489 search results for “ecosystem” in the Public website
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Internationalisation
As a university we stand with both feet firmly in the world. Internationalisation is in Leiden’s DNA: from the very foundation of our university, the ideal of the free academy has always attracted researchers and students from across the whole world, and that will continue.
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About the programme
Governance of Sustainability is a two-year programme, worth 120 European Credit Transfer System points (ECTS).
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Hopeful insights on climate and biodiversity in LDE white paper
A banker who puts making money second and makes a profit nonetheless. A farmer who stops ploughing and using insecticides but still has a good harvest. A new white paper by Leiden-Delft-Erasmus and Naturalis Biodiversity Center shows how the meeting of disciplines provides solutions to climate change…
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Earth is more resilient than was thought
We have to do all we can to stop climate change. But: the Earth is more resilient than we thought. That is the surprising conclusion of an international team of ecologists and mathematicians, which included Leiden mathematician Arjen Doelman. The team discovered that ecosystems can still avoid tipping…
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New ecological maps show a wider range of functional diversity
Together with a large international team of scientists, researchers Peter van Bodegom and Nadia Soudzilovskaia of the Leiden Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) have created maps of variability in plant trait distribution across the globe. The new maps have been published in Proceedings of the…
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Research platform in dunes opened
With the sowing of the last experimental plot, new research platform TERRA-Dunes was officially opened on 29 June 2018. The experiment has a fundamental scientific character, but has important practical applications in nature restoration.
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Presentation Gianclaudio Malgieri about Digital Vulnerability at Westminster University in London
Gianclaudio Malgieri, Associate professor at eLaw, was invited to present his research on human Vulnerability and EU digital ecosystem at the University of Westminster in London.
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KNAW Early Career Award for ecologist Michiel Veldhuis
Curiosity is the driving force behind the research of ecologist Michiel Veldhuis. The associate professor investigates ecosystems in relation to climate change in the savannahs of Africa. More and more, he is also looking at social factors such as the influence of population growth. The KNAW rewards…
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‘We should help nature to help us’
Biodiversity and healthy ecosystems continue to decline in Europe, which has serious consequences for human welfare. These are findings of a report that was formally approved by delegates from 127 governments during a UN plenary in Medellin, Colombia. Leiden researcher Alexander van Oudenhoven was one…
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How oak seedlings teach us more on dune restoration
What is the best way to restore dune ecosystems? The project TERRA-Dunes researches the role of soil microbes in the development of natural dune areas. Recently, the project went into a new phase: planting 412 oak seedlings grown in different type of soils.
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Why plants in wetlands are highly productive
Environmental scientists in Leiden have found that the so-called leaf economics spectrum for plants can not only be applied to terrestrial ecosystems, such as forests and grasslands, but also to wetlands. Furthermore, they showed that wetland plants generally have a fast-return strategy, meaning they…
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Change Make Challenge Award for Biology Master student: Gayathri Jaikumar
Gayathri Jaikamur has been awarded by the Dopper Foundation in the Change Make Challenge. She is a student of Masters Biology (Specialisation: Evolution, Conservation and Biodiversity) from India - working under the supervision of CML-researcher Dr. Thijs Bosker (and co-supervision of Dr. Nadja Brun).…
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Beavers had a big influence on how people in the Stone Age lived
For thousands of years, beavers had a big influence on the Dutch ecosystem and the people that lived there. This is the conclusion of research by archaeologist Nathalie Brusgaard.
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More realistic research needed on substances that enter the environment
Chemical substances and nanomaterials are processed on a massive scale in diverse products, while their risks have not been properly assessed. Time and again synthesised substances have been shown to pollute the environment more than lab tests predicted. This is the warning given by Professor of Ecotoxicology…
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‘If we buy these imported products, we are co-responsible for the global decline in biodiversity’
What we buy and consume in Europe often has an impact on biodiversity somewhere else in the world. With a Horizon Europe Funding of 600.000 euros, assistant professor Laura Scherer and her team will develop models to look at the impact of global trade in non-food biomass. ‘After developing the models,…
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A diverse meadow is less easy to damage
Plant communities consisting of many different species are less vulnerable to attacks of plant eating animals or diseases than less diverse communities. It also helps if plant species in one community are not closely related to each other. That is the outcome of an international study published in Nature…
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New vegetation models can improve climate change predictions
A new study in Nature Plants has explored the most important organising principles that control vegetation behaviour. The insights from this study can be used to improve predictions on climate change. Leiden scientists Peter van Bodegom and Nadia Soudzilovskaia participated in the study.
