News

Safi Graauw, a Master's student in Earth Sciences, has made a documentary on the positive effects of tree planting on the East African landscape. The video ‘Seeds of Change’ depicts the progress made in reforestation ...

What role play flower-rich field margins in agriculture? And do these flower strips enhance biodiversity? These were some of the central questions of a two-year collaborative research programme that involved farmers, ...

Ecologist Hal Caswell of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) has been awarded the Distinguished Lorentz Fellowship 2019/20 for his research on mathematical models of population dynamics. “The models we currently use ...

Are you a PhD student or postdoc, between 21 - 40 years old, and would you like to learn how to explain your research to a general public ... in just three minutes? Join FameLab!

Prof. A.P. van Wezel (1968) has been appointed professor of Environmental Ecology at the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Science (UvA). In addition, she has also been appointed director of the UvA’s Institute ...

Prof. S.A. Hogenhout (1969) has been named professor by special appointment of Molecular Plant-Microbe-Insect Interactions at the University of Amsterdam’s (UvA) Faculty of Science. This chair was established on ...

There is a high need for up-to-date, reliable and comparable biodiversity data to efficiently manage global biodiversity. An international group of biodiversity researchers, including researchers of the UvA Institute ...

Researchers of the University of Amsterdam, in collaboration with colleagues from the Lund University in Sweden, examined how 18 years drought affected billions of vital bacteria hidden in the soil beneath our feet. ...

The channelized streams in our landscape are slowly restored into the original meandering streams that are naturally present in the Netherlands. These restoration projects are important to keep the streams functional ...

Amber Woutersen, graduate of the MSc Biological Sciences at the UvA, is the winner of this year’s East-West Seed Graduation prize for Plant Sciences. On Monday she received the young-talent graduation prize, worth ...

In the transition to sustainable energy, the Dutch government is strongly committed to building wind farms at sea. But these wind parks are not completely environmentally friendly: every year probably thousands of ...

Dr F.T. de Vries (1978) has been appointed professor of Earth Surface Science at the University of Amsterdam’s (UvA) Faculty of Science.

The biodiversity patterns on volcanic oceanic islands that we see today have been shaped by the way island group were arranged during long-term sea levels fluctuations in the distant past. This is the conclusion from ...

For over 25 years Prof. Pim de Voogt has worked at the UvA. He has served as professor by special appointment of Chemistry of (Emerging) Water Contaminants at the UvA's Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem ...

A research article written by Prof. Gerard Muyzer has been listed as the highest cited paper of the Microbiology research field. The article describes a molecular approach to analyse the genetic diversity of complex ...

Lake Markermeer is a large and important nature reserve in the centre of the Netherlands. Already for a while the ecological state of the lake is declining, which has consequences for important functions as ...

We are happy to announce that Prof. Annemarie van Wezel will be appointed director of the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) and professor Environmental Ecology, starting 1 January 2019. As our ...

The molar of an extinct giant deer, found in sandy deposits of the North Sea, revealed important information that can help to understand why several large herbivores went extinct at the end of the last Ice Age. By ...

Mountains are among the most biodiverse places on Earth, but scientists have struggled to fully understand why they are so important in creating high species richness. An international research team, including four ...

Management of global biodiversity requires up-to-date, reliable and comparable biodiversity data. The concept of Essential Biodiversity Variables has previously been introduced to allow monitoring the global state of ...

As the last ice age came to an end and the planet warmed, the Earth’s vegetation changed dramatically. The current warming from climate change may drive an equally dramatic change in vegetation within the next 100 to ...

In South America you can find a species rich alpine tundra ecosystem called páramos. These ecosystems are restricted to the mountain tops of the Northern Andes, forming isolated ‘sky islands’. During the last 3 ...

Understanding the many factors that have played into shaping the biodiversity within Earth’s ecosystems can be daunting. In a major step to that end, an international team of researchers built a computer simulation ...

Mangabey monkeys exhibit peculiar foraging behaviour by scavenging on the energy-rich remnants of nuts cracked by chimpanzees and red river hogs. This allows them to obtain the inside of nuts, which they would not ...

