My current research focuses on four major intersecting research lines (See 'Declerck group' for more information) - Rapid evolutionary adaptation of zooplankton to a changing world - Ecological stoichiometry of zooplankton - Ecological divergence in the Brachionus calyciflorus cryptic species complex - Patterns of aquatic biodiversity at local and regional scales
Education
Employment
Grants
PhD-students
Ongoing PhD-projects:
Defended:
Editorial board memberships
Invited talks and keynote addresses on symposia and conferences (since 2010)
Participation in international workshops (Since 2010)
Other academic activities and achievements
* Rapid evolution of zooplankton under conditions of stoichiometric imbalance: Consequences for ecosystem functions and trophic interactions.
Research project funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO; ALW1PJ/13020; duration: 2014-2018; budget: 241,300 EURO); principal investigator: Steven Declerck
According to ecological stoichiometry, consumers require biogenic elements (e.g. C, N, and P) in specific ratios and deviations from these ratios in food resources may result in lowered growth rates, fecundity and survival. A variety of consumer organisms have been shown to harbor substantial intra-specific genetic variation for the ability to cope with such elemental imbalances. An important implication is that stoichiometric imbalances can thus potentially be an important selection factor causing rapid micro-evolutionary adaptations in natural consumer populations. Such genetic adaptations can be achieved in many ways and have important consequences for food web interactions and ecosystem functions, such as nutrient cycling and primary productivity. For example, if adaptation leads to adjustments of body elemental composition, this may cause elemental mismatch with predators and result in a reduced predator performance and trophic interaction strength. Alternatively, if adaptations lead to a more efficient recycling of excess nutrients, this may re-enforce the limitation of the depleted element, and result in a positive evolutionary feedback. For this proposal we will make use of ‘evolved’ genotypes of the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus that have been generated by a laboratory evolution experiment. Through the combination of common garden experiments and mathematical modeling, we will study (1) which are the traits through which the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus adapts to stoichiometric imbalances in its food and (2) the consequences of such adaptations for elemental cycling, phytoplankton productivity and predator-prey interactions.
*Development of effective strategies for the conservation and development of landscape wide aquatic biodiversity in agricultural areas
Research project funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO; ALW-OBW/16; duration: 2012-2016; budget: 247,032 EURO); principal investigator: Steven Declerck
Freshwater habitats contribute disproportionately to biodiversity at the landscape scale and can be strongly affected and modified by land use changes. Through a field study and a thorough analysis of existing databases, the project will contribute to a better knowledge on the mechanisms that determine the dynamics of biodiversity in the landscape and the way this is affected by land use (agriculture, urbanization). In our study we will apply a metacommunity perspective by integrating local and landscape scale patterns of community structure and biodiversity. A major aim of the project is to find out which combination of cost-effective landscape measures do effectively contribute to an efficient conservation and development of aquatic biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes of The Netherlands.
*Towards a Sustainable Management of Pond Diversity at the Landscape Level
Research project of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (promotor: Koen Martens, R.B.I.N.S.).
This large scale project aims at revealing patterns of landscape biodiversity in a large number of small ponds, applying a spatially hierarchical sampling design. This project will yield insights in the spatial architecture of pond biodiversity at the nationwide level, which is a prerequisite for efficient conservation planning. In collaboration with other research groups, we study multiple groups of aquatic organisms simultaneously (including bacteria, phytoplankton, phytobenthos, zooplankton, macro-invertebrates, macrophytes, amphibians and fish), and seek to explain patterns of occurrence and diversity of these groups by landscape connectivity, the organisms' dispersal abilities, and natural and anthropogenic factors. In addition, an important work package of the PONDSCAPE project evaluates alternative pond management techniques via whole-pond experiments in the bomb crater area of Tommelen (Belgium). The project also forms the general framework for the PhD-project of Tom De Bie (supervisors: L. De Meester, L. Brendonck and S. Declerck).
* Development of a Sustainable Integration of Fish Farming and Nature Values in Protected Wetland Areas
TWOL-project of the Flemish Government, Belgium (supervisors: S. Declerck & L. De Meester; IWT PhD-project of Pieter Lemmens)
This project combines a socio-economic with an ecological analysis with the aim to reconcile fish farming with nature conservation. The project has a strong focus on the resolution of conflicts that arise from cormorant predation, eutrophication and the practice of fish stocking. An additional scientific aim of this project (funded by IWT-Vlaanderen) is to experimentally evaluate the direct and indirect effects of fish functional community composition and cormorant predation on aquatic food web structure, biodiversity and functioning.
