Research

The Conservation Ecology Group aims to contribute both to fundamental insights in structure and functioning of communities and ecosystems on both ecological and evolutionary time scales, and to provide insights that help in conserving the biodiversity of our planet and the sustainable management of ecosystems. We strive to study ecological interactions in ecosystems in their full diversity, through a better understanding of the basic determinants of the structure and biodiversity of ecological communities. Secondly, we aim at fundamentally understanding how animals cope with their natural environments at different levels from physiology, individuals and populations to food-webs. Most of this research is carried out on wild birds in relation to their physical environments, food supplies, predators and diseases. We are famous for our long-term studies on individually marked birds addressing questions on variation in reproductive success and survival, population numbers and how organisms can adapt when environments change.

Focal research lines:

Community and conservation ecology

Experimental conservation ecology

Global flyway ecology

• Meadow birds - populations on the move
• Intertidal foodweb studies

Global change ecology

• Climate change ecology
• Climate change and interspecific interactions
• Climate change and migration: Being at the right place at the right time
• Climate change and dispersal: Searching for a better place to breed
• Global land-use effects on harriers
• Maintenance of genetic variation

Associated research:

Soil fauna and natural ecosystem dynamics

Biogeomorphological dynamics and ecosystem services of coastal zones

Spatial ecology of intertidal systems