Droevendaalsesteeg 10
6708 PB Wageningen
The Netherlands
Netwerk
Over
I am fascinated by how populations evolve to cope with environmental change.
My research focuses on finding drivers and constraints that determine the rate of adaptation to climate change.
Biografie
With insects as my model system, I use a wide variety of approaches to find drivers and constraints of rapid adaptation to climate change – from experiments and fluorescence microscopy, to long-term monitoring, population models, and genomics.
I completed my PhD at Groningen University in 2023, investigating the rapid adaptation to climate change of the winter moth. After my PhD, I moved to the University of Helsinki for a postdoc to apply temporal genomics to assess the adaptive potential of the Finnish Glanville fritillary butterfly metapopulation.
NWO-Veni project
In 2025, I obtained an NWO-Veni personal grant to join the Department of Animal Ecology at NIOO-KNAW.
My Veni will investigate the predictive power of space-for-time substitutions: Can populations adapt to climate change by becoming genetically similar to southern populations? To answer this question, I will return to the unique long-term data of winter moths to assess whether the same genes that geographically differ between northern and southern populations can help species adapt to climate change over time.
NWO-ENW M2 project
I also collaborate with Prof. dr. Marcel Visser at NIOO-KNAW and dr. Maurijn van der Zee at the Institute of Biology Leiden on a NWO-ENW M2 grant.
The project aims to determine which universal developmental pathways underlie temperature-dependent egg development time across insect species. PhD candidates Caspar Schmeits and Fabien Theunissen will combine ecological field monitoring, temperature experiments and functional genetics to assess the adaptive potential of wild populations from 12 species of egg-overwintering insects.
Open Science
Seeing the value of long-term ecological data for understanding how populations evolve, I am a strong proponent of Open Science and particularly interested in data management, data sharing, and code reproducibility.
Onderzoeksgroepen
Publicaties
Peer-reviewed publicaties
The promise of community-driven preprints in ecology and evolution
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.1487Publishing preprints is quickly becoming commonplace in ecology and evolutionary biology. Preprints can facilitate the rapid sharing of scientific knowledge establishing precedence and enabling feedback from the research community before peer review. Yet, significant barriers to preprint use exist, including language barriers, a lack of understanding about the benefits of preprints and a lack of diversity in the types of research outputs accepted (e.g. reports). Community-driven preprint initiatives can allow a research community to come together to break down these barriers to improve equity and coverage of global knowledge. Here, we explore the first preprints uploaded to EcoEvoRxiv (n = 1216), a community-driven preprint server for ecologists and evolutionary biologists, to characterize preprint use in ecology, evolution and conservation. Our perspective piece highlights some of the unique initiatives that EcoEvoRxiv has taken to break down barriers to scientific publishing by exploring the composition of articles, how gender and career stage influence preprint use, whether preprints are associated with greater open science practices (e.g. code and data sharing) and tracking preprint publication outcomes. Our analysis identifies areas that we still need to improve upon but highlights how community-driven initiatives, such as EcoEvoRxiv, can play a crucial role in shaping publishing practices in biology.
Temperature has an overriding role compared to photoperiod in regulating the seasonal timing of winter moth egg hatching
To accurately predict species’ phenology under climate change, we need to gain a detailed mechanistic understanding of how different environmental cues interact to produce the seasonal timing response. In the winter moth (Operophtera brumata), seasonal timing of egg hatching is strongly affected by ambient temperature and has been under strong climate change-induced selection over the past 25 years. However, it is unclear whether photoperiod received at the egg stage also influences timing of egg hatching. Here, we investigated the relative contribution of photoperiod and temperature in regulating winter moth egg development using two split-brood experiments. We experimentally shifted the photoperiod eggs received by 2–4 weeks compared to the actual calendar date and measured the timing of egg hatching, both at a constant temperature and in combination with two naturally changing temperature treatments – mimicking a cold and a warm year. We found an eight-fold larger effect of temperature compared to photoperiod on egg development time. Moreover, the very small photoperiod effects we found were outweighed by both between- and within-clutch variation in egg development time. Thus, we conclude that photoperiod received at the egg stage does likely not play a substantial role in regulating the seasonal timing of egg hatching in the winter moth. These insights into the regulatory mechanism of seasonal timing could have important implications for predicting insect climate change adaptation, as we might expect different targets of selection depending on the relative contribution of different environmental cues.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-024-05535-wPhenological mismatch affects individual fitness and population growth in the winter moth
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0414Climate change can severely impact species that depend on temporary resources by inducing phenological mismatches between consumer and resource seasonal timing. In the winter moth, warmer winters caused eggs to hatch before their food source, young oak leaves, became available. This phenological mismatch changed the selection on the temperature sensitivity of egg development rate. However, we know little about the fine-scale fitness consequences of phenological mismatch at the individual level and how this mismatch affects population dynamics in the winter moth. To determine the fitness consequences of mistimed egg hatching relative to timing of oak budburst, we quantified survival and pupation weight in a feeding experiment. We found that mismatch greatly increased mortality rates of freshly hatched caterpillars, as well as affecting caterpillar growth and development time. We then investigated whether these individual fitness consequences have population-level impacts by estimating the effect of phenological mismatch on population dynamics, using our long-term data (1994-2021) on relative winter moth population densities at four locations in The Netherlands. We found a significant effect of mismatch on population density with higher population growth rates in years with a smaller phenological mismatch. Our results indicate that climate change-induced phenological mismatch can incur severe individual fitness consequences that can impact population density in the wild.