Climate warming is most rapid in the Arctic and the general notion is that migratory birds have to arrive earlier on the Arctic breeding grounds to let their chicks benefit from the earlier start of spring. A recent ...

Human activities are changing the ocean on a global scale, with seawater in some regions becoming warmer, more acidic, and less well mixed. One possible result of reduced ocean mixing is that nutrients, which act ...

Nineteenth century explorers who visited the cloud forests of the Ecuadorian Andes regularly referred to the landscape as a ‘pristine’ wilderness. What they were, in fact, observing was the recovery on an environment ...

Last week an international team of scientists led by aquatic ecologists from the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics published a review about the world wide expansion, causes and risks of cyanobacterial ...

In the past, the Amazon exerted a major influence on the eutrophication in the westernmost equatorial portion of the Atlantic Ocean. This is the conclusion of an international research team coordinated by the ...

In some parts of the world palm trees with very large fruits have adapted to global change, whereas in other parts they seem to have gone extinct. These are findings from a new study by Renske Onstein and Daniel ...

The International Society for Reef Science (ISRS) has announced that Professor Rolf Bak has been awarded an Eminence in Research Award in recognition for the exceptional research that he has conducted over the course ...

The bulb mite (Rhizoglyphus robini) is a common pest of numerous crops. Male bulb mites display one of two reproductive tactics and are classified as ‘fighters’ and ‘scramblers’. Biologists from the University of ...

An interdisciplinary team of UvA scientists received an ABC project grant from the Amsterdam Brain and Cognition centre to study the causes and consequences of social learning. One of the researchers involved is ...

UvA Earth Sciences alumni made it to the finals of DigitalGlobe's international GBDX for Sustainability Challenge. Their winning project, Global Green City Watch, makes it possible to monitor the quality of green ...

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded prestigious Advanced Grants to UvA professors Hal Caswell and Dennis Rodgers. The grants, totalling 1.2 million euros and 2.5 million euros respectively, are awarded on ...

Through the chemical analysis of wastewater it has been shown that the highly dangerous weight loss agent DNP is used by amateur athletes during sport events. These results have recently been published by researchers ...

Frank Nack, lecturer and programme director in the Master's programme Information Studies, has been named the faculty winner of the Lecturer of the Year election by Faculty of Science students. John van Boxel and Leo ...

On 26-28 February 2018, an international workshop was organized to foster the global cooperation of biodiversity research infrastructures and biodiversity scientists. The workshop was focused on species interactions ...

Eight talented researchers have been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship to conduct research at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The awarded projects include research on border control within the ...

Recent research in nature reserve Laarder Wasmeren, close to Hilversum, has led to new insights with regard to the use of large herbivores in nature management in the Netherlands. Physical geographers and ...

Four UvA Earth Sciences alumni made it to the finals of DigitalGlobe's international GBDX for Sustainability Challenge. In the final round they are up against students from, among others, Oxford and Duke. For their ...

In a new study just launched by a number of Dutch district water boards and knowledge institutions, a team of scientists including statistical ecologist Emiel van Loon of the UvA Institute for Biodiversity and ...

The troubling loss of coral reefs worldwide has prompted scientists and conservationists to assist the reefs’ recovery through active restoration approaches. A new innovation to sow coral larvae onto degraded reefs ...

Female moths that are unattractive can increase their chances of attracting a mate by emitting their sex pheromones in close proximity to attractive females, according to research from the University of Amsterdam and ...

Dr A.T. Groot has been appointed professor of Population and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Amsterdam's (UvA) Faculty of Science.

How can we gain a better grasp of the opportunities and threats for the changing seas? In the months ahead, UvA researchers and students will join the national multidisciplinary expedition Netherlands Initiative ...

The Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Amsterdam Green Campus and the municipality of Amsterdam signed a collaboration agreement. The agreement confirms the shared intention to develop new knowledge ...

Petra Visser studies cyanobacteria in fresh and salt water. As coordinator of the Master’s programme in Freshwater and Marine Biology (Biological Sciences), she is closely involved in the teaching and supervision of ...

Rapid and mobile DNA analysis can speed up the investigation at the crime scene, but also has its risks. A new decision model can help the police and the Public Prosecution Service (OM) to determine whether or not to ...

