Evolutionary studies take their point of departure by identifying fitness maximising attributes of individuals, including reproductive rate and other demographic parameters, as well as behaviour and ecophysiology, with a view towards integrating these individual profiles at the level of the population and community. Individually-based models should ideally be based on an appreciation of the genetic basis for the differences observed between individuals, and require data from long-term field studies (including controlled field experiments) or manipulations of laboratory populations for verification.
Increasingly these long-term efforts (twenty-five years or longer) are being pursued in collaborations with other institutes nationally and internationally to guarantee the intensity of study needed (both plant and animal ecology groups take the initiative in these enterprises). Emphasis is given to study of competition (and its opposite number, facilitation) and most work in the field must embrace other key players in addition to the species being modelled.
Continuity in field studies is enhanced by siting these projects within easy reach of a field station (notably "De Herdershut" on Schiermonnikoog in use since 1956). Theoretical explorations are a vital component as these studies mature and pinpoint key processes. Molecular ecology is being actively refined to unravel genetic structure within the population and as a tool to trace relationships in ecogeography and biodiversity applications. Conservation biology is an important area of applied ecology, and is developed with special reference to coastal systems and wetlands.
The area of Marine Biology is a hallmark of the institute and draws on the expertise of the NWO institute NIOZ (Texel) and the Estuarine Ecology section of the KNAW institute for Ecological Research NIOO (Yerseke) formalised through appointments of staff from Texel and Yerseke to professorships in Groningen (three in all). In recent years research in the microbial ecology unit has profited from a focus on the marine environment.
