Seagrass is a marine flowering plant with special adaptations to coastal and marine environments, playing a crucial role in providing a wide range of ecosystem services.

Below you will find an overview of the publications of The Leiden Advocacy Project on Plastic.

Do natural soundscapes affect migratory decisions of fishes moving up and down rivers and is this process disturbed by vessel sounds?

Plastics have become an integral part of modern society due to their versatility and durability.

In the summer of 2023, interested parties set out to map air quality in Leiden. Using a technique by British artist Robin Price, they made the invisible visible to start the conversation about the importance of good air quality.

Does Artifical Light at Night (ALAN) disrupt seasonal physiological and behavioral patterns in migrating freshwater fish?

As a non-invasive genetic method, eDNA based approaches have become an important component of ecologists' and environmental managers' toolkits for biomonitoring in conservation and an increasingly important source of ecological knowledge.

How dangerous are micro- and nanoplastics? Do they affect the environment? What harm can they do to our bodies? Questions that we can now finally answer because of Fazel Abdolahpur Monikh. Together with his colleagues, he developed a method to detect and quantify nano-sized plastics. Their paper has…

Policy Note Insecurity in Burkina Faso – beyond conflict minerals: The complex links between artisanal gold mining and violence

We investigate the processes underlying the patterns. We aim to explain biodiversity by investigating the distribution, function, development, and evolution of body forms, as well as physiological and behavioural variety among species. We collaborate with those specialized in describing, archiving,…

A seven-metre glass tunnel, filled with running water, and equipped with speakers and cameras. An artificial river for investigating what light and sound pollution do to migrating fish.

This study seeks to identify suitable local environments conditions for the objects displayed at the Jordanian museums using the proper methods in order to contribute to the stabilization of these objects.

Although smartphones and other consumer cameras are increasingly used for scientific applications like citizen science, it’s still difficult to compare and combine data from different devices. PhD student Olivier Burggraaff developed a new easy-to-use standardised method which makes it possible for…

Our institute contributes to multiple curricula. 

The Leiden Center for the Study of Ancient Arabia (LeiCenSAA) announces a new open access, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the epigraphy of Arabia and its cultural and linguistic context: Arabian Epigraphic Notes

Evolutionary and ecological interactions affect species on genetic and phenotypic levels. This theme aims to understand these processes at multiple levels: from molecules to genomes to populations and to communities. Our research focuses on evolutionary responses to anthropogenic change, the role of…

Nanoplastics can accumulate in developing hearts, according to a study by biologist Meiru Wang from Leiden University. Her research on chicken embryos sheds new light on how these tiny plastic particles pose a threat to our health.

The Leiden University Network for Health in Africa (LUNHA) aims to shift the focus of global health to be more about justice, fairness, and inclusion.

While African ground-based air quality measurements have struggled to gain national and continental footholds, satellite data, especially high-resolution measurements from the TROPOMI satellite, can provide not only continental coverage but lend new insights for regional to city-scale air quality issues…

Leiden academics Remco Breuker and Auke-Florian Hiemstra stand to win the title of Person of the Year.

Issues such as climate change, the depletion of natural resources or social inequality are too complex to be addressed from a single scientific discipline or by a single country. Leiden University has the expertise to bring the resolution of these enormous problems a small step closer.

CML’s education programme aims at training (under)graduate and graduate students for integrated and multidisciplinary sustainability research and for better decision making in managing the world’s natural resources, environmental quality and biodiversity.

Would you like to know more about our research using laboratory animals or our studies on alternatives to animal testing? If so, take a look at the news articles on the right-hand side of the page (for mobile users, see the bottom of the page).

Promotores: H.A. Udo De Haes, P.M. Brakefield

This thesis addresses the challenge of sustainable urban development by analyzing the interplay between green and grey infrastructure to optimize resource use and ecosystem services.

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…

Living labs make it possible for citizens to participate in research for sustainable development of their environment. This way citizens, together with scientists and stakeholders, create local conditions for food production, healthy environment, and biodiversity.

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.

On this section of the website you can find more information about the Old Observatory and the current astronomy research institute.

Anthropogenic noise negatively affects wildlife in a wide range of taxonomic groups.

This study stresses the importance of investigating vitamin D deficiency in every community to better understand the deteriorating effect that sociocultural practices may have had on health.

The Honours Academy offers extra opportunities for students and teachers at Leiden University.

How do technological systems impact the environment? And can they be designed in a more sustainable way? The Resources and Energy research program studies the importance of resources and energy for our society and aims to guide the shift towards a sustainable circular economy.

Hydrodesulfurization (HDS) is an ubiquitous part of oil refining that ensures that fuels are cleaned of impurities and environment release of pollutants such as SOx and NOx gasses are minimized.

On 19 May 2020, Xuechan Ma defended her thesis 'Moving towards Coexistence and Cooperation: The Spratly Islands and International Law'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. N.J. Schrijver.

The marine shipping industry is one of the strongest emitters of nitrogen oxides (NOx), a pollutant detrimental to ecology and human health. Over the last 20 years, the pollution produced by power plants, the industry sector, and cars has been decreasing.

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

The Grachtwacht (Canal Watch) conducts research on urban wildlife and the impact of plastic on nature. With our clean-ups, we not only collect waste, but also data. This way we try to find out the source of the waste and turn off the tap on shore. This way there is structurally less plastic in the c…

Galaxies are environments where gas coalesces, cools, and is converted into stars. However, it remains unclear the exact mechanisms through which galaxies acquire, redistribute and lose their gas.

Leidse milieuwetenschappers doen onderzoek naar microplastics, bestrijdingsmiddelen en bemesting. En binnenkort naar lichtvervuiling en nieuwe materialen uit de nanotechnologie.

This thesis investigates reactive interfaces in surface science across three domains: heterogeneous catalysis, environmental nanoplastics, and two-dimensional materials.

The most urgent sustainability challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, and pollution, are complex issues that concern society as a whole. This means that among employers there is a growing demand for graduates who are able to combine both natural scientific and social…

The Science for Sustainable Societies bachelor’s programme equips you to address pressing environmental issues through an interdisciplinary approach. By integrating natural sciences, social sciences, and governance, you’ll develop the expertise to analyse and solve complex sustainability challenges…

The Science for Sustainable Societies bachelor’s programme equips you to address pressing environmental issues through an interdisciplinary approach. By integrating natural sciences, social sciences, and governance, you’ll develop the expertise to analyse and solve complex sustainability challenges…

Over the past two centuries, socioeconomic development has improved material living standards but has also intensified environmental pressures, including climate change and biodiversity loss.

Moritz Jesse, Associate Professor at the Europa Institute in Leiden, provided the key-note lecture at this year’s annual conference of the German-Dutch Lawyers Association. The lecture was titled “The other’s amongst us – Third-Country Nationals and Brits in the EU”.

Do you want to find solutions to environmental problems that make a real impact? Do you have a broad interest and want to learn from insights from the natural and social sciences when analysing complex sustainability challenges? Then Science for Sustainable Societies at Leiden University may be the…