Transcriptional regulation underlying the temperature response of embryonic development rate in the winter moth
https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16705Climate change will strongly affect the developmental timing of insects, as their development rate depends largely on ambient temperature. However, we know little about the genetic mechanisms underlying the temperature sensitivity of embryonic development in insects. We investigated embryonic development rate in the winter moth (Operophtera brumata), a species with egg dormancy which has been under selection due to climate change. We used RNA sequencing to investigate which genes are involved in the regulation of winter moth embryonic development rate in response to temperature. Over the course of development, we sampled eggs before and after an experimental change in ambient temperature, including two early development weeks when the temperature sensitivity of eggs is low and two late development weeks when temperature sensitivity is high. We found temperature-responsive genes that responded in a similar way across development, as well as genes with a temperature response specific to a particular development week. Moreover, we identified genes whose temperature effect size changed around the switch in temperature sensitivity of development rate. Interesting candidate genes for regulating the temperature sensitivity of egg development rate included genes involved in histone modification, hormonal signalling, nervous system development and circadian clock genes. The diverse sets of temperature-responsive genes we found here indicate that there are many potential targets of selection to change the temperature sensitivity of embryonic development rate. Identifying for which of these genes there is genetic variation in wild insect populations will give insight into their adaptive potential in the face of climate change.
Timing of increased temperature sensitivity coincides with nervous system development in winter moth embryos
Climate change is rapidly altering the environment and many species will need to genetically adapt their seasonal timing to keep up with these changes. Insect development rate is largely influenced by temperature, but we know little about the mechanisms underlying the temperature sensitivity of development. Here, we investigate seasonal timing of egg hatching in the winter moth, one of the few species which has been found to genetically adapt to climate change, likely through selection on temperature sensitivity of egg development rate. To study when during development winter moth embryos are most sensitive to changes in ambient temperature, we gave eggs an increase or decrease in temperature at different moments during their development. We measured their developmental progression and time of egg hatching, and used fluorescence microscopy to construct a timeline of embryonic development for the winter moth. We found that egg development rate responded more strongly to temperature once embryos were in the fully extended germband stage. This is the phylotypic stage at which all insect embryos have developed a rudimentary nervous system. Furthermore, at this stage, timing of ecdysone signaling determines developmental progression, which could act as an environment dependent gateway. Intriguingly, this may suggest that, from the phylotypic stage onward, insect embryos can start to integrate internal and environmental stimuli to actively regulate important developmental processes. As we found evidence that there is genetic variation for temperature sensitivity of egg development rate in our study population, such regulation could be a target of selection imposed by climate change.https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.242554Color of Artificial Light at Night Affects Incubation Behavior in the Great Tit, Parus major
Artificial light at night (ALAN) has been recognized as a biodiversity threat due to the drastic effects it can have on many organisms. In wild birds, artificial illumination alters many natural behaviors that are important for fitness, including chick provisioning. Although incubation is a key determinant of the early developmental environment, studies into the effects of ALAN on bird incubation behavior are lacking. We measured nest temperature in nest boxes of great tits during the incubation period in two consecutive years. Nest boxes were located in eight previously dark field sites that have been experimentally illuminated since 2012 with white, green, or red light, or were left dark. We tested if light treatment affected mean nest temperature, number of times birds leave the nest (off-bout frequency), and off-bout duration during the incubation period. Subsequently, we investigated if incubation behavior is related to fitness. We found that birds incubating in the white light during a cold, early spring had lower mean nest temperatures at the end of incubation, both during the day and during the night, compared to birds in the green light. Moreover, birds incubating in white light took fewer off-bouts, but off-bouts were on average longer. The opposite was true for birds breeding in the green light. Low incubation temperatures and few but long off-bouts can have severe consequences for developing embryos. In our study, eggs from birds that took on average few off-bouts needed more incubation days to hatch compared to eggs from birds that took many off-bouts. Nevertheless, we found no clear fitness effects of light treatment or incubation behavior on the number of hatchlings or hatchling weight. Our results add to the growing body of literature that shows that effects of ALAN can be subtle, can differ due to the spectral composition of light, and can be year-dependent. These subtle alterations of natural behaviors might not have severe fitness consequences in the short-term. However, in the long term they could add up, negatively affecting parent condition and survival as well as offspring recruitment, especially in urban environments where more environmental pollutants are present.https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.728377No effect of artificial light of different colors on commuting Daubenton's bats (Myotis daubentonii) in a choice experiment