Climate-change discussions on social media are very influential. A new study in BioScience published by an international and multidisciplinary team researchers, among which UvA researcher Peter Roessingh, shows that ...

On 16 November there was a lustrum symposium in café Oerknal to celebrate the 80th birthday of Physical Geography at UvA, as well as the 25th birthday of the corresponding study association GAOS and alumni ...

Luuk Folkerts from Gemini Offshore Wind Park is responsible for monitoring the environmental effects of the wind farm. He works together with the Theoretical and Computational Ecology at UvA-IBED to do fundamental ...

A multidisciplinary research team coordinated by Maarten van Bommel (UvA) has been awarded a NWO grant to develop a 'Toolbox for studying the Chemistry Of Light-induced Degradation'. The so-called 'TooCOLD' project ...

We have a job opening for a 3-year Postdoctoral researcher in global ecology at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The person will be responsible for conducting high-quality research on global ecology, ...

Steven Droge, researcher at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (UvA), received the Excellence in Review Award 2017 of the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology. The prize is in ...

An international team of researchers, which includes UvA primatologist Serge Wich and biologists (and UvA alumni) Gabriella Frederiksson and Erik Meijaard, has just described a new great ape species: the Tapanuli ...

By dispersing the seeds of plants, fruit-eating animals contribute to the possibility of increased plant speciation and thus biodiversity. These are the findings of a new study led by Renske E. Onstein and W. Daniel ...

An international research team, including UvA-biologist Mark Vermeij, made two important advances in the understanding of the molecular diversity as found on coral reefs, as well as the use of this knowledge in the ...

Gradual environmental changes due to eutrophication and global warming can cause a rapid depletion of oxygen levels in lakes and coastal waters. A new study led by professors Jef Huisman and Gerard Muyzer of the ...

Carina Hoorn will be this year the speaker at the prestigious Staringlezing. The annual Staring lecture is organized by the KNGMG .

A new paper co-authored by an international team of scientists, among them UvA PhD candidate Charlotte Vavourakis, shows how the team expressed microbial retinal pigments called xenorhodopsins in various model ...

A photograph made by Harry Seijmonsbergen, assistant professor at the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), is selected as winner in the Landscape Ecology and Ecosystems section in the BMC Image ...

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) bestowed a funding of 2.5 million euros upon the interdisciplinary research proposal 'Origin of Life'. This research proposal addresses questions in the ...

UvA scientists can be found everywhere: from the lab at Roeterseiland to the North Pole and from Jordan to the United States. Or, like Ke Gao, in Gaolifang, China. Ke Gao is a PhD candidate at the Institute for ...

Rúna Magnússon, UvA alumna of the Master's programme Earth Sciences and technician at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), won the third prize in the students’ presentations competition at ...

It is often argued that cyanobacteria are superior competitors at low CO2 levels owing to their effective carbon-concentrating mechanism, but tend to be displaced by eukaryotic phytoplankton species at elevated CO2. ...

A team of researchers part of the European project SponGES is in the middle of a busy summer performing experiments on two research cruises and in lab facilities in Bergen (Norway). PhD student Martijn Bart, Post-Doc ...

For several years, Maayke Stomp fought a battle that ultimately she could not win. Maayke was a talented scientist, dedicated lecturer and beloved colleague, who initiated ground-breaking research on the effects of ...

A new paper co-authored by a group of international scientists, among them UvA researcher W. Daniel Kissling, shows how Essential Biodiversity Variables can be produced to measure biodiversity change at a global scale.

This summer, succulents planted on the roof of an Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) building, the Benno Premselahuis, are going to filter out particulate matter in the polluted Wibautstraat. The 50 ...

Molecular-genetic research at the department of Evolutionary and Population Biology of the University of Amsterdam and Ghent University revealed that the two-spotted spider mite used a group of genes from fungi in ...

Juvenile eagles need older, experienced birds to travel successfully to Africa. This is the conclusion of a German research team in a study on lesser spotted eagles. University of Amsterdam (UvA) researcher Wouter ...

