How can we monitor and protect biological and cultural diversity in Suriname best? What can we learn from local knowledge and customs associated with biodiversity? How can we understand current species, acoustical, behavioural, and ecological diversity from an evolutionary perspective? Can we predict…

Urbanisation is steadily increasing with estimates expecting that 68% of the global population will live in cities by 2050. To accommodate the rural to urban transition, large quantities of land are transformed from natural to urban lands.

How can we effectively increase biodiversity and climate resilience in Dutch cities from an ecological, societal and governmental perspective?

Freshwater biodiversity has been threatened by eutrophication due to excessive nutrients in the environment. Releasing the freshwater species from such pressures requires efforts from industry and manufacturers to avoid emissions to vulnerable and high-risk regions.

Globally and regionally, biodiversity is declining and there are shifts in species’ occurrences and functional traits.

The Vallesian, 11.1-9 Ma, was a special time in the Vallès-Penedes basin near Barcelona, where a biodiversity hotspot existed. Europe had a subtropical climate, with rhinos, forest giraffes, lions, hyenas, flying squirrels and primates.

Universiteit Leiden in cooperation with Naturalis, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and University Wageningen is foundig a center for biodiversity. They will receive 30 million euros from The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW).

An international team including Peter van Bodegom shows how trait variability can be incorporated in Essential Biodiversity Variables to allow monitoring how organisms respond to global change. They published their results in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

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.

They are often little more than a square metre of plants, yet pavement gardens are a source of life. PhD candidate Joeri Morpurgo conducted research in the centre of Amsterdam and The Hague and discovered how important small green spaces are, especially for cities.

How do humans, non-humans and their interactions and relations shape the home as ecological and social space?

On December 16th 23 students of the Institute of Environmental Sciences of Leiden University took part of the first total species inventory to assess the effectiveness of an underwater landscape that was build in March 2003 to restore the biodiversity in an area where the environment was destroyed by…

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…

During a recent event, the Leiden Institute of Environmental Sciences presented the breadth of its research on biodiversity.

The Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) has a new professor: as of 1 March, Frederic Lens has been appointed Professor of Biodiversity and Anatomy of Plants. For Lens, the appointment feels like a wonderful recognition. ‘I am pleased with Leiden University’s appreciation of my contributions to research…

Biodiversity in the Netherlands is having a tough time. Professor of Natural Capital Koos Biesmeijer combines research with practical advice: from the greening of industrial parks to solutions inspired by hi-tech nature. Inaugural lecture 9 March.

Two Leiden research projects that focus on increasing the biodiversity of Dutch production systems for food and ornamental horticulture have started thanks to funding from the Dutch Research Council's KIC research programme.

Inaugural address of Prof.dr.ir. Peter van Bodegom

It came as a shock to many people: one million plant and animal species are threatened to become extinct. But this number isn’t the most relevant aspect, argue Alexander van Oudenhoven, Koos Biesmeijer and three other experts in Dutch newspaper Trouw. ‘It is more important to realise that the fate of…

Through various initiatives, Leiden University is trying to make people aware of the importance of biodiversity: the cultivation of a wide variety of micro-organisms, animals and plant species. This is important because in the Netherlands biodiversity has declined from about 40 percent in 1900 to about…

In his dissertation Michiel Hooykaas outlines the results of six empirical research projects focused at biodiversity awareness in the Netherlands, specifically people’s knowledge about animals.

What the Sex Lives of Bugs, Birds, and Beasts Tell Us About Evolution, Biodiversity, and Ourselves, Menno Schilthuizen reports from the front lines of evolutionary biology, on a quest to make sense of the origins, workings and evolution of our and other species’ reproductive selves.

CurveBend project aims to study the restauration of biodiversity in livestock landscapes through collective action, practical solutions, and research on ecological knowledge co-creation.

Around 1,300 Leideners found 2,265 species during the Expeditie Stadsnutuur urban biodiversity inventory. ‘It’s been a huge success’, says scientific coordinator Frederic Lens.

Promotor: J.A. van Veen, Co-promotor: E.E. Kuramae

Human-driven environmental damage is increasingly recognised as a global crisis. Should large-scale destruction of ecosystems be considered a crime? The concept of ecocide has gained renewed attention, particularly following a proposed definition for inclusion in international criminal law, raising…

We will study how inoculation of former arable land with soil (including the microbiome, soil fauna and seeds/rhizomes of ground flora) from old forests along with planting targeted tree species mixtures will improve productivity and more rapidly restore forest-adapted communities and ulttimately result…

The main purpose of DNAmarkerpoint is to better understand the ecology, evolution and biodiversity through the study of ancient- and modern DNA.

This research programme aims to increase the scientific understanding of how current and emerging anthropogenic threats affect biodiversity and ecosystem services to facilitate strategic management of natural resources. To this end, we address urgent challenges in relation to the mechanisms involved…

In our lives we often have little attention or appreciation for plants, let alone the ones we commonly call weeds. This inattention for plants has been described as plant blindness. The Stoepplantjes project aspires to decrease plant blindness by changing the image of weeds and using citizen science.…