Claire Hermans

From 2012 to 2017 I studied Biology of Organisms and Ecology at UCLouvain University (Belgium). During my last year of Master, I carried out a research internship in Magnus Wahlberg’s laboratory at the University of Southern Denmark (Kerteminde, Denmark), which focuses on bioacoustics in aquatic animals. My deep interest about acoustics and programming gave me the desire to continue to learn and to work in this field. In 2018 worked 5 months as a research assistant in the research group of “Acoustic and Functional Ecology” headed by Dr. Holger Goerlitz at the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology (Seewiesen, Germany). This project allowed me to learn acoustic tracking methods to track bats in particular.

All the those earlier experiences led me to start my PhD in July 2019 at the Animal Ecology Department of the NIOO-KNAW under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Marcel Visser and Dr. Kamiel Spoelstra. This PhD project is part of the « Light on Landscape » project, which is the immediate continuation of the « Light on Nature » project. Increasing artificial light at night constitutes a major threat for ecosystems, especially for nocturnal species such as bats. Recent investigations have provided evidence on how bats respond to different light spectra. However, little is known on how their response varies with light intensity. The aim of my PhD is then to establish dose-response relations between different light colors and intensity and activity of different bat species by using acoustic tracking systems. This would help us to find appropriate mitigation measures in order to prevent habitat loss and fragmentation.