Ecologist Masha van der Sande has been awarded a Rubicon grant by The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), to perform research in close collaboration with paleoecologist William Gosling from the ...

Friday 14 July was the festive opening of the research vessel R.V. Dreissena. The ship will be used by the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED-UvA) to carry out research on Lake Markermeer. The ...

The R.V. Dreissena, a ship for ecological research in lake Markermeer, is ready to set sail. Researchers and students now have their very own research vessel to carry out safe and well-equipped field trips. On 14 ...

For ten years Lucas Stal has been a special professor in the field of Marine Microbiology at the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED). This year he will retire and in his honour there is a ...

Master's student Silke van Daalen (MSc Biological Sciences) is the winner of this year's UvA Thesis Prize. She won the award for her study of the analysis of demographic patterns in populations of human and non-human ...

The fluctuations in the population abundance of Antarctic krill – small, crustaceous animals – are the result of internal self-regulation (i.e. competition for food) and not because of external climatological events, ...

Migrant birds that breed in the same area in Europe spread out across all of Africa during the northern winter. A new satellite-tracking study shows that the destination of individual birds is largely determined by ...

Xing Ji, PhD candidate at the Research Department Freshwater and Marine Ecology of the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), has received the 2016 Chinese Government Award for outstanding ...

DNA fingerprinting has revealed how the malaria parasite shuffles genes to create different strains and hide from our immune system. This trick allows the parasite to remain undetected and re-infect the same people, ...

The paper entitled "Mind the Gap: Persistent and Mobile Organic Compounds—Water Contaminants That Slip Through" was selected as one of the Best Papers of 2016 of the prestigious journal "Environmental Science & ...

Over 400 participants attended the NKWK Water and Climate conference that was held at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam on 11 April. The conference was co-organised by Amsterdam Water Science and themed ‘New ...

After a successful fundraising campaign among donors to the Amsterdam University Fund last year, construction of a ship for ecological research in the waters of Markermeer began in late March.

Judy Shamoun-Baranes is lecturer in the interdisciplinary Bachelor’s programme Future Planet Studies, for which she also coordinates the first-year course ‘A future perspective for planet Earth’. She is also guest ...

Researchers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the University of Brasilia (Brazil) have determined the age of the formation of the Amazon River at 9.4 to 9 million years ago (Ma) with data that convincingly ...

The scientific results of four research projects initiated by Amsterdam Water Science are presented at the NKWK Conference on Water and Climate that will be held on 11 April in Amsterdam.

Biologists Martijn Bart, Ineke Knot, Rob Kroes, Gea van der Lee and Benjamin Mueller from the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (UvA) have received a grant from the KNAW Ecology Fund. The grant will ...

The conference is organised by Amsterdam Water Science, Rijkswaterstaat, KNMI and staff Delta Commissaris, in collaboration with NL Engineers / Arcadis, U Twente and TU Delft.

Prof. H.J. Bouwmeester (1960) has been appointed professor of Plant Hormone Biology at the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam (UvA).

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded a prestigious Vici grant worth 1.5 million euros to four researchers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The grant will enable the ...

If used in the wrong combination, environmentally and health-friendly pest control strategies might actually increase crop pest populations. A new European research project, led by UvA researcher Merijn Kant, will ...

Four hundred years ago Galileo created a revolution by pointing his telescope to the skies. Now an astrophysicist and an ecologist from the University of Amsterdam and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) are ...

European biologists have discovered that relationships between soil organisms are missing during the first stages of nature restoration in former agricultural soils. Soil fungi play an important role in establishing ...

Thirteen promising researchers have received a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship to conduct research at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The projects focus, among other things, on the formation of ...

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded a Rubicon Grant to UvA researchers Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez, Marc Heerdink and Annegreet Veldhuis-Vlug. The grant will allow them to conduct ...

An international team of researchers from the UK, Denmark and Spain together with Associate Professor Daniel Kissling of the University of Amsterdam shed new light on why and how people use palms in South America. ...

A new article co-authored by a group of internationally recognised experts on primate conservation, among them UvA professor Serge Wich, calls for urgent action to protect the world’s dwindling primate populations. ...