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Better insight into competition between microbes
It is mostly rainfall and soil acidity that determine which microbes survive in a particular habitat and which do not. This knowledge is important for maintaining biodiversity. Leiden environmentalists contributed to the research. Publication in Nature on 1 August.
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Ancois de Villiers receives PeerJ Award for Best Student Presentation
Ancois de Villiers, PhD candidate at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, received the PeerJ Award for Best Student Presentation at the International Mediterranean Ecosystems Conference.
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Mark Leiser appointed International Research Fellow
Dr Mark Leiser, Assistant Professor in Law and Digital technologies at eLaw, has been appointed an International Research fellow at the Coordinated Research Center in Information Society and Law of the University of Milan in Italy. The aim of the Center is to conduct research on issues related to the…
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Academic Pharma submits application to National Growth Fund
Knowledge institutions in the Netherlands are to work together with the pharma and biotech industries to accelerate drug discovery and development. To bridge the ‘lab-to-life’ gap, Leiden University and the LUMC have, as coordinators of Academic Pharma, submitted an application to the National Growth…
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PhD Position (Leiden)
The Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) invites applications for a PhD Position in the ERC Starting Grant project Pages of Prayer: The Ecosystem of Vernacular Prayer Books in the Late Medieval Low Countries, c. 1380-1550. Deadline: 30 November 2022.
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Research: Points system makes neighbourhoods nicer to live in
A lot of municipalities work with a points system to encourage construction projects to take biodiversity and creating green areas into account. But this way of working also benefits local neighbourhoods and residents, master's student Marije Sesink discovered. She based her study on The Hague.
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Leiden University launches Earth Observation platform
A new online platform makes it possible to estimate the state of agricultural crops and nature area’s around the world. This enables scientists and other users to consistently combine observations of different satellites for the first time.
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Jubilee and Farewell conference of CEDC
Short description about 20th anniversary of CEDC, the fieldstation in Cameroon, and 20 years of cooperation between Leiden University with the University of Dschang in Cameroon.
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Third national Bioacoustics day in Zeeland
On the 15th of October, IMARES and IBL co-organized a symposium on underwater acoustics related to research on fish and marine mammals.
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Nature provides more to people than material benefits
The role of culture and diverse knowledge systems needs to be recognized when assessing nature’s contributions to people, a new policy forum paper in Science states. Alexander van Oudenhoven and thirty global experts present a new approach that will increase the effectiveness and legitimacy of policies…
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Discussing water management is ‘more important than ever’
Paul Hudson, a professor at Leiden University College, is organising a symposium on water management in the Netherlands and abroad that will take place on 22 March. We asked him what makes water management so important.
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Ecologist Michiel Veldhuis is the Discoverer of the Year 2020
Michiel Veldhuis received the most public votes for the C.J. Kok Public Award and may therefore call himself Discoverer of the Year. Veldhuis researches how climate change affects savannah ecosystems in Africa and how we can protect them.
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Students wanted for Msc topics at the Institute of Environmental Sciences
Students searched for MSc Internships under the following topics: 1. Understanding temporal variability in functional biodiversity and 2. Characterization of engineered nanoparticles in aquatic organisms: Gold nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes
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Together, plants and fungi could slow down climate change
A special relationship between plants and fungi, which plays an important role in carbon storage in soil, has the potential to slow down climate change. However, the amount of carbon stored in soil is decreasing as a result of human activity. This is what researchers say in a publication in Nature Communications.…
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New database reveals plants' secret relationships with fungi
Leiden researchers have compiled information collected by scientists over the past 120 years into a database of plant-fungal interactions. This important biological data is now freely available for researchers and nature conservationists. Publication in New Phytologist.
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Oncode Accelerator launched: patients at the centre of innovative cancer drug development
Providing each cancer patient with the right treatment remains a challenge. Oncode Accelerator aims to change this by innovating the way we develop cancer treatments, thus ensuring the patient is at the heart of the process.
