Climate Change and Governance in Indonesia and the Caribbean: A Pilot Program on Marine Protected Areas

Restoring wetlands by allowing water level dynamics and connecting terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems can be considered as a form of aquatic rewilding. Lake restoration project Marker Wadden and the Oostvaardersplassen marsh reset are part of our research program studying the impact of lake and wetland restoration measures on the biodiversity and functioning of aquatic ecosystems.

'Vang de Watermonsters' is een Citizen Science project dat de waterkwaliteit in kleine wateren in Nederland in kaart brengt. Door het inzetten van burgers voor metingen van de waterkwaliteit krijgen we een beeld van de waterkwaliteit in kleine wateren in Nederland. Kleine wateren zoals plassen, vennen, sloten en vijvers zitten niet in het standaard meetnet van de Waterschappen. Dit project is opgezet om die blinde vlek te kunnen vullen. Uit voorgaande jaren is gebleken dat de waterkwaliteit voor het overgrote deel in Nederland helaas nog slecht of matig scoort. Voor goede waterkwaliteit is helder water nodig met voldoende onderwaterplanten die als schuil- en broedplaats voor veel onderwaterleven dienen en zuurstof produceren in het water.

De resultaten van 2022 zijn te vinden op: https://nioo.knaw.nl/nl/nieuws/biodiversiteit-sloten-vennen-en-grachten-nog-steeds-in-de-knel

Meer informatie over het project is te vinden op www.vangdewatermonsters.nl

Zon op water: Onderzoek naar de effecten van de effecten van zonnepanelen op water op de waterkwaliteit en het ecologisch functioneren van watersystemen

PCModel: Ecosystem models PCLake, PCLake+ en PCDitch
NIOO has a long history in developing, maintaining, applying and doing research with the ecosystem models PCLake(+) and PCDitch. Among others, NIOO maintains the PCmodel github page where the model can be found and downloaded from: https://github.com/pcmodel

In the latest decade, the application of DNA sequencing technology has resulted in the discovery of many species new to science. Most of these species have long remained undetected because they were difficult to distinguish morphologically from described species. In this project, we have applied reverse taxonomy with the aim to detect and describe formerly unrecognized ‘cryptic’ species in the species complex Brachionus calyciflorus, a very commonly studied and cosmopolitan freshwater rotifer. The combination of a molecular and morphological analysis resulted in the discovery and (re)description of four species, i.e. B. calyciflorus s.s., B. elevatus, B. fernandoi and B. dorcas (Papakostas et al., 2016; Michaloudi et al., 2018). While some evidence accumulates that the species differ ecologically (Papakostas et al., 2016; Zhang et al. 2020), we have also demonstrated that reproductive barriers between the two most closely related sibling species, B. calyciflorus s.s. and B. elevatus are strong but not impenetrable (Zhang & Declerck 2021, 2022). The observation of hybridization leads to the question how species maintain their integrity in the face of genetic exchange. Currently, we perform a phylogeographic analysis with the aim to study the geographic structure of molecular divergence within the species complex and the degree to which this bears the signature of hybridization. Future studies will also focus on ecological divergence and its implications for the long-term fate and coexistence of these sibling species.