Martijn Bezemer - NIOO (The Netherlands)
Ellen Decaestecker – KULeuven Campus Kortrijk (Belgium)
Luc De Meester – KULeuven (Belgium)
Sebastian Diehl – Umea University (Sweden)
Diego Fontaneto - Instituto per lo Studio degli Ecosistemi (Italy)
Helmut Hillebrand - Ossietsky University (Germany)
Erik Jeppesen - Aarhus University (Denmark)
Blake Mathews – EAWAG (Switzerland)
Spiros Papakostas - Turku University (Finland)
Pedro Peres-Neto - UQAM (Canada)
Björn Ral - iDiv (Germany)
Jon Shurin – UC San Diego (USA)
Koen Verhoeven - NIOO (The Netherlands)
For a complete list: see my ResearcherID
Bannar-Martin, K., C. Kremer, M. Ernest, M. Leibold, H. Auge, J. Chase, S.A.J. Declerck, N. Eisenhauer, W. Harpole, H. Hillebrand, F. Isbell, T. Koffel, S. Larsen, A. Narwani, J. Petermann, C. Roscher, J. Sarmento Cabral and S. Supp. 2018. Integrating community assembly and biodiversity reveals new dimensions of ecosystem function: the Community Assembly and the Functioning of Ecosystems (CAFE) approach. Ecology Letters 21: 167–180
Teurlincx, S., M. Velthuis, D. Seroka, L. Govaert, E. van Donk, D.B. Van de Waal and S.A.J. Declerck. 2017. Species sorting and stoichiometric plasticity control community C:P ratio of first order aquatic consumers. Ecology Letters 20:751-760.
Papakostas, S., E. Michaloudi, K. Proios, M. Brehm, L. Verhage, J. Rota, C. Peña, G. Stamou, V. L. Pritchard, D. Fontaneto and S.A.J. Declerck. 2016. Integrative taxonomy recognizes evolutionary units despite widespread mitonuclear discordance: evidence from a rotifer cryptic species complex. Systematic Biology 65: 508-524.
Declerck, S.A.J., A. Malo, S. Diehl, D. Waasdorp, K. Lemmen, K. Proios and S. Papakostas. 2015. Rapid adaptation of herbivore consumers to nutrient limitation: eco-evolutionary feedbacks to population demography and resource control. Ecology Letters 18: 553-562.
Decaestecker, E., D. Verreydt, L. De Meester and S.A.J. Declerck. 2015. Parasite and nutrient enrichment effects on Daphnia interspecific competition. Ecology 96: 1421-1430.
Van de Waal, D.B., V.H. Smith, S.A.J. Declerck, E.C.M. Stam and J.J. Elser. 2014. Stoichiometric regulation of phytoplankton toxins. Ecology Letters 17: 736-742.
Declerck, S.A.J., C. Winter, J.B. Shurin, C. A. Suttle and B. Matthews. 2013. Effects of patch connectivity and heterogeneity on metacommunity structure of planktonic bacteria and viruses. ISME Journal 7: 533-542.
Liu, J., J. Soininen, B.-P. Han and S.A.J. Declerck. 2013. Effects of connectivity, dispersal directionality and functional traits on the metacommunity structure of river benthic diatoms. Journal of Biogeography 40: 2238-2248.
De Bie, T., L. De Meester, L. Brendonck, K. Martens, B. Goddeeris, D. Ercken, H. Hampel, L. Denys, L. Vanhecke, K. Van der Gucht, J. Van Wichelen, W. Vyverman and S.A.J. Declerck. 2012. Body size and dispersal mode as key traits determining metacommunity structure of aquatic organisms. Ecology Letters 15: 740-747.
Verreydt, D., L. De Meester, E. Decaestecker, M.-J. Villena, K. van der Gucht, P. Vanormelingen, W. Vyverman and S.A.J. Declerck. 2012. Dispersal-mediated trophic interactions can generate apparent patterns of dispersal limitation in aquatic metacommunities. Ecology Letters 15: 218–226.
Declerck, S.A.J., J.S. Coronel, P. Legendre and L. Brendonck. 2011. Scale dependency of processes structuring metacommunities of cladocerans in temporary pools of High-Andes wetlands. Ecography 34: 296-305.
Declerck, S., M. Vanderstukken, A. Pals, K. Muylaert, and L. de Meester. 2007. Plankton biodiversity along a gradient of productivity and its mediation by macrophytes. Ecology 88:2199-2210.
Van der Gucht, K., K. Cottenie, K. Muylaert, N. Vloemans, S. Cousin, S. Declerck, E. Jeppesen, J. M. Conde-Porcuna, K. Schwenk, G. Zwart, H. Degans, W. Vyverman, and L. De Meester. 2007. The power of species sorting: Local factors drive bacterial community composition over a wide range of spatial scales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104:20404-20409.
Declerck, S., J. Vandekerkhove, L. Johansson, K. Muylaert, J. M. Conde-Porcuna, K. Van der Gucht, C. Perez-Martinez, T. Lauridsen, K. Schwenk, G. Zwart, W. Rommens, J. Lopez-Ramos, E. Jeppesen, W. Vyverman, L. Brendonck, and L. De Meester. 2005. Multi-group biodiversity in shallow lakes along gradients of phosphorus and water plant cover. Ecology 86:1905-1915.