Vera Renne: Assessing the relationship between avian communities and regeneration of dry tropical forests in Mexico using passive acoustic monitoring

Universiteit Utrecht Tropical forests, are home to over half of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity and are essential for regulating water cycles and providing global ecosystem services. However, these ecosystems face escalating threats, pushing them towards their resilience limit. Natural regeneration is crucial to their survival, and birds play a vital role in this process. By […]

Margit Smelt: The Effect Of Saltwater Intrusion On Terrestrial Vegetation In Village Forest Gardens On The Northeast Coast of Java and Its Socio-Economic Consequences

Wageningen Universiteit & Research Village forest gardens  are special types of gardens with layers of shrubs, bamboos, palms, and trees around homes. These gardens provide a variety of things like fuel, building materials, fruits, food, and even medicine. In places like southeast Asia, these gardens are a tradition and a symbol of sustainability. Village forest […]

Ruben ter Harmsel: The History and Current Floristic and Abiotic State of Dutch Calcareous Grasslands

Radboud Universiteit Dutch calcareous grassland is a rare, semi-natural, species rich habitat type, protected by EU law. Understanding which factors influence its floristic composition could help conservation and restoration efforts. To research this, I made vegetation relevés and took soil samples across calcareous grasslands in Southern Limburg. I also collected historical vegetation data. My research […]

Maarten van Emmerik: Effect of Urban Heat Island on Germination of Common Dandelion

Radboud University During this MSc internship, I studied urban dandelions in Amsterdam, Nijmegen, and Maastricht. The aim was to investigate adaptation to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. This effect causes overheating of stony areas due to heat retention during sunny days. I sampled plants from the hot city center and compared these to plants […]

Lucas Chojnacki: Shaping Tropical Forests

Wageningen University & Research Secondary forests, most often regenerating from abandoned lands, offer insights into post-disturbance recovery. Succession, the dynamic process of change in forest structure and composition, is influenced by various factors. Understanding the role of dominant and rare species in driving forest attributes is essential is for estimating restorative potential of secondary forests. To […]

Alba Gimeno: Secondary forest regeneration in Mexico

Wageningen University and Research Tropical forests are disappearing rapidly due to deforestation and forest degradation. However, secondary forests can regrow once the land is left fallow through a process called secondary succession. This study aims to (1) understand the effect of the surrounding landscape in terms of distance to the nearest forest and percentage of […]

Hugo de Vries-prijs 2022 voor Eline Ampt

De Hugo de Vries-prijs wordt jaarlijks uitgereikt aan het beste proefschrift op botanisch gebied dat in het voorgaande jaar verdedigd is, en omvat de botanie in de volle breedte. Dit jaar is de prijs gewonnen door Dr. Eline Ampt, van de universiteit Wageningen. Eline schreef een proefschrift over de relatie tussen biodiversiteit en plantenziekten in […]