Soil biodiversity is of great importance for the maintenance of multifunctionality in terrestrial ecosystems.

Exploring the Meanings of Lands and Forests as an Avenue for Mutual Development of People and Nature in Ghana

How can ecosystem services within river catchments be quantified in spatial and temporal explicit way?

Developing methodes to understand the evolution of patches in natural ecosystems

While ecosystems have concrete benefits for human society, these benefits are typically overlooked in decision-making.

There is accumulating evidence for an increase in severe global drought events. In particular, Europe experienced several severe droughts in 2003, 2015, and 2018 (unprecedented in the past 2,110 years). Such droughts have caused serious and far-reaching impacts on terrestrial ecosystems.

The application of nanomaterials in industrial processes and consumer products provides many societal benefits, but can also lead to the release of nanomaterials into the environment. The work in this dissertation aims to provide insights into the potential environmental impacts that may follow from…

Promotores: Prof.dr. W.J.G.M. Peijnenburg & Dr. M.G. Vijver

To contribute to the body of knowledge aiming at a better coverage of ecosystem service assessment in LCA studies, this thesis dives into the challenges of incorporating existing ecosystem service methods within the impact assessment phase of the conventional LCA framework.

Promotores: G.R. de Snoo, W.T. de Groot, Co-promotor: C.J.M. Musters

Do sustainability values play a role in motivating people to act for biodiversity in successful projects and in successful leadership action? And how could these values be incorporated in current economic valuation methods?

How can mega sand nourishments, such as the Sand Motor, be designed and managed for optimal ecosystem services provision ?

How are links between macro-invertebrate diversity and ecosystem functioning influenced by anthropogenic pressures?

This thesis describes the role of pollution, specifically neonicotinoid insecticides, as an actor of the ongoing biodiversity decline.

Vast, often populated, areas in dryland ecosystems face the dangers of desertification.

1: What is the relative importance of alfa and beta biodiversity in polar ecosystems, and how does intraspecific variation influence this? 2: How can we use remote sensing to determine functional biodiversity (within communities) in polar ecosystems? 3: Temporal and spatial scales of functional biodiversity:…

CML rapport 192

1) Assess the trends in supply and production status of these critical minerals and mineral products worldwide and Europe’s dependence including on intermediate products such as permanent magnets, RE based super alloys, batteries, polishing compounds, phosphors, catalysts etc. 2) Trace the entire value…

Do Ethiopian wolves change their diet and foraging strategy in the landscape under different land uses? How land use affect Afro-alpine rodent Communities? How important are Afro-alpine natural resources utilisation for local livelihoods? What is the human perception of conflict in the Afro-alpine a…

What are trait-trait relationships in wetlands? To what extent the so-called leaf economics traits deviate from terrestrial ecosystems? How traits specific to wetland plant relate to plant strategies? What’s the relationship between wetland plant traits to the ecosystem functioning (e.g. productivity,…

The effects of anthropogenic noise on interactions between predators and their prey are still little understood.

Promotor: Prof.dr. G.R. de Snoo, Prof.dr. G.A. Persoon, Co-promotor: H.H. de Iongh

Ethiopian wolves are endangered diurnal Afroalpine rodent hunters. I investigated the interaction between wolves, rodents and human land use in Borena Sayint National Park (BSNP), Abune Yosef and Aboi Gara in Ethiopia.

Mycorrhizas are symbiotic associations between soil fungi and most plant species.

What is the optimal design of sandy solutions for sustainable climate change adaption, from an ecological, biophysical and societal point of view?

What are interactive effects of human pressures on aquatic communities?

Een kleine geschiedenis van het leven op aarde, verteld aan de hand van eilanden. Wat kunnen wij leren van deze werelden in miniatuur?

Wetland plants are distinguished from plants of other terrestrial ecosystems by their adaptations to specific habitat stresses, including waterlogged and flooding and the subsequent abundance of phytotoxic compounds.

Freshwater and brackish water ecosystems are arguably the most vulnerable ecosystems on earth, due to concentrated human developments in and around them. The Pontocaspian (PC) region located at the border of Europe and Asia contains a variety of brackish water ecosystems and unique inhabitants, known…

Binnen de eerste subsidieronde van het NWO-onderzoeksprogramma Complexity is het project 'Critical transitions and early-warning signals in spatial ecosystems', gezamenlijk ingediend door Arjen Doelman, Jens Rademacher (CWI) en Max Rietkerk en Martin Wassen (beiden geowetenschappen, UU), gehonoreerd…

The soil ecosystem consists of the largest reservoir of biodiversity on Earth.

Plants and soils from natural ecosystems harbor great diversity of soil microorganisms, which could potentially contribute to the sustainability of horticulture. The knowledge about using wild plant species and soil from natural ecosystem to improve the crop health will advance the application of ecological…

How soil microbial composition impacts structure and composition of the aboveground plant and animal communities?

Promotores: J.A.van Veen, P.L.G.Klinkhamer. Co-promotor: E.E.Kuramae

Biodiversity enables ecosystems to thrive through the synergy of functional differences among organisms. While human well-being strongly depends on biodiversity-driven ecosystem services, human actions are also at the root of current unprecedented biodiversity declines.

Freshwater is an important resource, but at a great risk of species decline due to habitat loss, pollution and over-exploitation, and invasive alien species.

Hoe kan de methode om de gecombineerde effecten van metaal-gebaseerde chemische stoffetn te bepalen worden verbeterd?

Promotores: Prof.dr. H. van Veen & Prof.dr. W. de Boer (Wageningen University)

Plant diversity is essential for us and our planet as it sustains the stability of our ecosystems, provides vital materials and food to us and supports many ecosystem services.

Marine sponges are important members of reef ecosystems, as they play ecological roles that are essential for the health of the reef.

Acidobacteria is a widely distributed phylum but their functional roles in ecosystem processes are still largely elusive.

De afdeling Environmental Biology (CML-EB) houdt zich bezig met vraagstukken rondom biodiversiteit en natuurlijke hulpbronnen op het platteland in westerse en niet-westerse gebieden.

The Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) invites applications for a postdoctoral Researcher (0.8 fte for 3 years) in the ERC Starting Grant project ‘Pages of Prayer: The Ecosystem of Vernacular Prayer Books in the Late Medieval Low Countries, c. 1380-1550’ (PRAYER). Candidates are…

One of the effects of climate change is the phenomenon of desertification, a process that occurs in semi-arid and arid areas and causes land degradation as well as vegetation loss. Due to the lack of resources, vegetation self-organizes to sustain itself by forming large-scale spatial patterns.

What are the global relationships between environmental conditions and abundance of distinct types of mycorrhizal fungi in soil and plant roots?

In light of climate change, it is crucial to determine whether plant species can adapt to future climates to avoid extinction. Plants adapt to various conditions by altering their functional traits, such as leaf size or photosynthetic rate. Some traits appear linked and vary together between species,…

To deliver a Virtual Sensor tool optimised to exploit the synergy between Sentinels 2 and 3 to allow the consistent retrieval of land surface parameters (Albedo, LAI, and LST); To extend the existing capabilities of land EO data assimilation tools to add capacity to handle data in the thermal domain…