where the model can be found and downloaded from: https://github.com/pcmodel

In the latest decade, the application of DNA sequencing technology has resulted in the discovery of many species new to science. Most of these species have long remained undetected because they were difficult to distinguish morphologically from described species. In this project, we have applied reverse taxonomy with the aim to detect and describe formerly unrecognized ‘cryptic’ species in the species complex Brachionus calyciflorus, a very commonly studied and cosmopolitan freshwater rotifer. The combination of a molecular and morphological analysis resulted in the discovery and (re)description of four species, i.e. B. calyciflorus s.s., B. elevatus, B. fernandoi and B. dorcas (Papakostas et al., 2016; Michaloudi et al., 2018). While some evidence accumulates that the species differ ecologically (Papakostas et al., 2016; Zhang et al. 2020), we have also demonstrated that reproductive barriers between the two most closely related sibling species, B. calyciflorus s.s. and B. elevatus are strong but not impenetrable (Zhang & Declerck 2021, 2022). The observation of hybridization leads to the question how species maintain their integrity in the face of genetic exchange. Currently, we perform a phylogeographic analysis with the aim to study the geographic structure of molecular divergence within the species complex and the degree to which this bears the signature of hybridization. Future studies will also focus on ecological divergence and its implications for the long-term fate and coexistence of these sibling species.

In many ecosystems, human impacts have strongly altered the quantities and relative ratios of elements such as carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen. This may have important consequences, not only for the plants, but also for the animals that use these plants as food source. Animals need specific ratios of elements for their optimal growth, survival and reproduction. Deviations from these ratios (‘stochiometric mismatch’) may lead to substantial performance reductions with important ecological and microevolutionary consequences. In this project, we investigate how populations of zooplankton herbivores respond to and cope with both shortage and excess of critical elements in their diet, both from ecological and microevolutionary perspectives.

Rapid evolutionary adaptation of zooplankton to anthropogenic stressors