Research in the Biere Group focuses on the ecology and evolution of interactions between plants and their communities of above- and belowground mutualists and antagonists, including mycorrhizae, pollinators, pathogens, insect herbivores and the herbivore’s natural enemies. We aim to understand how such interactions are disrupted or altered by changes in the environment, land use and species introductions, and what the consequences of such alterations are for the functioning, ecology, and evolution of the organisms involved. Such information can help us in the design of management practices in sustainable agriculture and predict how plants respond to environmental change.

Nocturnal illumination leads to a permanent disturbance of natural habitats and there is accumulating evidence for – often negative – impact of artificial light in an increasing number of species. However, most studies are correlative and only include immediate or short-term effects of artificial light at the level of the individual while long-term consequences are still largely unknown.

Why and how do animals vary in their ability to reproduce

'Personality' describes the phenomenon that individuals consistently differ in their behaviour and have limited flexibility to respond to environmental challenges. Our interest lies in describing the causes of these differences and the consequences for individual fitness and population processes in order to better understand the existence and maintenance of individual variation in behaviour.

Scaling up from processes at the individual level to patterns at the population level.

The research in the Visser Group focuses on seasonal timing of growth and reproduction. We aim to understand the causes of variation in timing and the consequences of this for fitness and population processes.

The Van de Waal Group studies the impact of global change on the eco-physiology and population dynamics of phytoplankton, with special emphasis on toxic species.

Among the main research lines are to study: 1) impacts of combined global change stressors on harmful algal bloom dynamics and toxicity, 2) the role of intraspecific diveristy and trait plasticity on the rapid adaptive potential of phytoplankton, and 3) the ecological stoichiometry of phytoplankton parasites.

We apply a variety of experimental approaches to scale from cellular processes to understand population and community dynamics. These approaches range from single clone expeirments for understanding cellular processes, continuous culture experiments to test resource competition, large scale indoor mesocosms to test complex communities under controlled experimental conditions, and long-term as well as high frequency field studies to follow natural phytoplankton community dynamics.

Phytoplankton ecology
Ecological stoichiometry
Trait-based ecology
Harmful algal blooms
Toxin synthesis
Disease ecology

The Declerck Group focuses on how environmental change affects the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of aquatic biota, especially freshwater zooplankton.