Associate Professor for Quantitative Biodiversity Science Daniel Kissling of the University of Amsterdam has obtained a grant from the Netherlands eScience Center. The grant will be used to start a project to ...

UvA environmental chemists Steven Droge and Pim de Voogt are rewarded a research grant of €500,000 by CEFIC, the European Chemical Industry Council. The grant is intended for research on fish that is contaminated ...

Dr. Jolanda Verspagen, currently Amsterdam Water Science postdoc, accepted the new Assistant Professorship job offer in the new department of Freshwater and Marine Science / Ecology at IBED. She will start her new ...

The fourth edition of the popular science magazine Amsterdam Science is out now. This issue explores the interfaces where science and art meet.

The Master's programme in Ecology and Evolution offered by VU Amsterdam and the track in Ecology and Evolution, which is part of the UvA Master's programme in Biological Sciences, had so many similarities that both ...

How does a male moth find the right type of female for mating when there are two similar types luring him with their pheromones? In many species, differences in the antenna used by the male to smell these perfumes ...

High numbers of African lizard species are found in areas where their ancestors have entered the continent more than 20 million years ago, which suggests strong dispersal limitations. These are the findings of a new ...

A class of newly emerging contaminants, so-called persistent and mobile organic chemicals (PMOCs) are a threat to the quality of water resources. This is what Pim de Voogt, professor of Environmental Chemistry at the ...

Dr T. Boekhout (1955) has been named professor by special appointment of CBS Fungal Biodiversity Centre at the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Science. The chair was established on behalf of the Royal ...

The UvA’s Bachelor’s programmes in Psychobiology and Biology and Master’s programme in Biological Sciences have been assessed as ‘good’ by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO). All ...

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a Starting Grant to seven researchers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA). This individual grant, which is about 1.5 million euros for each project, offers talented ...

On 12 September 2016 State Secretary of Education, Sander Dekker, awarded Biology Teachers Nienke Wieringa and Rob Kroes a doctoral scholarship.

Researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, including Dr. Astrid Groot (UvA-IBED), found that the specialist moth Heliothis subflexa benefits from the defensive ...

A common type of blue-green algae is finding it easy to adapt to Earth's rising CO2 levels, meaning blue-green algae – of which there are many toxin-producing varieties – are even more adept at handling changing ...

An adolescent orangutan called Rocky could provide the key to understanding how speech in humans evolved from the time of the ancestral great apes, according to new research.

The amount of blue-green algae in Lake Oosterduin in the province of South Holland has dramatically declined following an experiment with hydrogen peroxide. It is now safe to swim in the lake once again. The ...

Astrid Groot gives lectures and practical training in Evolutionary Biology to second-year students of Biology, Psychobiology and Future Planet Studies. She also set up the Master’s course Current Trends in Evolution. ...

The crucian carp, the only cyprinid native to the Netherlands, can crossbreed with non-native carp species. That’s one of the things Sebastiaan Rückert, Master’s student at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), ...

After two international workshops with world-leading experts, the EU horizon 2020 project GLOBIS-B project, coordinated by Daniel Kissling of the University of Amsterdam, has made a major step towards building ...

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the University of New Hampshire successfully identified spatial and environmental variables of importance to the placement of historical ...

Lisette Mekkes is a student of the MSc programme Limnology&Oceanography at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics. To get into marine science has been her dream since she ...

It saddens us to announce the untimely death of prof. dr. Remi Laane a few days ago. Remi Laane was an affiliate professor at IBED, holding a special chair Marine Biogeochemistry supported by DELTARES.

The outdoor swimming season has arrived again and we have to watch in some places for the dangerous blue-green algae. But there is only a very small part of the blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) family which is toxic. ...

Eleven scientists from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Academic Medical Centre (AMC-UvA) will each receive an €800,000 Vidi grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), to develop ...

Frederique Kirkels (MSc Earth Sciences, track Geoecological Dynamics) won the Esscher Prize 2015 for the best Dutch Master's thesis in Earth Sciences. She carried out her research on organic carbon as source for CO2 ...

A passionate scientist, inspiring lecturer and beloved colleague has unexpectedly left our midst. Hans Matthijs was a biochemist who was fascinated by cyanobacteria and did ground breaking work on them for almost 40 ...

