“Global distribution patterns of mycheterotrophic plants”. The research of Sofia Gomes (Naturalis Biodiversity Centre) is captured by Milan Teunissen van Manen (@MilanaTvM).
Ancient human disturbances may be skewing our understanding of Amazonian ecology. The research of Crystal McMIchael (University of Amsterdam) is captured by Judith Westveer (@water_science).
Today the Dutch ecological community has convened at the Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting (NEAM) in the forest near Lunteren. The meeting was kicked off by plenary lectures by Trisha Atwood and Han Olff who talked to the theme of “Ecosystem functioning in a changing world”. Trisha highlighted the importance of animals in modifying plant communities and their consequent importance for understanding changes in carbon storage. Han illustrated the complexity of ecological networks and posed the significant challenge of understanding changes in competing networks. Following the plenaries I chose two sessions to follow. The first on “Plant Ecology” and the second on “Ecosystem Resilience”. There were many exciting talks in both sessions, two of which grabbed my attention. Mara Baudena (Utrecht University) highlighted the complexity of modelling forest-grassland interactions in Africa, while Sofia Gomes (Naturalis Biodiversity Centre) showed surprising (to me) variation in mychorizal fungi across the globe.Furthermore four talks were presented by researchs at my home, the Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics (University of Amsterdam):
Crystal McMichael“Ancient human disturbances may be skewing our understanding of Amazonian ecology”
Milan Teunissen van Manan“Species specific responses in leaf wax n-alkane composition from six tropical tree species”
Kenneth Rijsdijk“Assessing the resiliance of insular species to past climate change”
Seringe Huisman“Characterization of phytoliths in premontance western Amazonian forests”
So an exciting day, now for food and beer, and back on it tomorrow! Follow live on Twitter #NAEM2018
Each project was set up to test a particular ecological or biogeographic hypothesis. Investigations included the exploration of the role of humans in modifying ecosystems in Amazon, the nature of the pre-farming landscape in the the Netherlands, and how to chemically identify fossil charcoal. In undertaking their projects individual students had the opportunity to variously develop skills in microscopy, spatial modelling, or analytical chemistry. The high quality of the data produced means that hopefully many of these data sets can be used in future scientific publications. Well done to all!
If you are interested in conducting a similar project (at any academic level) with us please do not hesitate to get in contact. For further details of ongoing research within the Department of Ecosystems & Landscape Dynamics visit our web pages by clicking here.
The MSc Biological Sciences at the University of Amsterdam is open to international students (taught in English) and offers four ‘tracks’ so you can specialize to your particular interest:
In addition as part of this MSc degree you will conduct research projects and have opportunities for internships. For further information to click here or watch our recent webinar with the program coordinator Joost Duivenvoorden.
The Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam currently has a vacancy for an Assistant Professor in Palaeoecology. The VU Amsterdam are looking for a specialist in palaeoecology, palynology and/or palaeobotany, with an interest in reconstructing climatic- and anthropogenic forcing of vegetation/landscape/hydrological change in the Quaternary. Experts employing palynological, macro-fossil, geochemical, and modelling techniques welcome.
The annual Dutch ecology conference is being held over two days at the in “remote” Lunteren and I am pleased to be able to attend all of the conference this year. The conference was kicked off this morning with a recognition that this year is 150 years since the birth of ecology as a science (Haeckel, 1866). The opening two keynotes focused on aspects of ecology which have sometimes been overlooked firstly, parasitism (Peter Hudson, Penn State University) and secondly, immunology (Irene Tieleman, University of Groningen). Following these I focused on just two sessions in the morning “linking diversity to function”, and in the afternoon “ecosystem cascades”. From the range of excellent talks in the sessions I have picked one from each as my favourite:
Masha van der Sande (Wageningen University) The role of biodiversity and environment on productivity in tropical forests; evidence across scales By examining long-term tropical forest monitoring data van der Sande demonstrated that through time ecosystem traits changed significantly. She hypothesised that the lack of stability in ecosystem traits was due to past disturbance; although it is unclear what caused this disturbance (climate or humans), or when it occurred.
Dries Kuijper (Mammal Research Institute, Poland) Landscapes of fear in Europe: Wolves and humans shaping ungulate top-down effects By tracking Wolf pack distributions in the Bialowieza forest (Poland) Kuijpershowed that ungulates avoided Wolf pack “core areas” for fear of predation, that the exclusion of ungulates lead to reduced browsing of the vegetation, and so consequently forests regenerated faster in Wolf pack core areas.
The evening lecture was given by Bart Knols (in2care) who gave an impassioned talk on the importance of communicating science beyond the academic sphere. Arguing that now is the time for ecologists to have an influence on policy making, politics and business, as well as showing us how he has done this.
Ecology of the past 