Progressive illumination at night poses an increasing threat to species worldwide. Light at night is particularly problematic for bats as most species are nocturnal and often cross relatively large distances when commuting between roosts and foraging grounds. Earlier studies have shown that illumination of linear structures in the landscape disturbs commuting bats, and that the response of bats to light may strongly depend on the light spectrum. Here, we studied the impact of white, green, and red light on commuting Daubenton's bats (Myotis daubentonii). We used a unique location where commuting bats cross a road by flying through two identical, parallel culverts underneath. We illuminated the culverts with white, red, and green light,with an intensity of 5 lux at the water surface. Bats had to choose between the two culverts, each with a different lighting condition every night. We presented all paired combinations of white, green, and red light and dark control in a factorial design. Contrary to our expectations, the number of bat passes through a culvert was unaffected by the presence of light. Furthermore, bats did not show any preference for light color. These results show that the response of commuting Daubenton's bats to different colors of light at night with a realistic intensity may be limited when passing through culverts.https://doi.org/10.1002/jez.2178Artificial Light at Night Reduces Daily Energy Expenditure in Breeding Great Tits (Parus major)
The ecological impact of artificial light at night (ALAN) is an increasingly recognized process that accompanies expanding urbanization. Yet, we have limited knowledge on the impact of ALAN on wild species, and on the potential to mitigate any negative effects by using different light sources and colors. In birds, effects of ALAN on activity levels are reported for several species and, hence, their daily energy expenditure (DEE) may be affected. DEE is a potent mediator of life-history trade-offs and fitness and thus an important aspect to consider when examining the potential long-term ecological effects of ALAN. Previous work has suggested that birds exposed to ALAN show higher levels of provisioning and nocturnal activity, suggesting that white ALAN increases DEE. Other factors regulating DEE, such as provisioning behavior and food availability, might also respond to ALAN and thus indirectly affect DEE. We tested the hypothesis that ALAN increases DEE using an experimental setup where four previously unlit transects were illuminated with either white, green, or red LED light, or left dark as a control treatment. This setup was replicated in eight locations across the Netherlands. We measured DEE of our focal species, the great tit (Parus major), using a novel doubly labeled water technique that uses breath rather than blood samples. Contrary to our expectations, birds feeding their offspring under white and green ALAN showed lower DEE compared to birds in the control dark treatment. Differences in chick provisioning activity did not explain this result, as neither visit rates nor daily activity timing was affected by light treatment. However, food availability under white and green light was much higher compared to red light and the dark control. This difference strongly suggests that the lower DEE under white and green ALAN sites is a consequence of higher food availability in these treatments. This result shows that there can be positive, indirect effects of ALAN for breeding song birds which may balance against the negative direct effects shown in previous studies.https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2017.00055
Populair-wetenschappelijke publicaties
Een nieuwe mens in een nieuwe wereld
Hoe moeten we omgaan met de opwarming van de aarde? Die vraag legde oprichter van Beste-ID Jos Baijens aan honderd wetenschappers, ondernemers en andere denkers voor. NRC selecteerde negen verrassende ideeën.
Projecten & samenwerkingen
Projecten
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Seasonal timing of growth and reproduction: ultimate functions and proximate mechanisms
For many species, there is only a short period in the annual cycle in which conditions are suitable for reproduction or growth.
Outreach
Categorieën
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Getagd in
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Helpt noord-zuid aanpassing van dieren ook bij klimaatverandering?
"Kunnen dierenpopulaties zich aanpassen aan klimaatverandering door genetisch te gaan lijken op zuidelijkere populaties?" Die vraag stelt ecoloog Natalie van Dis zich. Kennis hierover kan duiden welke populaties het meest gevaar lopen door het veranderende klimaat. Zij krijgt daar nu een Veni-beurs voor van NWO om dat de komende drie jaar bij het NIOO uit te zoeken.
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Natalie van Dis wint NEV-dissertatieprijs 2023
Met haar promotieonderzoek ‘Evolutie in actie: Drijfveren achter de wintervlinders snelle aanpassing aan klimaatverandering’ wint Natalie van Dis dit jaar de prijs voor het beste proefschrift op het gebied van de entomologie.
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Hoe de wintervlinder zich zo snel aanpast aan klimaatverandering
De wintervlinder past zich sneller dan de meeste soorten aan klimaatverandering aan. Natalie van Dis onderzocht in haar promotie-onderzoek welke genetische en andere factoren daarbij een rol spelen.
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Promotie Natalie van Dis: snelle aanpassing aan klimaatverandering bij wintervlinder
Op 6 juni 2023 verdedigt Natalie van Dis haar proefschrift met de titel 'Evolution in action: drivers of rapid adaptation to climate change in the winter moth'. De promotieplechtigheid zal om 12.45 u. aanvangen en vindt plaats in het Academiegebouw van de Rijkuniversiteit Groningen.