A team of European researchers, including Corina Brussaard of UvA-IBED and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), found that frequent small oil spills have immediate negative effects on life in the ...

Insects such as bees and butterflies are important for pollination of wild plants and crops. It is therefore important to understand how climate and land use changes affect pollinators. A study by researchers from ...

Spider mites secrete proteins via their saliva that suppress the natural resistances in their host plants. This was discovered by a group of researchers under supervision of Merijn Kant and Rob Schuurink of the UvA ...

How diet has affected the evolution of the 10,000 bird species in the world is still a mystery to evolutionary biology. A study by Daniel Kissling of the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (UvA) and ...

A new international study reveals that ecosystem engineers, such as sea-grass, cordgrass and mussels, can create the perfect habitat for themselves and other species, making them an invaluable tool for the ...

Today, exactly 150 years after the first reconstruction of a dodo skeleton, a new monograph on this giant pigeon which became extinct in the 17th century was published. For the first time ever, the 15th Memoir of the ...

The growth in an ecosystem’s microbial population isn’t necessarily accompanied by a rise in the number of viruses who infect and destroy it, a new study has revealed. The study, published yesterday in Nature, ...

Great steps towards the development of a global monitoring system for changes in biodiversity have been made in the EU Horizon 2020 project GLOBIS-B. This breakthrough in global collaboration was achieved during a ...

Corina Brussaard, professor by special appointment of Viral Ecology at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, has been elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

A larger number of Sumatran orangutans live in the wild than previously thought, a new survey has revealed. The research team behind the survey, however, warn that continuing deforestation is likely to reduce their ...

Researchers from the University of Amsterdam, SECORE International and the Carmabi Marine Research Station have for the first time successfully raised laboratory-bred colonies of the critically endangered Caribbean ...

Research of UvA professor Pim de Voogt and colleagues of the KWR Watercycle Research Institute, the Dutch Ministry of Transport and Waterworks and Wageningen University & Research, is published in a special edition ...

Viruses infect more than humans or plants. For microorganisms in the oceans – including those that capture half of the carbon taken out of the atmosphere every day – viruses are a major threat. A recently published ...

Astrid Groot, associate professor at the UvA Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, received an NWO Earth and Life Sciences open program grant for the research project 'Understanding sexual selection: ...

In recent decades, European environmental policy has aimed to improve water quality through the reduction of nitrogen and phosphorus loads in surface waters. The measures taken were much more effective at the removal ...

Astrid Groot received a NWO–ALW open program grant for the project “Understanding sexual selection: which sex leads the dance when both are signallers?”

In 2013 an international research team, including Jasper de Goeij from the University of Amsterdam's Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, found an answer to Darwin's reef paradox: how one of the world’s ...

Comment on Clement et al. 2015 ‘The domestication of Amazonia before European conquest’ was published on 23 December 2015 (authors: C. H. McMichael, D. R. Piperno, M. B. Bush)

Birds flee to unusual heights on the most noisy night of the year. Judy Shamoun-Baranes, of the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, wrote a blog post about this specific bird’s behaviour on New Year’s ...

Dr B.A. Nolet (1961) has been named professor by special appointment of Waterfowl Movement Ecology at the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Science. The chair was established by the Netherlands Institute for ...

Amsterdam Water Science, a new initiative by the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), will hold its inaugural launch during a two-day water management symposium on 25 and 26 November 2015.

Amsterdam Water Science, the new water research collaboration between VU Amsterdam and University of Amsterdam proudly announces the launch of its new website.

The water in and around Amsterdam – that's the focus of the new Amsterdam Water Science consortium (AWS). On 25 and 26 November, the consortium will be officially launched with a symposium. The decision to fund AWS ...

UvA researchers Gerard Oostermeijer, Sheila Luijten and Koos Biesmeijer, all part of the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, made a large contribution to the book ‘Not without each other – flowers and ...

Data generated by GPS tracking devices used in the University of Amsterdam (UvA) Bird Tracking System (UvA-BiTS) to study bird behaviour have such a high level of accuracy that they can be used to deduce weather ...