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Mathematics as weapon against desertification
PhD student Robbin Bastiaansen applies mathematics to get insight in practical problems. By comparing mathematical models with developments in existing ecosystems, he hopes to demystify the process of desertification. His research has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…
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Urgent shifts in building practices are needed to tackle the global sand crisis
A rapid increase in the demand for construction sand is driving shortages and inequality around the world. Researchers from the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University have mapped the growing need for sand, as well as the bottlenecks and possible solutions. They have published their…
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Worldwide degradation of land use and nature threatens prosperity and well being
The world’s prosperity and well-being are seriously being threatened by the degradation of land and nature. Although there are opportunities to turn things around, fears of further deterioration in the coming decades must not be taken lightly. That is concluded at the Intergovernmental Science-Policy…
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Study confirms: burning coal in Bulgaria causes water stress
The coal-power energy sector is using enormous amounts of fresh water which is projected to negatively affect lives and the ecological balance of the surrounding region. This is the conclusion of the new report The Unquenchable Thirst of Energy Production, published by Greenpeace Bulgaria and Leiden…
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These animal species are dear to us, but can we protect them?
Animal species that are dear to us in the Netherlands often spend a large part or all of their lifecycle in other parts of the world. But their habitats worldwide are under increasing pressure, are often inadequately protected and much poorer than the global average. ‘If we truly care about these animals,…
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The strategy of plants: it’s all about balancing traits
Just like every other organism on Earth, plants’ ultimate goal is to survive and reproduce. In order to achieve this, they must make trade-offs between where and how to allocate their finite set of resources. Whether they put their resources and energy into their growth, reproduction or maintenance,…
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New IBL-professor in “Ecology of plant-microbe-insect interactions”: Martijn Bezemer
Martijn Bezemer has been appointed as professor in “Ecology of plant-microbe-insect interactions” within the Faculty of Science at the Institute of Biology from the 1st of September 2016. His main research focus is on aboveground-belowground interactions.
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New AI hub in Zuid-Holland
The region of Zuid-Holland is launching ‘AI Hub Zuid-Holland’. This network organisation will be a single point of contact for business and knowledge institutions in Zuid-Holland that want to work with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
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Islands show human influence on nature
What is the impact of humans on nature? In Science an article appeared in which researchers try to give an answer to that question. Biogeographer and postdoc at LUCL Sietze Norder is one of its authors.
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Noise pollution affects marine life worldwide
Man-made sounds in and around the oceans stress marine life and have an impact on marine species and ecosystems by changing the underwater acoustic climate. Hans Slabbekoorn from the Institute of Biology Leiden pleads for technical solutions to mitigate problems of noise pollution. Science review paper…
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Sport Data Center appointed as Certified Partner of Sportinnovator
The Sport Data Center, a consortium of universities of which Leiden University is leader, is recognised as a Certified Partner of Sportinnovator. This makes the Sport Data Center an important part of the Sportinnovator ecosystem. Sportinnovator is the national programme for sports innovation, initiated…
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36 ditches as living lab for water quality
On Monday 14 November, the first spadeful of earth was dug for the construction of the Living Lab, an experimental test site to study living organisms in freshwater. A total of 36 ditches will be dug out to create a natural environment where researchers can study the effects of chemical compounds from…
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Bosnia
This is an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project of Leiden Law School with University of Sarajevo in Bosnia Herzegovina.
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Topic: Healthy lifestyle: Nudging and self-regulation
We are all aware of the importance of a healthy lifestyle. However, at the same time we also experience many difficulties when we are trying to change our behavior to become more healthy. For example, more often than not our good intentions to exercise more or to eat fewer unhealthy snacks fail miserably…
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20th century changes in the Dutch flora
Description of 20th century changes in the Dutch flora: Description and interpretation (1999 - 2005)
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Lions of West Africa : ecology of lion (Panthera leo Linnaeus 1975) populations and human-lion conflicts in Pendjari Biosphere Reserve, North
Promotores: G.R. de Snoo, B. Sinsin, Co-Promotor: H.H. de Iongh
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Of Islanders and Foreigners? Tracing local identities and cultural encounters in the Gulf of Fonseca, Central America (AD 400-1521)
How did local lifeways and crafting practices persist and develop in the diverse environments of the increasingly interconnected Gulf of Fonseca (AD 400-1521)?