LTER-LIFE student projects: revolutionising ecology
LTER-LIFE student projects: revolutionising ecology
LTER-LIFEContact Person:
Droevendaalsesteeg 10
6708 PB Wageningen
Background
One of the challenges in ecology is to understand and predict how ecosystems are impacted by changes in environmental conditions and external pressures. This challenge is urgent given the unprecedented rate of global change in climate, land use, and urbanisation. To do so, we need to transform the way we do ecological research.
Year after year, researchers and citizen scientists go out and collect data on the many, diverse facets of various ecosystems—from the atmosphere, hydrology and soils to plants, animals, and other living nature. At the same time, researchers develop and build a wide array of analyses, models, and tools to capture the intricacies of the ecosystems that they study. Yet, many of these data, models and tools are not shared, scattered, and/or hard to (re)use. LTER-LIFE seeks to change this by developing a digital research infrastructure that supports ecologists in integrating data and models into a digital twin of their study system.
LTER-LIFE focuses on two of the most iconic and best-studied ecosystems in the Netherlands: the Wadden Sea and the Veluwe. The Veluwe team of LTER-LIFE is headquartered at NIOO.
Who are we looking for
- Are you interested in open & FAIR science?
- Would you like to explore digital twins of ecosystems?
- Do you have questions about the Veluwe ecosystem that you would like to answer using a digital twin?
We are continuously searching for motivated students – from ecologists and environmental scientists to bioinformaticians and data scientists – who are interested in joining our team and contributing to, or testing, the developments of our infrastructure.
Example projects could be (but are not limited to):
- Assessing the impacts of future global change scenarios in a virtual Veluwe
- Finding and curating unique & relevant datasets of the Veluwe and making them available for reuse by other ecologists
- Analysing the impact of human pressures on the biodiversity of the Veluwe
We value open communication, a structured way of working, a good balance between collaboration and independence. A basic understanding of programming (in R or another language) is desired as much of our work revolves around scripts and code.
The team
Stefan Vriend – ecological data specialist – LTER-LIFE Coordinator Veluwe, responsible for coordinating all developments around the Veluwe
Liesbeth Bakker – professor Rewilding Ecology (WUR) – at LTER-LIFE, responsible for Veluwe community management and capacity building
Geerten Hengeveld – ecological modeller – LTER-LIFE Executive Manager, responsible for connecting the different aspects of the project
Marcel Visser – professor Seasonal Timing of Behaviour (RUG) – lead PI of LTER-LIFE