On Thursday 1 October, fourteen Faculty of Science students received the Amsterdam Science Talent Scholarship from Rector Magnificus Dymph van den Boom. The Amsterdam Science Talent Scholarship was founded by the ...

Oil spills prevent larvae of Caribbean corals from attaching to the reef bottom well after spills are cleaned up

Amsterdam Water Science is a joint research programme of the UvA and VU on Water Sciences in the Netherlands. This initiative integrates research from more than 110 fulltime researchers at the Amsterdam-based ...

Mount Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo has an exceptionally high biodiversity. During an expedition, organised by Naturalis Biodiversity Center and Sabah Parks, experts, including Katja Peijnenburg (UvA-IBED) discovered ...

Piet Verdonschot and Michiel Kraak (UvA-IBED) received a grant of €320.000 from the Dutch water boards, united in the STOWA (Foundation for Applied Water Research). The to-be appointed PhD student will focus on the ...

On Thursday August 13, BNR Radio will broadcast an interview of Jasper de Goeij

Marc Davidson has been appointed, per 1 August 2015, Endowed Chair of Philosophy of sustainable development from a humanistic perspective at the International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainable ...

Twenty-three recent doctorate recipients have been awarded a Veni grant from the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for research at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the UvA’s Academic Medical ...

W. Daniel Kissling (UvA-IBED) received a €230,000 grant from the open competition programme of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), which will be used to fund a 3-year postdoc position. The ...

A new reconstruction of past climate change shows that a warm climate in northern Europe can be hit by a sudden cooling associated with an interruption of the North Atlantic Ocean circulation. An international team ...

New findings of the largest European study on illicit drugs in wastewater analysis will be published today by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in Lisbon as part of the EMCDDA ...

The diversity of butterflies has changed since 1900. A new study now provides the first inventory underlining the decline of butterflies in Denmark. It shows that twelve species (10% of Danish butterfly species) have ...

Plants and animals in natural ecosystems do not always settle at a stable equilibrium. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam present the first field evidence for chaos among multiple interacting species, based ...

In a unique interdisciplinary research project, Nicky Pouw (Amsterdam Institute for Social Sciences Research, AISSR) and Boris Jansen (Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, IBED) will study possibilities ...

Researchers Dr Hans Matthijs and Dr Petra Visser of the University of Amsterdam's (UvA) Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) have received a grant within the Netherlands Organisation for ...

In the QS World University Rankings by Subject, published on Tuesday 28 April, Geography and Linguistics of the Faculty of Science are in the top 50.

Dutch heathlands are a typical ‘cultural landscape’ that cannot exist without landscape management. A new study by a European science team, which included Dr Albert Tietema of the University of Amsterdam, shows how ...

The first issue of the popular science magazine ‘Amsterdam Science’ was officially released earlier today during the Dies Natalis celebrations of the UvA’s Faculty of Science. A joint initiative of the University of ...

Chemicals in drugs end up in our waste water and in the environment. Fortunately, some microorganisms may be able to break down these harmful substances. Exactly how these bacteria do this is being jointly ...

A Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship has been awarded to thirteen researchers for research projects at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The projects will focus, among other things, on sexual communication between ...

A rare and threatened Caribbean coral species has for the first time been successfully bred and raised in the lab, according to research conducted by researchers of the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem ...

To increase the biomass of fish, contemporary ecological theory predicts that either the amount of food or the quality of the food has to increase. In a recent publication in Nature Communications researchers of Umeå ...

Horizon 2020, the EU programme for research and innovation, has granted three Faculty of Science projects a total of more than EUR 1.5 million. These projects are concerned with large-scale database applications ...

Canadian national Jamie McLaren will be awarded his doctorate degree at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) on 4 February. McLaren studied bird migration as a part of his doctoral research at the Institute for ...

The use of malaria vaccines combined with a bednet can be counter-productive in some cases and can even exacerbate the problem. This follows research carried out by an international team led by Yael Artzy-Randrup ...

Tropical rainforests have the largest number of species on Earth and an astonishing variation of life forms, such as climbing palms. A new study led by Daniel Kissling of the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem ...

