Our night sky is heavily light-polluted which has a far-reaching impact on our ecosystem, changing daily and seasonal timing of a multitude of organisms we share our environment with. At the NIOO-KNAW, we team up with ecologists and chronobiologists all across the Netherlands to restore healthy rhythms for ourselves and in our natural environment.

We study the selection and evolution of circadian clocks in wild birds via measurements of rhythms in the wild and in the laboratory

This unique inter-disciplinary collaboration between three of the larger institutes of the KNAW aims to elucidate the function of epigenetic regulation in the...

Bewick’s swans breed on the Russian tundra and the European population winters in the North Sea countries.

Recent studies have shown that early developmental effects and environmental conditions experienced by parents also affect personality traits, even over multiple generations. Yet, the mechanisms underlying such transgenerational regulation remain unknown, while determining them is crucial to understand how development affects heritable traits in evolutionary processes.

Goose management is based on safeguarding (migratory) goose populations, while preventing excessive damage.

This project aims to predict the genetic and the phenotypic changes of a trait that is expected to be under directional selection: beak size in great tits.

Climate is warming faster in the Arctic than elsewhere in the northern hemisphere. As a result, migratory Arctic-nesting birds may arrive too late to benefit from the Arctic growth pulse.

Climate is warming faster in the Arctic than elsewhere in the northern hemisphere. As a result, migratory Arctic-nesting birds may arrive too late to benefit...

Anthropogenic change paved the way for a traditionally arctic-breeding, long-distance migratory bird, the barnacle goose to stop migrating and also breed successfully in temperate regions.