The Amsterdam Water Science consortium has received start-up capital from the Amsterdam Academic Alliance (AAA). These funds will give VU University Amsterdam (Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences) and the University ...

Peter Demaeght (1984) will be awarded his doctorate degree at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) on 23 January. During his doctoral research at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), he studied ...

Two months ago Alice Burridge, PhD candidate at Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre Leiden, joined an international oceanographic expedition across the Atlantic ...

Orangutans have the ability to produce vowel and consonant-like sounds similar to those of human speech. This is the finding of new research conducted by an international team of scientists, among them researchers ...

Maurice Sabelis passed away on Wednesday, 7 January 2015, after an illness of two years, during which he remained scientifically active until the last moment.

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), together with KWR Watercycle Research Institute, have started a four-year research programme focussing on the environmental risks for water systems during ...

Students Darko Radakovic and Rachael Chambers of the master Earth Sciences presented their glacier experiment to the Dutch king Willem-Alexander at the occasion of 50 years of European cooperation in space on 16 ...

On 15 December 2015 a large joint project of the ESS group of IBED and the Department of Geoscience and Engineering of TU Delft was funded in the WATER 2014 call of STW – NWO. Within the project lead researchers Timo ...

Dr W.P. de Voogt (1952) has been appointed professor of Chemico-Biological Interactions in Aquatic Ecosystems at the University of Amsterdam’s (UvA) Faculty of Science.

Professor P.C. de Ruiter (1952) has been named professor of Soil Systems Ecology at the University of Amsterdam’s (UvA) Faculty of Science.

In recognition of his palaeoecological studies, Dr Bas van Geel was awarded the 2014 Jongmans Medal for excellence in Palaeobotany and Palynology during the opening of the 9th Palynological Conference in Padova.

During the 2014 TEDx Amsterdam event on 28 November, two IBED scientist gave a short talk ‘beyong the wall’ in Vondel CS. Dr Judy Shamoun-Baranes talked about ‘Birds on the Move’, while Dr Sebastiaan de Vet went ...

The smallest forms of life on Earth are now exhibited in a brand new museum called ‘Micropia’. IBED scientists contributed to the realization of this unique museum, which is affiliated to the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam.

Researcher Kenneth Rijsdijk from UvA-IBED and colleague’s will present new insights of the evolving of the extinct dodo at the Conference of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology on Thursday 6 November. These ...

Natural ecosystems often develop distinct spatial patterns. Research from the University of Amsterdam, the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), the Netherlands Institute of Ecology and the ...

Professor Peter de Ruiter will be appointed professor of Soil Systems Ecology at the UvA’s Faculty of Science and director of the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED). He will assume his duties ...

One species of moth can subsist on a particular plant type, while another can’t. Why? Katja Hora has been exploring the way in which ermine moths choose their host plant and, more in particular, the genetic ...

Rising CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere will stimulate harmful algal blooms at a global level. This warning is issued by UvA scientists Jolanda Verspagen and Jef Huisman on the basis of new mathematical models, ...

Coolpolitics and Lowlands will give a stage to science at Lowlands 2014. At Lowlands University, UvA researchers Ewald Engelen, Frank Linde and Wouter Vansteeland will give lectures on global inequality, the Higgs ...

Researchers at the UvA’s Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) have determined the influence of wind and thermals on the migration speed of raptors. Based on their migratory journeys between Europe ...

The growing demand for palm oil threatens the survival of Africa’s great ape species. This is the conclusion of a continent-wide analysis conducted by an international team of researchers, including Serge Wich, ...

By the end of this century, climate change will have cut the worldwide population of emperor penguins to a fraction of what it is today. This finding, which comes out of a study conducted by an international team of ...

At least two-thirds of the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil (Viagra) consumed in the Netherlands may be illegal. In a letter published on bmj.com, a team of researcher including Prof. Pim de Voogt of the ...

A first comprehensive inventory of the archive function of alpine landforms and the crucial role of geodiversity has been published by researchers from the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) in ...

Five UvA professors have been listed as the most cited researchers of 2014. Dr. Karsten Kalbitz, professor in Earth Surface Science at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) is one of them.